$2,600
Bachet, Claude Gaspard de Meziriac. Problemes Plaisans et Delectables, Qui Se Font Par Les Nombres: Partie Recueillis De Divers Autheurs, Partie Inventez De Nouveau Avec Leur Demonstration. Lyon: Pierre Rigaud, 1624. Enlarged Second Edition. Contemporary calf, title hand-labeled on spine. Engraved title-vignette. Publishers devices, historiated initials. Illustrated with tables and diagrams. 8vo. p. [16] 247 [248]. Monastic annotations on title page. Final leaf punctured near lower edge, not affecting text. Pale soiling lower right corner initially, a few rust marks, and scattered wear around edges, but bright and sturdy as a whole. One of the pioneering authors of works on recreational mathematics, Bachet (1581 1638) includes sections on card tricks, magic squares, pick-a-number problems, weighing and liquid-pouring problems, number tricks, and other puzzles. Aware of their potential appeal as entertainment and amusement, in the preface to this edition he advises readers to present the problems with such dexterity that no one will easily discover the trick, because that which delights the minds of men is an admirable effect of which the cause is unknown. [Trans. in Sophia Lachapelle, Conjuring Science (Palgrave, 2015)]
Auctioneer:
Potter & Potter
Date:
2016-08-27