Diego Pérez de Mesa (1563-c.1632) - photo 1

Diego Pérez de Mesa (1563-c.1632)

Lot 21
30.07.2020 00:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Starting price
£ 8 000
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 381228
Lot 21 | Diego Pérez de Mesa (1563-c.1632)
Estimate value
£ 10 000 – 15 000
[PÉREZ DE MESA, Diego (1563-c.1632)] – A COMPILATION OF SCIENTIFIC TREATISES, in Latin, illustrated manuscript on paper [Spain, c.1590-1595]

An important addition to the corpus of works ascribed to the Spanish humanist Diego Pérez de Mesa, one of the most versatile and elusive thinkers of the Siglo de Oro; only 14 manuscripts containing works attributed to Pérez de Mesa are known to survive in Spain, none in private hands.

214 x 154mm. 309 leaves in total, missing one blank leaf otherwise complete, at least seven treatises on cosmography, navigation and horology in at least two hands, some marginal annotations to the texts in the second hand, nearly 300 scientific diagrams and tables throughout (page edges occasionally tattered). Contemporary vellum (lacking ties).

Provenance: Likely written by a student or disciple of Diego Pérez de Mesa, probably between 1590 and 1595. In common with many scientists and humanists of the Siglo de Oro, the majority of Pérez de Mesa’s treatises remain unpublished, preserved solely in manuscript form; most often, the works ascribed to him survive in the form of written records of lessons delivered to his students – or copies of these – rather than complete monographs destined for publication. The date range for the present manuscript is suggested on the basis of internal evidence: on f.172, a computational table bears the date 29 June 1590, while a point of assembly before 1595 is indicated by the repeated reference to Pérez de Mesa as professor of mathematics at the University Complutense in Alcalá, a position he held between 1586 and 1595, when he assumed the post of chair of mathematics at the University of Seville at the request of Felipe II. A dating to 1590-1595 places the present works as some of the earliest ascribed to Diego Pérez de Mesa.

Content: Title page [in Spanish, in a later hand]: ‘Un tratado de Sphera mundo sine de cosmographia compuesto por Jacobo Preteirio de Mesa profesor de Mathematicas en la Universidad de Alcala’ f.1; ‘De sphera mundi sive de Cosmographia lib. 4. Authore Jacobo Petreiro de Mesa Mathematicarum apud Compluteses public. Professore’ ff.2-23; ‘Comentaria in libris de sphera mu[n]di Didaci P. M.’ ff.24-149; ‘Comentaria in I caput, 3 lib. de sphera’ ff.150-178; ‘Problematu[m] tractatus prior […] Ambitus totius Terre & Aqua cognoscere’ ff.179-186; ‘De geographia liber unus Auctore Iacobo Petreio Mensa Mathematicar[um] apud Complut. publico professore’ ff.187-229; ‘L. Iacobi Petreii a Mensa peri tin idrografias [in Greek] De re Nautica’ ff.230-289; ‘Tractatus de Fabrica Horologic[orum]’ ff.290-309.

The treatises cover astrology, circumnavigation – mentioning the Tropics, the Arctic and Antarctic, Europe, Africa, Asia and the New World – and the construction of sundials, referencing the works of authors including Paul of Venice; the manuscript is profusely illustrated with diagrams and computational tables.

Diego Pérez de Mesa (1563-c.1623), native of Málaga, taught at the University Complutense – then in Alcalá de Henares – and the University of Seville before moving to Italy around 1600, becoming an advisor to cardinal Gaspar de Borja y Velasco (1580-1645), the Spanish ambassador to the Holy See and, later, Viceroy of Naples. His writings cover a remarkably broad range of topics: the earlier works relate most directly to the academic positions he held in Spain, while later works such as Política o razón de Estado sacada de Aristóteles, dedicated to the cardinal, are socio-political in character. As such, this 16th-century polymath is generally considered in the context of Renaissance humanist thought in Spain and Italy (see José María Ortiz de Zárate Leira, Diego Pérez de Mesa (1563-c.1623) (Madrid, 2019) for more on the author and his works).
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