Rerum Arithmeticarum Libri sex -Liber de numeris Polygonis seu Multiangulis - photo 1
Rerum Arithmeticarum Libri sex -Liber de numeris Polygonis seu Multiangulis - photo 2

Rerum Arithmeticarum Libri sex -Liber de numeris Polygonis seu Multiangulis

Lot 16
02.02.2024 10:00UTC -05:00
Classic
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$ 15 120
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUSA, New York
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ID 1129634
Lot 16 | Rerum Arithmeticarum Libri sex -Liber de numeris Polygonis seu Multiangulis
Estimate value
$ 15 000 – 25 000
DIOPHANTUS OF ALEXANDRIA (fl. 250 A.D.). Rerum Arithmeticarum Libri sex -Liber de numeris Polygonis seu Multiangulis. Translated from the Greek into Latin and edited by Guilelmus Xylander (Wilhelm Holtzmann, 1532-1576). Basel: Eusebius Episcopius and the heirs of Nicolaus Episcopius, 1575.

First edition of one of the greatest works of classical mathematics, the foundation of modern number theory. Very rare: no copies recorded at auction since 2004 (RBH).

“To the Greeks, mathematics comprised two branches of study: arithmetic, the science of numbers, and geometry, the science of shapes. Towards the end of the Greek era... Diophantus formulated his theories in a neglected field, the study of unknown quantities. His Arithmetica, according to its introduction, was compiled in 13 books (although the six that have come down to us are probably all that were completed); the work was translated by the Arabs, and it is through their word for his equations – ‘the reuniting of separate parts’ - that we now call the system “algebra”

‘His main mathematical study was in the solution of what are now known as “indeterminate” or “Diophantine” equations - equations that do not contain enough facts to give a specific answer but enough to reduce the answer to a definite type. These equations have led to the formulation of a system for numbers, commonly called the theory of numbers, that is regarded as the purest branch of present-day mathematics. Using his method, the possibility of determining a type of answer rather than a specific one to a given problem has allowed modern mathematicians to approach the properties of various kinds of whole numbers (such as odds, evens, primes and squares) with new insight. By then applying the use of infinite trains of numbers correlated through the Diophantine equation system, mathematicians have come to a new understanding of some of the basic rules which numbers follow’ (The Hutchinson Dictionary of Scientific Biography). In 1621 Bachet de Méziriac reprinted Xylander’s translation, accompanied by the original Greek text, and Fermat’s own annotated copy was the basis of the 1670 edition which contains Fermat’s famous ‘last theorem’. Adams D652; Norman 641 (this copy).

Folio (308 x 205mm). Printer's woodcut device on title, woodcut diagrams in text (some browning and staining throughout.) Modern vellum (bowed). Provenance: Haskell Norman (1915-1996; bookplate; his sale, 18 March 1998, lot 74).
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