Penn in Hand: Selected Manuscripts

Pacioli, Luca, ca. 1445-1517.

Cose di geometria [manuscript] / estratte dal frate dal Borgo. Mesure de colonne e capitelli / estracte da Vitruvio e Leone Batista Alberti.

Summa de arithmetica, geometria, proportioni et proportionalità. Selections

[Venice?, Italy, after 1494]

18 leaves : paper, ill. ; 204 x 150 mm. bound to 212 x 158 mm.

Excerpts from the second part of Luca Pacioli's synthesis of mathematics, first printed in Venice in 1494, concerning geometry; and from the sixth and seventh books of Leon Battista Alberti's architectural treatise De re aedificatoria, concerning the architectural orders of columns and capitals (Doric, Ionic, Corinthian). One page of recipes in Latin for ink (f. 17r) and one page of recipes in Italian for stomach ache (f. 18r) at the end of the manuscript.

Ms. codex.

Title for manuscript from opening rubrics for component works (f. 1r, 8v).

Foliation: Paper, 18; 1-16, [17-18], contemporary foliation in ink, modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto.

Layout: Written in 18-28 long lines.

Script: Written in humanistic cursive (italic) script in one hand, with recipes added at the end by a slightly later hand (f. 17r-18r).

Decoration: Small geometric diagrams in first work (f. 2v-8r), some with points lettered or captioned in faint red ink; 2-line faint red initials in first work (f. 1r-6r); rubrics in faint red ink throughout.

Watermark: Similar to Briquet Aigle 87 (Florence, 1495; Venice) and Aigle 88 (Florence, 1498; Pisa, 1497-1502; Venice, 1498).

Binding: Modern calf, blind-ruled.

Origin: Written in Italy, probably in Venice, after 1494 (date of first edition of Pacioli's Summa and dates of watermarks).

LJS 488

Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts University of Pennsylvania LJS 488