Della Nuova Geometria … Libri XV …

PATRIZI, Francesco

Edité par V. Baldini, Ferrara, 1587

A propos de cet article

4to, pp. [8], 227, [1, errata], with woodcut device on title and woodcut diagrams in the text; occasional light dampstaining, but a very attractive copy in early vellum. VERY RARE FIRST EDITION OF FRANCESCO PATRIZI'S IMPORTANT WORK ON THE CONCEPT OF 'SPACE'. Patrizi s importance in the history of science rests primarily on his highly original views concerning the nature of space, which have striking similarities to those later developed by Henry More and Isaac Newton. His position was first set out in De rerum naturae libri II priores, alter de spacio physico, alter de spacio mathematico (Ferrara, 1587) … Rejecting the Aristotelian doctrines of horror vacui and of determinate "place," Patrizi argued that the physical existence of a void is possible and that space is a necessary precondition of all that exists in it. Space, for Patrizi, was "merely the simple capacity (aptitudo) for receiving bodies, and nothing else." It was no longer a category, as it was for Aristotle, but an indeterminate receptacle of infinite extent. His distinction between "mathematical" and "physical" space points the way toward later philosophical and scientific theories. The primacy of space (spazio) in Patrizi s system is also seen in his Della nuova geometria (Ferrara, 1587), the essence of which was later incorporated into the Nova de universis philosophia. In it Patrizi attempted to found a system of geometry in which space was a fundamental, undefined concept that entered into the basic definitions (point, line, angle) of the system. The full impact of Patrizi s works on later thought has yet to be evaluated (DSB). Patrizi s works seem to have been widely known throughout Europe and directly influenced some of the Cambridge Platonists, notably Joseph Glanville and Henry More. Henry More can be seen as a link between Patrizi and Sir Isaac Newton. Patrizi s long arguments for an isotropic, unchanging, immobile and infinite space, his vehement denunciation of the Aristotelian concept, and his establishment of space as a new philosophical term can finally be said to have taken root when Newton was able to discuss absolute space after writing: I do not define space … as being well known to all " (John Christopher Henry, Francesco Patrizi and the concept of space , doctoral thesis, University of Leeds, 1977, pp. 167-168). Patrizi studied at Ingolstadt, at the University of Padua (1547-1554), and at Venice. While in the service of various noblemen in Rome and Venice he made several trips to the East, where he perfected his knowledge of Greek, and to Spain. He lived for a time at Modena and at Ferrara, before being appointed to a personal chair of Platonic philosophy at the University of Ferrara by Duke Alfonso II d Este in 1578. He remained there until 1592, when Pope Clement VIII summoned him to a similar professorship in Rome, a post he held until his death. Poggendorff II, col. 374; Riccardi I 254; Sommerville p. 3; STC Italian p. 493; not in Adams; OCLC records eight US locations, at Chicago, Columbia, Wisconsin, Burndy, Michigan, Illinois, Temple, and Cornell, and a copy at the Fisher Library, Toronto.

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Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: Della Nuova Geometria … Libri XV …
• Éditeur: V. Baldini, Ferrara
• Date de parution: 1587
• Reliure: Hardcover
• État de l'article: Fine