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Release date: 2009

Dimensions: 19,5 x 27 x 10 cm

Box: Brossura legata

Copertina: Cartonata rigida rivestita in tela

Pages: 661

Illustrations: 98

Languages: Vernacular

Commentary language: Italian

Presentation book languages: Italian, English

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An engaging sequence of logical pastimes, games with numbers and cards, riddles and secrets.

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Aboca Edizioni presents the exclusive reproduction of the manuscript De viribus quantitatis, an unpublished work by Lucia Pacioli, famous mathematician and economist of the Renaissance, favoured ally of Piero della Francesca, friend of Leonardo da Vinci and tutor. Illustrated with 98 drawings, the work is dedicated to numbers. It covers their presence in daily life, the unenforceable and marvellous series of enigmas that they are able to generate.

From the notes by Furio Honsell: "From this extraordinary observation point they offer us mysteries in general and especially those written by Pacioli! On the society of the time, its taste, its habits, its perception of what is problematic, on what is risque. The enigmatic mysteries tell us about textile professions, farmers, merchants, dietary and gastronomic customs, daily practices from going to get water from the well to combing out lice. An existence that is at times crude for us, such as the description of relations between men and women, yet absolutely authentic.

This characteristic is true also for all the riddles. It almost seems to be paradoxical, but it is the riddles, apparently marginal, pointless and gratuitous that truly form an ethnographic treasure. They are a type of diffuse, almost popular knowledge."

The reproduction of the work is accompanied by a booklet of introduction, which underlines the scientific value of the Codex and which provides an accompanying essay entitled Curiosità e divertimenti con i numeri (Curiosities and enjoyment of numbers), which analyses the recreational part, providing the most bizarre, unexpected and profane passages.

Aboca facsimiles for professional use: fundamental works available to all. Legendary additions and splendid manuscripts, selected from the libraries throughout the world, have been reproduced using avant-garde printing techniques, complete with thorough and concise critiques.

Notes

Introduction by Biancastella Antonino.

Contributions by Furio Honsell, Giorgio Tomaso Bagni.

Other information

The manuscript numbered 250 of the Biblioteca Universitaria, Bologna, part of which forms the reproduced De viribus quantitatis, is a paper from the first half of the 16th century. The volume, with full page text and titles of the chapters in red, had belonged to Giovanni Giacomo Amadei, (1686-1767), Canon of Sanata Maria Maggiore and refined bibliophile. Shortly before Amadei died he sold the manuscripts he had collected to the Biblioteca delle Scienze, which then became the University's. For this ms. 250 still bears the former mark of its earlier owner and the marks received on entering the Biblioteca dell'Istituto delle Scienze: Aula II.A.194.