CARDANO GIROLAMO De subtilitate libri XXI 1559

Sale 2162 - Lot 187

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CARDANO, GIROLAMO. De subtilitate libri XXI. Woodcut text illustrations. 718, [58] pages, including blanks Y8 and 4*4 (the latter with early Italian manuscript instructions on recto for making a sundial). 8vo, 18th-century Italian vellum, rear joint cracked; contents browned, light dampstaining in lower margins throughout, old scored inscription at bottom of title, scattered text passages inked out. Lyon: apud Gulielmum Rouillium, 1559

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Encyclopedic work on natural philosophy first published in 1550, "the most advanced presentation of physical knowledge up to its time. It contains many remarkable observations and ideas, including Cardano's distinction between the attractive powers of rubbed amber (electric) and the lodestone (magnetic), his pre-evolutionary belief in creation as a progressive development, and the premise that natural law was unified and could be known through observation and experiment"--Norman 401 (original edition). Adams A672 (this edition).