[History of Science - Mathematics] [Greek Classics in English translation] [Geometry - Euclidean] [Occult and Esoterica - John Dee]
EUCLID
Euclides Elements of Geometry:
The first VI books, in a compendious form contracted and demonstrated by Captain Thomas Rudd [...];
whereunto is added the mathematicall preface of Mr. John Dee.
London, Robert & William Leybourn for Richard Tomlins & Robert Boydell, 1651.
$2,600 INQUIRE ✍
Text in English. Profusely illustrated with woodcut geometrical illustrations.
The SCARCE Second English edition of Euclid's Elements, and the First Edition of Thomas Rudd's English version of Euclid (preceded only by the Billingsley version published in folio in 1570) and contains THE CELEBRATED "MATHEMATICAL PREFACE" BY JOHN DEE that first appeared in the 1570 Billingsley edition.
Written about 300 BC, Euclid's "Elements" is the "oldest mathematical textbook still in common use today" (PMM) and one of the most important scientific text in human history. Euclid (ca. 325 - ca.270 BC), the Greek geometer and the author of Elements lived and worked in Alexandria for much of his life. Euclid was the foremost mathematician of the illustrious "Alexandrian Academy". He had studied at Athens, probably with students of Plato. His "Elements" remains to this day the most important treatise of Geometry.
The book synthesized all earlier Greek geometrical knowledge since Pythagoras. The text begins with definitions, postulates, and common opinions, then proceeded to obtain results by rigorous geometric proof. The Elements is "the oldest science textbook, 2000 years old and still in use" (Dibner), and has "exercised an influence upon the human mind greater than that of any other work except the Bible" (DSB). The austere beauty of Euclidean geometry has been seen by many in western culture as a glimpse of an otherworldly system of perfection and certainty.
John Dee's Mathematicall Preface, the work for which Dee was chiefly remembered until Casaubon's publication of his 'spiritual diaries', is one of the finest products of Renaissance mathematics. In it Dee gives "an eloquent and forceful exposition of a neo-Platonic 'numerical' philosophy" (I. R. F. Calder).
"Even a cursory reading of this introductory piece will reveal that any simple definition of mathematics would be insufficient to encompass Dee's approach to his subject. As the man was attracted to a mathematical spectrum that ranged from the study of navigation and mechanics to mysticism, so too his Preface reflected the study of this subject on all levels." (A. G. Debus, from an Introduction to John Dee, The Mathematicall Praeface to the Elements of Geometrie of Euclid of Magara).
"In his Mathematicall Praeface, Dee enumerated and described an extraordinarily long list of arts, drawing on the riches of his library to present a digested treasury of Renaissance mathematics. Nor was Dee content with mere compilation; he sought to extend the mathematical pantheon, coining his own neologisms to identify topics and raise them to the status of independent arts. However, this intellectually imperialist expansion was not just an anarchic proliferation; in the 'groundplat' which diagrammatically summarised his discourse, Dee gave a powerfully graphic demonstration of the hierarchy and structure of the mathematical arts and their dependence on geometry and arithmetic as twin foundations." (Stephen Johnston, The identity of the mathematical practitioner in 16th-century England, in Der "mathematicus": Zur Entwicklung und Bedeutung einer neuen Berufsgruppe in der Zeit, Duisburger Mercator-Studien 4 (1996), p.108).
John Dee (1527 - 1608) was a noted Welsh mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, occultist, and consultant to Queen Elizabeth I. He also devoted much of his life to alchemy, divination, and Hermetic philosophy. Dee straddled the worlds of science and magic just as they were becoming distinguishable. One of the most learned men of his time, he had lectured to crowded halls at the University of Paris when still in his early twenties. He was an ardent promoter of mathematics, a respected astronomer and a leading expert in navigation, having trained many of those who would conduct England's voyages of discovery (he coined the term "British Empire"). At the same time, he immersed himself deeply in magic and Hermetic philosophy, devoting the last third of his life almost exclusively to these pursuits. For Dee, as with many of his contemporaries, these activities were not contradictory, but different facets of a consistent world-view.
The translator, Thomas Rudd (1584? - 1656), a native of Northamptonshire, was a captain, engineer, and mathematician. He served during his earlier years as a military engineer in the Low Countries. In 1627 king Charles I appointed him 'chief engineer of all castles, forts, and fortifications within Wales'.
Rudd is also identified by some researchers (see Frances Yates, The Rosicrucian Enlightenment, p.258-9) as the author of the so-called "Rudd manuscript" (British Library MS. Harley 6482) containing A Treatise on Angel Magic attributed to one "Dr. Rudd".
"Dr. Rudd has typically been identified as Captain Thomas Rudd (1583 - 1656), a mathematician and military engineer. [...] This [identification] has been expanded upon by the later hypothesizers of a hidden transmission of Dee's magical diaries after his death. Most notably Adam McLean, and more recently the scholar-magicians Stephen Skinner and David Rankine, place Thomas Rudd at the center of a previously unknown magical tradition. According to this line of interpretation, the strong Enochian elements in the Treatise would indicate that Rudd was heir to some of Dee's manuscripts [...] and even [...] that Rudd was heir to a lineage that knew the real meaning of this enigmatic part of 'Enochian magic.' When it comes to lines of transmission, one claim has been that Dee's diaries were handed down to Rudd through his son, Arthur, who, as we have seen, served briefly (and unsuccessfully) as a scryer for his father. Around these people a group of practicing magicians would have formed, continuing a tradition of magical practice based on Dee and Kelley's earlier work." (Egil Asprem, Arguing with Angels: Enochian Magic and Modern Occulture, p.34)
Physical description:
Quarto. textblock measures 18 cm x 13 cm. Bound in 20th-century quarter speckled calf over marbled boards; spine ruled in blind, with red morocco gilt-lettered labels on spine and gilt stamped date of publication at foot.
Pagination: [126], 259, [1(blank)] pp.
Collation: A-Z4 Aa-Zz4 Aaa-Bbb4 Ccc2 [-A1 blank].
COMPLETE (without the initial blank, as usual).
Rudd's preface To the Reader on leaves A3r-4v; John Dee's Mathematicall Praeface occupies leaves B1r-N4r (95 pages in total).
Title-page printed in red and black, with woodcut vignette. Numerous woodcut diagrams in text. Decorative and grotesque woodcut head- and tail-pieces; decorative and historiated initials, some of which are quite large (the 15-line initial 'D' opening Dee's preface incorporating his famous Hieroglyphic Monad).
Text printed chiefly in Roman types, with some use of black letter and italic.
Provenance:
An early ownership signature of W[illia]m C. Duffield to top margin of title.
A small 20th-century binder's ticket of 'Period Binders', Bath, England tipped to rear free endpaper.
Condition:
Very Good antiquarian condition. Binding with light fading to spine. Title-page with an old ownership inscription to top margin, and a few small marginal chips at edges (text not affected). First two and last two leaves with marginal browning around the edges (apparently from former contact with exposed turn-ins of an earlier binding). A few leaves with early manuscript marginalia (including some calculations), somewhat more extensive on pp.86-7. A few leaves at the end with a very thin and harmless worm-trail to top margin (no loss of text). A few minor marginal paper-flaws (without loss of text). Final leaf of Rudd's preface with a (rather harmless) horizontal crease. Some light age-toning to paper, mostly marginal, a few minor ink-spots. Generally, clean and solid example of this scarce and important edition.
Bibliographic references:
Wing E3396; Schweiger I, 112.
