The first edition of philosopher Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples's condensed version of Boethius's On Arithmetic, one of the earliest books from the press of the Henri Estienne the Elder (1460-1520). This is also the first edition to include the commentary of theologian Josse van Clichtove. Rare, with only three other copies appearing in auction records over the last thirty years.

Boethius's De Arithmetica was essentially a translation of the theoretical and philosophical Introduction to Arithmetic written by the Greek philosopher Nicomachus around AD 100. 'Boethius's Latin version was destined to exert a great influence on subsequent encyclopedic authors of the sixth and seventh centuries and throughout the Middle Ages up to the sixteenth century. From the sixth to the twelfth century, when Greek geometry had almost vanished and science was at its lowest ebb, Boethius's Arithmetic, for all its faults, preserved the ideal of a theoretical science' (Grant, A Sourcebook in Medieval Science, p. 17).

The editor of this version, Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples (1450-1536), was a French theologian and Church reformer who 'became famous for the many introductions, commentaries, and editions relating to philosophical works he published in Paris' (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). This epitome and commentary on Boethius was very popular with faculty at the University of Paris, where he taught.

Also published here are:

Praxis numerandi, the commentary of Flemish theologian (and antagonist of Martin Luther) Josse van Clichtove (1472/73-1543), who had been a student of d'Étaples and who presents an elaborate theory of ratios and figurate numbers.

Charles de Bouvelles' (1475-1566) Introductio in Geometriam, the first geometrical work published by a French mathematician, which includes a discourse on the quadrature of the circle.

And d'Étaples' own Astronomicon, in which he drew a distinction between the astrology of 'false seers' and that of astronomers.

First Estienne edition; 8vo, A-O8; woodcut diagrams within the text, contemporary manuscript notes ot the title, title and a number of leaves repaired in the gutter with paper fills, occasionally touching the edge of the text, title a little tanned and marked, occasional marks and spots to the contents; recently rebound to style in calf with new endpapers, tan morocco label to spine; very good condition.