BILLY (Jacques de). Diophanti redivivi pars prior... Lot 23

BILLY (Jacques de). Diophanti redivivi pars prior [- posterior], in qua, non casu, ut putatum est, sed certissimâ methodo, & analysi subtiliore, innumera enodantur problemata, quae triangulum rectangulum spectant. Lugduni, apud J. Thiolly, 1670. Two parts in one volume in-8, [4] f. (last blank), 302 p., [1] blank f., 140 p., [2] blank f., contemporary ivory vellum, smooth spine, title in ink (worm spots on spine, touching the seam, qq. ff. out of order; worm tract not serious in margin of 12 f., paper browned; the notice to the reader (Lectore benevolo) erroneously bound between p.16 and 17). Very rare first edition of this mathematical treatise. Jacques de Billy, Jesuit, mathematician and astronomer, was born in Compiègne in 1602 and died in Dijon in 1679. He taught mathematics at several Jesuit colleges (Reims, Dijon, Grenoble) and was rector of the colleges at Langres, Sens and Châlons-en-Champagne. His pupils included Ozanam and Claude-Gaspard Bachet de Méziriac. Provenance: old stamp with the initials F.T. on the inside back cover. (Brunet I, 946: "Recherché et rare"; Sommervogel I, 1479)