[Handbook of commercial arithmetic].

Format:

Book

Manuscript

Author/Creator:

Marchesi, Giovanni Domenico, creator.

Contributor:

Boncompagni, Baldassarre, 1821-1894, former owner.

Brady, Dorothy S. (Dorothy Stahl), 1903-1977, former owner, donor.

Language:

Italian

Subjects (All):

Mathematics--Early works to 1800.

Mathematics.

Genre:

codices (bound manuscripts)

Handbooks and manuals

Tables (Data)

Manuscripts, Italian -- 16th century.

Manuscripts, Renaissance.

Penn Provenance:

Two notes upside down on last blank page, one recording the death of the writer's sister Lucretia on 6 December 1588 and the other perhaps ownership by "Gio. Domenico Verni" [?], in two different hands.

Formerly owned by Prince Baldassarre Boncompagni of Rome (no. 201 (269)).

Gift of Dorothy S. Brady (professor emeritus of economics, University of Pennsylvania), 1967.

Physical Description:

95 leaves : paper, color illustrations ; 200 x 128 mm bound to 206 x 143 mm

Production:

[Lombardy], [circa 1578]

Language Note:

Italian.

Summary:

Arithmetical tables framed by ornamental borders (Figure di sapere levare...Partire per galera, f. 2-10), followed by a brief introduction (f. 11r, incipit: La regola del tre la qual e fondamento delle ragioni de mercancia, dated 1 April, 1578), and statements of problems and their solutions; in sections titled Prima esemina (f. 25v), seconda esemina (f. 49r), and Quivi finisse l'abaco per ragione...(f. 71v). The problems concern quantities of goods such as sugar, wool, tin, and salt, asking the reader to calculate proportions, prices, and similar values, each followed by a prova section to show how they verified that the preceding calculation was correct (Stefano Locatelli, Università degli Studi di Milano).

Notes:

Ms. codex.

Title supplied by cataloger (Zacour-Hirsch).

Foliation: Paper, 100; 1-52, [i], 53-65, 65-79, [i], 80-86, [i], 87-93, [i], 94-95; slightly later foliation in ink, upper right recto. Unnumbered folio between f. 93-94 cut out, but stub with some text remains.

Script: Written in a humanistic italic script, with section title pages in Gothic textualis (f. 1r, 25v, 71v) and square capitals (f. 49r) and final leaves (f. 91-95) in another, less formal hand.

Decoration: Decorated arithmetical tables (f. 1r-10r); zoo-anthropomorphic initial with dragon's head and grotesque faces (f. 1r); inhabited zoomorphic initial with dragon's head and haloed figure holding flowering branch (f. 49r); inhabited initial with Saint Ambrose (f. 71v); calligraphic strapwork initials throughout, some with grotesque faces, in red, green, purple, and ocher.

Binding: 20th-century[?] vellum; trimmed and rebound after 1892 (when listed in Narducci catalog of Boncompagni library). Fragile. Oxidation of ink has resulted in holes in some of the decorations; f. 1 torn.

Origin: Written in Lombardy (Zacour-Hirsch), circa 1578 (f. 11r).

This manuscript has been identified by Ron Thomson with no. 201 (269) in the library of Baldassarre Boncompagni (see Menso Folkerts and Ron B. Thomson, "Boncompagni Manuscripts: Present Shelfmarks"). When cataloged as no. 201 in 1892, it was slightly larger (234 x 135 mm) and bound in parchment that was a fragment from a Bible page.

Cited in:

Described in Zacour, Norman P. and Hirsch, Rudolf. Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Libraries of the University of Pennsylvania to 1800. Supplement A (2), The Library Chronicle, no. 1 (1970), p. 11 (Ms. Italian 244).

Cited as:

Giovanni Domenico Marchesi, Handbook of Commercial Arithmetic (Ms. Codex 468). Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania.

OCLC:

155964721