BLUNDEVILLE Thomas.
The arte of logicke. Plainly taught in the English tongue, ...
London, printed by William Stansby, and are to be sold by Matthew Lownes, 1619£8,500.00
4to. pp. [xvi], 197, [i]; 4⁰. ¶4, A-Z4, Aa-Cc4. Roman letter, some Italic. Small woodcut ornament on title, floriated woodcut initials, typographical ornaments, a few woodcut diagrams in text, ’John Wooly’ his book in contemporary hand on fly, ‘Maria Whitorne’ in early hand on title, another autograph, below, ‘Thomas Leech ex libris, 1707’ on verso of last, and ex dono on title page, trial letter reporting the death of a family member on recto of last fly, fragments of verse in a later hand. Light age yellowing, expert repairs to extreme fore-edge of first five leaves, and last two, very rare mark or spot. A very good copy, crisp and clean, with good margins in fine contemporary calf over boards, covers single gilt and double blind ruled to a panel design, fleuron gilt to outer corners, large arabesque of crowned Tudor rose gilt stamped at centres, T and B gilt on either side, R and W blind stamped in outer borders, spine double gilt ruled in compartments, vellum stubbs, waste from earlier account book on pastedowns, all edges sprinkled red, extremities expertly restored.
A handsome copy of this most interesting work in fine contemporary calf, the third edition. Thomas Blundeville (c. 1522 – c. 1606) was an English humanist writer and mathematician. He is known for work on logic, astronomy, education and horsemanship, as well as for translations from the Italian; he freely adapted a number of the works he translated. “Born in Norfolk, Blundeville has been comparatively ignored by historians of science and technology: he seems to have been educated at Cambridge… : Later he is associated with Gresham college and the group that included Henry Briggs, .. William Gilbert, .. Edward Wright, and William Barlow, the later two both instrument makers who wrote on navigation. Along with his contemporaries at Gresham, Blundeville was one of several ‘mathematical practitioners’ .. who often took up residence in London as they sought to make a living either through commercial publication, private instruction, patronage, consultation on state sponsored projects, or instrument making. Blundeville demonstrates considerably broader range that other practitioners of the period, however, and in this he is somewhat atypical of technical writers. ..The increasing conceptual proximity between practical and productive modes of knowledge and the growing extension of deliberative thinking that we find in Harvey .. is also visible in other sixteenth -century dialectic textbooks, particularly those written in the vernacular such as Thomas Blundeville’s ‘Arte of Logicke’. Blundeville observes Aristotle’s definition of the five modes of intellect, ‘Intelligence, Science, Prudence, Art, and Sapience’. .. As he continues, however, Blundeville follows Aristotle in reducing these five modes of intellect to two – the practical and the theoretical .. his ‘Art of Logicke’ uses arithmetical and geometrical concepts of proportion to explain ratiocinative procedures in logic and even illustrates them with geometrical diagrams.” Henry S. Turner . ‘The English Renaissance Stage: Geometry, Poetics’.
“Thomas Bludeville’s the arte of logicke, 1599, illustrates the share that logic could have in the teaching of expression, and of how different from ours were the presuppositions and methods of that teaching. Blundeville, following an earlier sixteenth-century logician, is showing the different ‘proofs’ that can be adduced in ‘respecte of the ‘theame or proposition’ man ought to embrace virtue ..Whether or not he learnt any logic, a schoolboy carrying out an exercise of this kind would be extending his skill in the precise control of language.” Ian Michael. ’The Teaching of English: From the Sixteenth Century to 1870’.
A lovely copy of this rare work.
ESTC S102667. STC 3144.