PECHAM, John.

In Venetia [Venice]: Appresso gli Heredi di Giovanni Varisco. 1593

8vo, (viii) + 48 leaves. Woodcut device on title, woodcut diagrams in the text. Light foxing throughout. 18th century French mottled calf (rubbed, ends of spine and tips of corners worn, upper joint cracking at foot), marbled endpapers, red edges. Early signature of Jo. Ant. Girardi and the name Fontanini on title; bookplates of Charles Verzon and David L. DiLaura.

FIRST EDITION IN ITALIAN of Pecham’s classic work on optics, translated and with an added commentary by Giovanni Paolo Gallucci using Hartmann’s edition of 1542. This was also the first translation into any vernacular language and made Pecham’s work available to a wider audience. “Gallucci’s glosses feature examples taken from everyday life… The long section on mirrors discusses the reflections of colors, the angles of incidence, transparency, the function of lead on glass mirrors, mirrors made of iron or diamond, spherical or plain or shaped like a column, and the appearance of images on broken mirrors” (DiLaura). Pecham’s book was written just over three hundred years before this translation appeared, and was the most influential text on the subject throughout that time. DiLaura, Bibliotheca Opticoria, 44. Pecham is identified as “Archbishop John of Canterbury” in the title.

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