Colangelo, Francesco, Storia dei filosofi e dei matematici napolitani, Trani 1834

Title: Storia dei filosofi e dei matematici napolitani
Author: Colangelo, Francesco
Publisher: Trani
Year published: 1834
Place of Publication: Napoli
Book Condition: Near Fine
Size: 4to
Binding: Vellum
Edition: First

Notes: Storia dei filosofi e de matematici napolitani, e delle loro dottrine da’ pitagorici sino al secolo XVII dell’ era volgare, composta da Monsignor Francesco Colangelo, Vescovo di Castellamare, e Presidente della Giunta di Pubblica Istruzione (3 vols., Napoli: Trani, 1833), pp. xii, 269, [6]; 339, [8]. 4to. Fine binding in contemporary vellum, spine divided into six compartments with red and green, gilt-lettered labels and gilt decoration. Vols. 2 and 3 bound in one. Endbands. Saffron edges. Still tight. Numbering in a contemporary hand in the second compartment up from the spine, possibly the shelfmark of a contemporary private library, which might also explain the much faded stamp on title page of vol. 1. Foxing/water damage on pp. 1-2, 57-60 of vol. 1, foxing throughout vols. 2 and 3. Worming throughout the outer margin and through the heel of the spine and lower gutters of pp. 178-249 of vol. 1; and the gutters of pp. 157 through to the back board of vols. 2 and 3, with no loss of text. All-in-all a beautiful book. Francesco Colangelo, Bishop of Castellamare, was a nineteenth-century historian and important public figure in Naples who published a number of histories of the city’s most prominent intellectuals and poets. This is a fine and rare first edition of his three-volume compendium of the histories of Neapolitan philosophers and mathematicians from the Pythagorean era to the mid-seventeenth century, the most famous among them being Tommaso Campanella, Giovan Battista della Porta and Giordano Bruno.