First 17th-century edition of this important and finely illustrated manual of Euclidean geometry (the geometrical system attributed to Alexandrian Greek mathematician Euclid) and its practical applications for surveyors, architects and others by the military engineer Giovanni Pomodoro. The first edition of the Geometria prattica was published in 1599. The first 44 plates were designed by Pomodoro. Unfortunately he died before 1599 and therefore he could not complete his work. He only left the manuscript of the present work, which then only contained 44 plates. The mathematican Giovanni Scala edited the manuscript and added the last 7 plates. Almost nothing is known about Pomodoros life, all we know is derived from the text by Scala and by the foreword by Pomodoros brother Piero Pomodoro in the first edition, which is not present in this copy.
This work must have been very useful for land meters, geographers, cosmographers, architects and militaries, not only because it is a theoretical tract on the Euclidean geometry, but also because the text and the plates show the practical implementations of this theory and the geometrical problems that could rise from that. Because of the clear and rich visual instructions on all aspects of practical geometry, perspective, projection, the fall of light and shadows for all kinds of arts and professions and because of the fact that this work contained all that was known on geometry since Euclid, this work gained a high status and was long regarded as one of the standard works in geometry and got many reprints in the 17th and 18th century.
With an erased ownership's inscription on the first endleaf. Binding somewhat stained and with some annotations which faded away, but otherwise in very good condition. Cockle 944; Mortimer 394; this edition not in Honeyman; cf. Riccardi I, pp. 300-301 (1599, first edition).