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4to (204 x 140 mm). 20 unnumbered leaves, gothic type, woodcut diagram on title, large woodcut of the HolyTrinity by or after Lucas Cranach the Elder on title verso, full-page woodcut of arms of Cologne on last page. Signatures: A-E4. Author and printer according to VD16, print year from colophon. Early 20th-century vellum-backed boards with German lettering in manuscript on spine (light dust soiling and browning, inner front hinge partially cracked). Stubs of old index tabs present. Very light browning of text, title-page trifle dust soiled in margins, tiny single wormhole througout, light dampstain to outer fore-margin of few pages. Provenance: Harrison D. Horblit (his sale, Sotheby's, 10 June 1974, lot 57); Laurence Witten Rare Books, Monroe, CT (Catalogue 6, item 10; bought from Diana Parikian, Oxford, 1989, Catalogue 42, item 40, £700); Erwin Tomash (bookplate to front pastedown). A fine copy. ---- Tomash & Williams H190; Smith, Addenda to Rara Arithmetica, p.7; USTC 613100; VD16 H6212. EXCEPTIONALLY RARE FIRST EDITION. "The threefold lily of practical arithmetic" deals with fundamental arithmetic, praising Boethius in the proheme and stating that it will also be useful to those ignorant in music. It presents the basic arithmetic operations such as addition and multiplication for whole numbers and fractions. Like the author's Enchiridion novus algorismi (Cologne 1501; reprinted 1504, 1507), it is divided into four treatises: integers, fractions, counters (abacus), and "Regula de Tri". Huswirt (Hauswirth) studied at the university of Cologne; in 1512, he was chaplain to Matthäus Schiner during the Pavia campaign in northern Italy, and in recompense obtained in 1515 the parish of St Mauritius in Saanen (Kanton Bern). The title-page arrangement is identical to that of the Algorismus novus described by Smith, p. 44-45 (Goff A-466-67), also printed by Cornelis, but the present text is clearly dated at the end, 'Impressum 1511'. One of the two large woodcuts shows God the Father and Jesus Christ surrounded by angels, in the style of Lucas Cranach the elder (1472?1553), the other shows the coat of arms of Cologne framed by the figures of a lion and a griffin. This work is of exceptional rarity, with just one (this) copy recorded at auction in the past OCLC/Worldcat records 12 copies (5 in Germany, 2 in Switzerland, 1 each in Vienna, London, Paris, Qatar and Stanford). - Visit our website for additional images and information. Seller Inventory # 003121
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