8vo (209 x 134mm). (Title-page fore-margin trimmed and with a pale stain, otherwise a fine crisp copy.) Contemporary Italian boards, spine lettered in an early hand.  

 

FIRST EDITION of a text book on infinitesimal geometry by the Veronese scholar best known for his works on geometry. Torelli’s De nihilo geometrico presents a new basis for infinitesimal analysis, which had been started but not exhaustively treated by Newton and Leibniz. His rejection of the concept of limits and his support of the ideas of Bernard Nieuwentijt against Leibniz caused his work to be largely ignored in modern times. Riccardi II, 538.  EXTREMELY RARE: According to online records only one other copy has appeared at auction in at least the past 45 years.