[Widmann, Johann].

A careful and accurate account of all merchant transactions. (On the last leaf:) Hagnau, Thomas Anshelm, 1519. 12°. Title page and 151 fol. (incorrectly numbered: 154 leaves; leaf 93 replaced by an old handwritten facsimile). With some text diagrams and small woodcuts. Nice printer's mark on the last one. Wooden boards with spine covered with embossed pigskin, the wooden boards with incised owner's monogram "JT" on the front, the back with attractive notch carving. (Without the metal clasps). VD16 W-2479 Cf. Adams W-137 (edition 1526). Cf. Smith, Rara Arithmetica 40 (on the 1508 edition). Benzing, Hagenau, 54, like all early editions of exceptional rarity. "Widmann's arithmetic was the first great Germantextbook on the subject, although minor works had already appeared before 1489. It is in the main a practical treatise, with good problems, and it set the standard for Germany much as Borghi's book did for Italy. Among its noteworthy features is the use of the plus and minus signs for the first time in a printed work . as symbols of excess or deficiency in warehouse measures. The book is illustrated with pictures of showing mercantile customs, and with geometric diagrams. Widmann acknowledges his indebtness to men like Sacrobosco, although this work shows no dependence upon the Algorismus named" Smith. pp. 36ff. of the second edition by Pforzheim, Anshelm, 1500). One of the illustrations (fol. 92) shows a stone bridge with a round arch - supposedly the first such depiction. Fol.93 (m6) has been replaced by an old handwritten facsimile. On both inside covers contemporary handwritten ownership entry "Jacob Tucher Am Mil(ch)marckt", below the date 1519. On the title page also old ownership entry Wolf Friedrich Stromer. Some leaves browned, but overall a good copy - apart from the leaf replaced by a facsimile - in a handsome wooden boards binding.