203 - MASCHERONI, Lorenzo. Geometry of the Compass.

MASCHERONI, Lorenzo. Geometry of the Compass. French first edition of this treatise dedicated to Bonaparte, preserved in a fine First Empire binding from the Imperial High School of Clermont. Paris, published by Duprat, Year VI (1798). In-8, full fawn-brown marbled calfskin, smooth spine richly compartmentalized and decorated with small iron-stamped floral vases and gilded geometric motifs, title label in midnight blue morocco, double fillet and cold-stamped dotted fillet framing the covers, the former adorned with a circular coat of arms bearing the imperial eagle and the inscription “Lycée de Clermont,” a gilt medallion featuring cups and headdresses, marbled edges. Binding signed at the foot of the spine “Camus Rel. à Clermont.” XXIV and 263 pp., 14 fold-out plates. Binding very slightly rubbed, slight cracks beginning at the lower joints, small foxing spots, a faint water stain on the lower margin of the plates. French first edition of this treatise, originally published in Pavia in 1797, translated here by Antoine Michel Carette. It contains 14 fold-out plates engraved on copper by Duruisseau. Beautiful dedication in French and Italian to Napoleon Bonaparte. It was during the Italian Campaign that Napoleon met Lorenzo Mascheroni (1750–1800). The Commander-in-Chief became fascinated by the Italian mathematician’s challenge: to find the center of a circle using only a compass. Fascinated by this puzzle—which has gone down in history as the “Napoleon problem”—he demonstrated the solution himself before the Institut de France, prompting the mathematician Laplace to quip mischievously: “We expected everything from you, General, except lessons in geometry!” A fine binding dating from the First Empire, stamped with the coat of arms of the Lycée de Clermont, which became an imperial high school in 1808.