Ibn Al Haytham Abu ali Al Hasan (2 results)

Folio (235 x 338 mm). 2 parts in 1 vol. (6) pp., 1 blank leaf, 288 pp. (8), 474, (2) pp. With 2 different woodcut printer's devices on title-page and colophon, half-page woodcut on reverse of title-page (repeated on half-title of pt. 2), and numerous diagrams in the text. Contemporary full limp vellum binding with later ink spine label (wants ties). First edition of "the most important work of its kind in Arabic literature" (cf. Poggendorf), this copy inscribed by the German humanist Wilhelm Xylander (1532-76), sometime rector of Heidelberg University. - Ibn al-Haytham (965-c. 1040), known as Alhazen in the Western tradition, has been hailed as "the greatest Muslim physicist and one of the greatest students of optics of all times [.] The Latin translation [.] exerted a great influence upon Western science. It showed a great progress in experimental method. [Alhazen's book contains] research in catoptrics, [a] study of atmospheric refraction, [a] better description of the eye, and better understanding of vision [as well as an] attempt to explain binocular vision [and the] earliest use of the camera obscura" (Sarton). "This combined edition served as the standard reference work on optics well into the 17th century, influencing scientists such as Brahe, Kepler, Galileo, and Descartes" (Norman). - "The Arab physicist Alhazen preserved for us all that was known by the ancients in the field of optics and added some contributions of his own. His book remained a standard authority thru the 1600s. He understood that light emanated spherically from a point and greatly improved on Ptolemy's uncertain rule for refraction which, he showed, held true only for small angles. He covered many cases of reflection and refraction and his explanation of the structure and function of the eye was followed for 600 years" (Dibner). - The 'Liber de crepusculis', the work on dawn and twilight included in Risner's 'Opticae thesaurus' and attributed to Alhazen, is actually the work of his contemporary Abu 'Abdallah Muhammad ibn Mu'adh al-Jayyani (cf. Norman; DSB, p. 208). The optical study by the Polish scholar Witelo, likewise here included, is "a massive work that relies extensively on Alhazen [and] offers an analysis of reflection that was not surpassed until the 17th century" (Norman). - Binding stained; edges worn. Interior browned with some waterstaining throughout the margins; occasional edge defects. Inscribed on the title-page by Wilhelm Xylander, professor of Greek and Logic at Heidelberg and editor of numerous translations from Greek (cf. ADB XLIV, 582-593): "Xylandri dono Antonius Roverius Nemausensis possidet" (followed by a Greek dedication and Xylander's signature). The recipient Antonius Roverius (Antoine Rouvier) from Nīmes had matriculated at Heidelberg on 1 July 1572. - Later in the library of the famed microscope builder and collector Alfred Nachet (1831-1908) and his son Albert. - An appealing copy of a principal work of Arabic science as received in the West with important provenance. - VD 16, H 693 (H 692, V 1761). Adams A 745. BM-STC 383. Dibner 138. Norman 1027. Honeyman I, 73. DSB VI, 205 & XIV, 461. GAL I, 470. Poggendorf I, 31. Duncan 113. Sarton I, 721. Carmody p. 140. Thorndike/Kibre 803, 1208. Vagnetti D62. BNHCat A 241. IA 103.705. Brunet I, 180. Arabick Roots Doha AR79. Collection Nachet (1929), 50 (this copy).

Hardcover. Condition: Good. 1st Edition. First edition of Alhazen's fundamental work on optics and vision the most important work of its kind in Arabic literature (Poggendorf), which influenced Galileo and Kepler and paved the way for the modern science of physical optics. A superior example of this significant work, rare and desirable in contemporary vellum. Al-Hasan Ibn al-Haytham (965 c. 1040), known as Alhazen in the Latin tradition, has been hailed as the greatest Muslim physicist and one of the greatest students of optics of all times , building on Ptolemy and Euclid, Arab astronomer and physicist Ibn al-Haytham made significant contributions to the principles of optics and visual perception, his most influential work being his Kitab al-Manazir (Book of Optics), written during 1011-1021, which only survived in the present Latin edition. Translated from Arabic into Latin by Gerard of Cremona. Ibn al-Haytham was the first to explain that vision occurs when light reflects from an object and then passes to one's eyes and the first to deduce that vision occurs in the brain, rather than in the eyes. Friedrich Risner, a protege of Pierre Ramus, prepared the first edition of Alhazen's work from two Latin manuscripts discovered by Ramus. This edition also includes Al-Jayyani's treatise on twilight which is frequently found in manuscripts with Alhazen's Optics. Witelo's Perspectiva was previously published twice before its inclusion in this work (Nuremberg 1535, 1551). This combined edition served as the standard reference work on optics well into the 17th century, influencing scientists such as Brahe, Kepler, Galileo, and Descartes (Norman). Bound in contemporary limp vellum with the title handwritten on the spine. Slight marginal dampstaining throughout. Provenance: From the Thomas Vroom Collection.