JOHANNES DE PECKHAM Perspectiva Communis.

See Brunet, III, 534, Durling, 3579, Becker, 291.2; Mortimer, 367; Essling, n°1427 for other editions; Smith, History of Mathematics, II, p. 341 ; DiLaura, 8 (for the 1504 edition by Sessa, Venice).

The Perspectiva Communis is one of the earliest treatises on perspective and optics, and the first ‘modern’ science book, along with the original edition of Euclid’s Elements. Johannes de Peckham (c. 1230-1292) was a Franciscan priest born in Sussex. After studying in Paris under Bonaventure of Bagnorea (Saint Bonaventure), Peckham succeeded Eustace d’Arras as Franciscan master of the Paris faculty. After a brief stay in Rome, he returned to England, where he was appointed Achebishop of Canterbury in 1279. It was probably during his stay in Rome that he wrote his Perspectiva Communis, based on his research into the manuscripts of the texts of the great Arab scientist Ibn-al-Haytam, also known as Alhazen (965-1039).

The text is composed according to the model given by Euclid in his Elements, using texts by Al-Kindi, Aristotle, Saint Augustine and Miamonides. 

“The work on which Pecham’s fame has chiefly rested is the Perspectiva communis, probably written between 1277 and 1279 during Pecham’s professorship at the Papal Curia. In the first book Pecham discussed propagation of light and colour, the anatomy and physiology of the eye, the act of visual perception, physical requirements for vision. In book II he discussed vision by reflected rays… Book III was devoted to the phenomena of refraction, the rainbow and the milky way (…) The Perspectiva Communis was one of the most widely used of all optical texts from the early fourteenth century until the close of the sixteenth century [influencing Leonardo da Vinci and Johannes Kepler among others], and it remains today the best index of what was known to the scientific community in general on the subject.” (D.S.B.).

Illustrated with numerous woodcut figures in the margins, including the famous image representing the eye mechanism. A good copy.