"Algebre seu analytice elementa."

Latin manuscript on laid paper (20,5 x 29,5 cm): 69 + 3 ff., written in ink in 1 or 2 colums (ink stains on the first 13 ff. making the text below hardly legible).

Orig. decorative covers.

Unique autograph (?) or students' manual on the algebra course by L.G. Guido (1671-1742).
G.W. Leibniz' visit to Italy in 1689-1690 gave major impetus to the spread of his ideas of infinitesimal calculus. Grandi, an Italian monk much reputed in the field of mathematics and hence named court mathematician to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo III de Medici, incorporated the Leibnizian calculus into his classes. As he was teaching the new calculation from 1702 onwards in private courses and from 1714 onwards at the University of Pisa, Grandi left behind his notes under the title "Algebre seu analytice elementa" in an autograph kept in Venice (Biblioteca naz. Marciana, Mss. lat., cl. VIII, 96), and presumably owned by Grandi's biographer Giammaria Ortes. A later copy, dated 1744, is kept in the library of Bologna, where one of the two variants with an identical title are also kept (Bologna, BU, Ms. 938 and AS Bologna 538). The other variant is in Pisa (Biblioteca universitaria, Ms. 68).
Besides mentioning in this manuscript the "father of algebra", the Greek Diophantus, the French mathematician François Viète (1540-1603) and René Descartes (1596-1650), Guido also refers to Newton and Leibniz. This should not surprise as Grandi used Newton's method of fluxions, though slightly preferring Leibniz's differential calculus. Ill.: 75 diagrams on 2 folding folios at the end.
Ref. Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani 58 (2002). - G. Ortes. - Vita del padre D. Guido Grandi (Pasquali, 1744): p. 164. - Livia Giacardi, "Guido Grandi e il calcolo leibniziano: Presentazione di un manoscritto inedito", in: Bollettino di storia delle scienze matematiche XIV (1994/2), pp. 195-238.