Lot 131
Bible; Latin; Vulgate
Biblia sacra
The Library of James Stirling, Mathematician
Auction: 23 October 2025 from 13:00 GMT
Description
vulgatae editionis; Sixti Quinti pont. max. jussu recognita, atque edita. Venice: apud Daminaum Zenarum, 1603. Folio in eights (37.9 x 25cm), contemporary vellum, [12] 786 24 62 pp., title-page printed in red and black with large woodcut device, text in double column, profusely illustrated throughout with woodcut vignettes, woodcut headpieces and initials, P3 (I Kings 9-12) replaced by a duplicate of P1, vellum soiled, wear to spine over cords, ties and front free endpaper lacking, title-page with a little fraying to fore margin and small hole to foot
Footnote
James Stirling's copy, acquired by him during his sojourn in Venice, the occasion of his family nickname ‘the Venetian’, with his manuscript ownership inscription and purchase note reading ‘Ja: Stirling 10 Nov 1720 pret. 22 L. V.’, presumably 22 Venetian lire, to the title-page. Stirling left Oxford without a degree in 1717 and travelled to Venice soon after at the invitation of Venetian ambassador to London, Nicholas Tron. ‘Apparently Stirling had the expectation of a professorship of mathematics but this fell through on religious grounds. Little is known about what Stirling did during this period. He did make the acquaintance of Nicolaus Bernoulli, professor of mathematics at the University of Padua (1716-22) and there is a record of his being at that university in 1721. He also appears to have been asked to obtain information about the Venetian glass industry for some merchants in England; according to some accounts he had to flee for his life, having discovered some of its closely guarded secrets’ (ODNB).