Compendiosa Introduttione alla Prima Parte della Specularia

Compendiosa Introduttione alla Prima Parte della Specularia

Mirami, Rafael

Judaica

Excerpts

Optics

The Jewish community at Ferrara was one of the largest and most active in Italy; it grew rapidly during the 15th century in part because of substantial immigration from less congenial parts of Europe. The Jewish presence dwindled during and after the 16th century, when the rulers of the city built a ghetto to isolate and weaken the population. Rafael Mirami was a Jewish Ferrarese physician and mathematician with a special interest in mirrors, optics, and poetry: the text is sprinkled throughout with verses of Dante, Petrarch, and Horace intended to support Mirami’s arguments. P. 32-33 show the differences in reflections between flat, concave, and convex mirrors.

Excerpt from Rafael Mirami's Compendiosa Introduttione alla Prima Parte della Specularia [Compendious Introduction to the First Part of the Study of Mirrors], illustrating the differences in reflections from flat, concave, and convex mirrors

Mirami, Rafael

Heirs of Francesco Rossi and Paolo Tortorino

1582

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Solomon M. Hyams Collection of the Boston Medical Library (1.Mmx.11)

text

Excerpt (2 pages)

Italian

DigID0002767

Purchased for the Solomon M. Hyams Collection of the Boston Medical Library, 1934