mathematics - 19 titles

Author:  Euclid
Title/Imprint: Elements. Latin
[276] p. ; 33 cm.; Erhardus Ratdolt Augustensis: Venice , 1482

This is the first printed edition of Euclid's Elements in the form of a Latin translation from an Arabic source. The work went through thousands of editions and was probably the most studied work after the Bible. It was the leading source for geometric study and learning until the development of non-Euclidean geometries in the 19th century. The book is also a monument to printing history due to the excellent craftsmanship of the printer, Erhard Ratdolt.
Full Title: Preclarissimus liber elementorum Euclidis perspicacissimi in artem geometrie incipit qu afoelicissime.
Imprint from colophon: Venetijs impressit : Erhardus Ratdolt Augustensis impressor solertissimus, 1482, octauis Cale n. Ju n. [25 May, 1482].
Translated from the Arabic by Adelardus, of Bath, edited by Giovanni Campano. While books I-XIII are genuine (Cf. Th. Heath. The thirteen books of Euclid's Elements. 1956, v. 3, p. 519), book XIV is a work of the 2d cent. by Hypsicles and book XV, the work of a Roman land-surveyor of the 6th cent.
Signatures: a10 b-r8.
Dedicatory letter by Ratdolt on verso of leaf a1. Incipit on leaf a2 printed in red; 3 sided woodcut border. Woodcut diagrams are set in a wide margin close to the theorems to which they relate. Correct reading in line 45, p. [227]. Final leaf blank.
Cited/Indexed in: Goff E-113; GW 9428
Our copy has a Burndy Library bookplate: Gift of Stanley M. Loomis. The binding is signed K A with device (key?); attributed to K. Adams.

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Author:  Apollonius of Perga
Title/Imprint: Conicorum libri quattuor
[4], 114, [2], 36 leaves : ill. ; 30 cm.; Ex Officina Alexandri Benatii: Bologna , 1566

Apollonius wrote this great mathematical work in the third century, BC, which is about conic sections, or the planes that result from various ways of slicing through and getting a 2-dimensional cross section of a cone. Ellipses, circles, parabolas, and hyperbolas are examples of conic sections. Of the 8 books that made up the Conics, only the first four were known to exist when this book, the first edition of Apollonius, was printed. Books 5-7 were later discovered in the 17th century. Book 8 has still not been found.
Full title: Apollonii Pergæi Conicorum libri quattuor / / vnà cum Pappi Alexandrini lemmatibus, et commentariis Eutocii Ascolonitae. Sereni Antinsensis philosophi libri duo nunc primum in lucem editi. Quæ omnia nuper Federicus Commandinus ... è Græco conuertit & commentariis illustrauit.
There is a separate title page and paging for Sereni Antisensis philosophi libri duo. >br>Provenance: Monast. S. Eugenii Senarum ... à Senis (book-label)

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Author:  Niccolò Tartaglia (d.1557)
Title/Imprint: Nova scienta
[96] p. : ill., diagrs. ; 21 cm.; S. da Sabio: Venice , 1537

Tartaglia produced this pioneering work in the study of ballistics and how it can benefit from mathematical analysis. He was able to demonstrate convincingly the true path of a cannonbal fired from a cannon and how it would not be straight, but follow a curved trajectory.
The table of contents (following the title page) calls for 5 books, when, in fact, there are only 3.
Colophon: [Printer's device] In Vinegia per Stephano da Sabio, ad instantia di Nicolo Tartalea brisciano il qual habita a San Salvador, 1537.
Signatures: *4 A-L4(A4blank).

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Author:  Girolamo Cardano (1501-1576)
Title/Imprint: Artis magnæ, sive, De regulis algebraicis
81 leaves : ill., port. ; 30 cm.; Ioh. Petreium: Nuremberg , 1545

This work is one of the great books on algebra, famous for its publication of the solution to the cubic equation (x3 + px2 = q).

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Author:  Robert Recorde (1510?-1558)
Title/Imprint: The castle of knowledge
[16], 286, [2] p. : ill. ; 29 cm.; Reginalde Wolf: London , 1556

Recorde is famous as an author of textbooks in English and done as a dialogue between the teacher and pupil. This book is part of a series that includes The Pathwaie to Knowledge (1551) and the Gate of Knowledge (now lost). This work is a mathematical treatment of astronomy and is a very early favorable presentation of the world system of Copernicus.
Dedication signed: Roberte Recorde physician.
Contains references to America; not in Sabin.
Errata leaf at end: [2] p.
Imprint from colophon: Imprinted at London : By Reginalde Wolfe, 1556.
Provenance: Herbert McLean Evans (bookplate); Lewis Evans (autograph); J.S. Turner (autograph)
Imperfect copy: Loss of text p. 258-9 replaced in manuscript.

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Author:  François Viète (1540-1603)
Title/Imprint: Opera mathematica : in quibus tractatur Canon mathematicus, seu ad triangula
[88], 45, [11] 75, [1] p., [5] folded leaves of plates ; 40 cm. (fol.); Franciscum Bouvier: London , 1589

This work is the first part of an uncompleted larger series on geometry. Viete is considered to be the father of modern algebraic notation and this work was critical to the understanding of new ways to solve both plane and spherical triangles. The copy in the Dibner Library is a reissue of the 1579 Paris pages with a new title page from a London printer; this is why the work differs somewhat from the way it is described in printed versions of Heralds of Science.
As mentioned above, this copy is a reissue of the 1579 edition printed at Paris by J. Mettayer; in our copy, only the title page to Universalium inspectionum ad canonem mathematicum and the final folding plate retain the Paris imprint.
Signatures: pi2 A-K4 L6 [alpha]-[zeta]4 [cross]4 A-G4 H6 I4. Leaf D1 signed E2. Tables in pt. 1 printed in red and black. Final leaf blank.
There is a partially legible inscription on the title page: W. Boyton (?) Greys Inn. There are manuscript notes at the foot of p. 27 (second series) signed: Guilielmus Nelsonus, Sept. 17, 1617.

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Author:  John Napier (1550-1617)
Title/Imprint: Mirifici logarithmorum canonis descriptio, ejusque usus, in utraque trigonometria
4 p. l., 57, [91] p. diagrs. 20 cm.; Ex officinâ A. Hart: Edinburgh , 1614

Napier, a Scottish mathematician, developed a system of logarithms in this important work. Logarithms proved useful for people doing a great deal of calculations as it reduced multiplication and division down to the simpler effort of addition and subtraction.
This is likely the first issue: without Admonitio or errors in pagination. cf. W. R. MacDonald. The construction ... Napier ... p. 137-9.
A portion of the engraving entitled "Napier's rods" loosely inserted.
Endsheet inscribed: "F. Auguss (?) dr. phil."

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Author:  John Napier (1550-1617)
Title/Imprint: Rabdologiæ, seu numerationis per virgulas libri duo
6 p. l., 154 p. : tables (part fold.) ; 15 cm.; A. Hart: Edinburgh , 1617

Napier later extended his use of logarithms in a mecahnical form in this book. He devised a simple method of multiplying and dividing using small rods called "Napier's bones." These rods became the basis for what later became the slide rule (do you remember what that was?)
Signatures: [paragraph mark]6, A-F12, G5.
Our copy has a contemporary white vellum binding.

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Author:  René Descartes (1596-1650)
Title/Imprint: Discours de la methode pour bien conduire sa raison, & chercher la verité dans les sciences. Plus La dioptriqve. Les meteores. Et La geometrie. Qui sont des essais de cete methode. (Discourse on a method for guiding reason, and discovering truth in the sciences. With Dioptrics, meteorology, and geometry, which are essays that are based on this method.)
78 p., 1 l., 413, [34] p. illus., diagrs. 21 cm.; I. Maire: Leiden , 1637

This work (which also appears in the General Science section of Heralds of Science) contains a section called Geometrie in which Descartes introduces his new method of mathematical notation and operation that we know as analytic geometry. Descartes applied algebra to geometry which enabled him to represent curves on a coordinate system with the use of algebraic equations.
Our copy has a bookplate: Fried. Wilh. Graf von Schlabrendorff.

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Author:  Pierre de Fermat (1601-1665)
Title/Imprint: Varia opera mathematica
6 p. l., 210, [2] p., 1 l. 5 fold. pl., fold. port., diagrs. 35 cm.; Johannem Pech: Toulouse , 1679

Fermat, along with Descartes, was one of the leading mathematicians of the early 17th century. His pioneering works on the theory of numbers, analytic geometry, and probability are his most notable achievements although he will probably always be remembered for hs famous "Last Theorem" which was not proven until 1995. Fermat's influence during is life was minimal because he published very little. This book, printed after his death, was the first presentation of his significant works and plentiful correspondence.
Full title: Varia opera mathematica / D. Petri de Fermat, senatoris tolosani. Accesserunt selectæ quædam ejusdem epistolæ, vel ad ipsum à plerisque doctissimis viris gallicè, latinè, vel italicè, de rebus admathematicas disciplinas, aut physicam pertinentibus scriptæ.
Edited by Samuel de Fermat. "Eloge de Monsievr de fermat ... Du Iournal des scavans, du lundy, 9. fevrier 1665": p. [9-10]
Signatures: ã ẽ A-Cc Dd Ee
Contents: Ad locos planos et solidos isagoge. Appendix, continens solutionem problematum solidorum per locos. -- Apollonii Pergæi libri duo de locis planis restituti. -- De æquationum localium transmutatione, & emendatione, ad multimodam curvilineorum interse, vel cum rectilineis comparationem. -- Novvs secvndarvm et viterioris ordinis radievm in analyticis usus. Appendix. -- Methodus ad disquiredam maximam & minimam. -- De contractibus sphæricis. -- De linearum curvarum cum lineis rectis comparatione dissertatio geometrica. Appendix. -- De solutione problematum geometricorum per curvas simplicissimas, & unicuique problematum generi propri'e convenientes. Dissertatio tripertita. -- Porismatum Eucldæorum renovata doctrina, & sub formâ isagoges recentiorbus geometris exhibita. -- Lettres de monsieur de Fermat, avec quelque-unes de celles qui luy ont esté écrites par plusieurs personnes de grand sçavoir sur diver sujets de mathematiques ou physique.

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Author:  Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716)
Title/Imprint: Acta eruditorum, t. 2
p. 467-473, [1] leaf of plates : 1 ill. ; 21 cm. (4to); J. Grossium & J.F. Gletitschium: Leipzig , 1684

Leibniz, a German philosopher and mathematician, developed the differential and integral calculus prior to and independently of Isaac Newton. But because neither of them published their findings early on, a contentious debate about priority for the discovery of the calculus raged on for years. Leibniz published this article, on his invention of the differential calculus, in 1684 nine years after he developed it.
Full title: Nova methodus pro maximis et minimis : itemque tangentibus, quae nec fractas, nec irrationales quantitates moratur, & singulare pro illis calculi genus / / per G.G.L.
Extracted from Acta eruditorum, Oct. 1684. The accompanying leaf of plates is numbered "Tab. XII."
Our copy has bookplates: 1. J.W. Schlegel; 2. Smithsonian Institution Libraries. Purchased from Special Collections Endowment. Our copy was formerly part of Verne L. Robert's collection, the Bibliotheca Mechanica.
Our copy is contained in a volume with a full vellum binding, with gilt-tooled red and black leather spine labels, and blue edges

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Author:  Jakob Bernoulli (1654-1705)
Title/Imprint: Ars conjectandi, opus posthumum
[4], 35, [1], 306, [2] p., [3] folded leaves of plates : ill. ; 21 cm. (4to); Impensis Thurnisiorum, Fratrum: Basel , 1713

Jakob Bernoulli was the first in a famous family of Swiss mathematicians. This book, published posthumously, was his greatest work in which he demonstrated the calculus of probability, the theory of combinations and permutations, the thoery of Bernoulli numbers, Bernoulli's law of large numbers, and a discussion of mathematical and moral predictability.
Full title: Jacobi Bernoulli profess. basil. & utriusque societ. ... Ars conjectandi, opus posthumum : accedit Tractatus de seriebus infinitis, et epistola Gallice scripta de ludo pilæ reticularis.
Signatures: pi2 a-d4 e2 A-2P4 2Q2. Errata: p. [36], 1st section. Final leaf blank.
Contents: Lettre à un amy fur les parties du jeu de paume -- artis conjectandi, pars prima ... -- ... pars secunda ... -- ... pars tertia ... -- ... pars quarta ... -- ... tractus de seriebus infinitis ...
Stamp on front pastedown and title page: Radcliffe Observatory Oxford. Written in ink on recto of front free end paper: S.P. (?) Rigaud Jan 19 1827.

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Author:  Leonhard Euler (1707-1783)
Title/Imprint: Methodus inveniendi lineas curvas maximi minimive proprietate gaudentes, sive, Solutio problematis isoperimetrici latissimo sensu accepti
[2], 322, [2] p., V folded leaves of plates ; 25 cm. (4to); Marcum-Michaelem Bousquet & Socios: Lausanne ; Geneva , 1744

Euler, a Swiss mathematician who spent most of his life working in St. Petersburg, Russia, was a prolific author and one of the founders of pure mathematics. This work describes his development of the calculus of variations.

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Author:  J. L. (Joseph Louis) La Grange (1736-1813)
Title/Imprint: Méchanique analitique
xij, 512 p. ; 26 cm. (4to); La Veuve Desaint: Paris , 1788

Born in Italy, La Grange spent most of his life in France and was the leading contributor in the fields of number theory and celestial mechanics. Improving on Euler's calculus of variations, in this book La Grange replaced the older synthetical treatments of mechanics with his analytical system.
Signatures: [a]4 b2 A-3S4.
Colophon: A Paris, de l'Imprimerie de Philippe-Denys Pierres, premier imprimeur ordinaire du roi, &c.
Our copy is a University of Glasgow prize book bound with its device and motto as supralibros. Award bookplate signed by Baron Kelvin; recipeint's name appears to be Wm. Howie.
First leaf (half title?) wanting.

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Author:  France. Commision temporaire des poids
Title/Imprint: Instruction sur les mesures déduites de la grandeur de la terre : uniformes pour toute la République, et sur les calculs relatifs a leur division décimale par la Commission temporaire des poids et mesures républicaines
xxxij, 224, [28] p., [3] folded leaves of plates : ill. ; 22 cm.; Saphoux: Macon , 1793 or 1794

This is the first edition of the official manual of the metric system and the first description of the system as it exists today. It was produced the year prior to the compulsory adoption of the system in France. In addition to this copy, the Dibner Library also has versions printed in Paris and Périgueaux. The book is credited as being by René Just Haüy (1743-1822).

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Author:  Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855)
Title/Imprint: Disquisitiones arithmeticae
XVIII, 668, [10] p. ; 21 cm.; Gerh. Fleischer, jun.: Leipzig , 1801

This work, the first textbook on algebraic number theory, is important for its demonstration of the proof of the Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic, that every composite number can be expressed as a product of prime numbers and that this representation is unique.

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Author:  N. I. (Nicolai Ivanovich) Lobachevskii (1792-1856)
Title/Imprint: Geometrische Untersuchungen zur Theorie der Parallellinien
[6], 61, [1] p., [2] folded leaves of plates : ill. ; 19 cm.; Mayer & Müller: Berlin , 1887

Lobachevskii developed a new system of geometry that was not dependent on Euclid's parallel postulate. His system of non-Euclidean geometry was first published in an obscure journal in Kazan, Russia. His work was noticed by Gauss, who also developed a similar system independently, and Lobachevskii was finally recognized for his achievements in the 1840s. This original Russian work is extremely difficult to obtain today and our copy, Herald of Science 115, is the second edition of the German translation.
Part of the series: Wissenschaftliche Classiker in Facsimile-Drucken ; -- Bd. 1.
Colophon: Anastatischer Druck von A. Dannenberg ...

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Author:  Janos Bolyai (1802-1860)
Title/Imprint: Tentamen juventutem studiosam in elementa matheseos purae, elementaris ac sublimioris, methodo intuitiva, evidentiaque huic propria, introducendi : cum appendice triplici
2 v. ; 22 cm. (8vo); Typis Collegii Reformatorum per Josephum et Simeonem Kali de felsʺo Vist: Maros Vasarhelyini , 1832-33

Independently of both Lobachevskii and Gauss, Janos Bolyai produced his own system of non-Euclidean geometry which was published as an appendix to his father Farkas's larger work. This privately printed work was poorly printed by a an obscure college publisher in a run of about 150 copies in a small city in Hungary (now known as Targu Mures in Rumania) and few people noticed it at the time.Nevertheless, it is regarded as a remarkable mathematical achievement and upon its rediscovery in the early 1900s it was crucial for the mathematical basis of relativity theory. This work is very rare and less than twenty copies of the complete work are known to exist in the world. The actual Herald of Science 116 is the 28-page appendix to volume 1 (following p. 502), Scientiam spatii absolute veram exhibens.
Collation: t. 1: [4], XCVIII [i.e. C], 502, [2], 26, [2], XVI p., [5] folded leaves of plates; t. 2: [6], XVI, 402 p., 10 folded leaves of plates. Pages XV and XCVII, 2nd section, and 60, 3rd section, t. 1, misnumbered XVI, CXVII, and 69 respectively; LXXV-LXXVI repeated in the pagination.
Last four plates in t. 1 and plates 1, 2, 5-10 in t. 2 printed on blue paper; plates 3, t. 1, and 7-10, t. 2 have moveable pieces tipped in.
Errata: t. 1: p. XXXIII-XCVIII, [27]-[28]; t. 2: p. 401-402.
There is a book plate on the front paste down, v. 1: Ex Libris Herbert McLean Evans.

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Author:  J. Willard (Josiah Willard) Gibbs (1839-1903)
Title/Imprint: Elements of vector analysis : arranged for the use of students in physics
83, [1] p. ; 25 cm.; Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor: New Haven , 1881-84

This is a very rare work printed at New Haven, Connecticut, for use only in Gibbs's classes at Yale (hence the phrase "not published" on the cover sheet). Gibbs, a well-known scientist in the 19th century, helped develop vector analysis into a useful mathematical tool along with his British counterpart, Oliver Heaviside. Gibbs and Heaviside used the new methods of vector analysis to express Maxwell's laws of thermodynamics in a more concise form (the expressions we now call "Maxwell's Laws"). Our copy of Gibbs's work is particularly interesting since it is his presentation copy to Heaviside and it contains a number of manuscript notes by Heaviside in the text.
Inscription, p. [1] of cover: From the author, June 1888; there are copious manuscript notes, apparently in the same hand.

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