Milan: Imprimerie Bernardoni de C. Rebeschini, 1902. First edition, very rare, of “Lebesgue’s great thèse” (Burkill, p. 484), describing his new theory of integration, now known as the ‘Lebesgue integral’. “The Lebesgue integral is one of the great achievements of modern real analysis” (Britannica). “It cannot be doubted that this..... More
Item #5821

Leipzig: S. Spörl for J. S. Fick & J. P. Seubold [Universitäts- und Stadtbibliothek], 1666. First edition, extremely rare. “This book contains the seeds of Leibniz’s mature thought, as well as many of the mathematical ideas that he would go on to further develop after the invention of the calculus..... More
Item #5799

London: Printed by S[arah]. G[riffin]. and B[ennet]. G[riffin]. for Benjamin Tooke and Thomas Sawbridge, [1669]. First edition, first issue, extremely rare, of the first of Leybourn’s books on the subject. This issue has ‘dialling:’ in line 2 of the title and lacks imprint date; the more common (but still rare)..... More
Item #4610

London: Printed for the author’s children and sold by A. Millar, et al. 1748. First edition, large-paper copy, of Maclaurin’s statement of Newtonian theory, one of the three “most outstanding popular introductions to Newtonian science of the eighteenth century” (I. B. Cohen, Franklin and Newton, 1956, p. 209). “Though a...... More
Item #3409

London: for William and John Innys, 1720. First edition, very rare in commerce, of Maclaurin’s first book, dedicated to Newton and bearing his imprimatur as president of the Royal Society. Maclaurin is best known for his Treatise of Fluxions (1742), “the earliest logical and systematic publication of the Newtonian methods..... More
Item #5542

Florence: Giuseppe Cocchini, 1666. First edition, the rare first issue, and owing to the magnificent contemporary Italian red morocco binding, a presentation copy (see below), of the only publication of the Accademia del Cimento, the first organisation founded for the sole purpose of making scientific experiments (the more common second..... More
Item #4707

Venice: apud Franciscum Franciscium Senensem, 1575. First and only edition, rare, and with a distinguished provenance, containing seven ‘opuscula,’ and, with separate title and pagination, the Arithmeticorum libri duo; all of these works were published here for the first time. One of the ‘opuscula’ contains the most important original work..... More
Item #5621

Nantes; Paris: the author & Forest; Bachelier, 1836. First edition, presentation copy, extremely rare, of the privately printed proof of Midy’s Theorem. “It is well known that a real number is rational if and only if its decimal expansion is a repeating decimal. For example, 2/7 = .285714285714 … Many..... More
Item #5801

Edinburgh; Padua: Andrew Hart; Giacomo Cadorino, 1619; [1667]. First edition, extremely rare, of this complement to Napier’s epoch-making Mirifici logorithmorum canonis descriptio (1614) – while the Descriptio gave the first ever table of logarithms, it was in the Constructio that Napier explained the method of their construction. It is here..... More
Item #4638

Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1956. First edition of Nash’s most famous work in pure mathematics, his solution of “a deep philosophical problem concerning geometry”, first posed by Bernhard Riemann, “one of the most important pieces of mathematical analysis in this century” which “has completely changed the perspective on partial differential..... More
Item #3536

London: Benji & Sam. Tooke, 1722. Second edition, but the first authorised and edited by Newton (probably with the assistance of John Machin – see below), of his treatise on algebra, or ‘universal arithmetic,’ his “most often read and republished mathematical work” (Whiteside, Papers V, p. xiv). “Included are ‘Newton’s..... More
Item #5823

London: Allde, for Astley, 1592. Third edition (first, 1581) of one of the greatest rarities in the entire literature of navigation and magnetism, and “one of the first truly scientific books published in England” (Waters, The Art of Navigation, p. 153). “It is usual to ascribe to Galileo the development..... More
Item #4986

Pesaro: Girolamo Concordia, 1588. First edition of Pappus' Collection, translated with commentary by Federico Commandino, a princely copy from the notable collection of the great Papal family and patrons of learning, the Piccolomini, Dukes of Amalfi, thence by marriage to the German nobleman von Troilo. The Collection is “by far..... More
Item #5234