Paris; Paris: Veuve Desaint; de l’Imprimerie de la République, 1788; An V [1797]. An exceptional volume, in a fine contemporary binding, containing the first edition of Lagrange’s masterpiece, the Méchanique, “one of the outstanding landmarks in the history of both mathematics and mechanics” (Sarton, p. 470) and “perhaps the most..... More
Item #4300

Leipzig: Christopher Günther for J. Gross & J. F. Gleditsch, 1684. First edition of Leibniz’s invention of the differential calculus. “Leibniz was an almost universal genius whose place in the history of mathematics depends on his being an independent inventor of the infinitesimal calculus and on his contributions to combinatorial..... More
Item #4735

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

Edinburgh: Printed by T.W. and T. Ruddimans, 1742. First edition, a very fine large and thick paper copy, of “the earliest logical and systematic publication of the Newtonian methods. It stood as a model of rigor until the appearance of Cauchy’s Cours d’Analyse in 1821” (DSB). The Treatise was written..... More
Item #4222

Venice: Franciscum Franciscium Senensem, 1575. First and only edition (see Rara Aritmetica) of the first clear statement of the principle of mathematical induction. “Francesco Maurolico is generally recognized to have been one of the foremost mathematicians of the sixteenth century” (Rosen); Cajori has called him ‘the greatest geometer of the..... More
Item #2613

Paris: J. Quilau, 1708. A fine copy, of the first separately published textbook of probability. “In 1708 [Montmort] published his work on Chances, where with the courage of Columbus he revealed a new world to mathematicians” (Todhunter, p. 78). “The Essay (1708) is the first published comprehensive text on probability..... More
Item #3894

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

Cambridge; London: Typis Academicus; Benjamin Tooke, 1707. First edition of Newton’s treatise on algebra, or ‘universal arithmetic,’ his “most often read and republished mathematical work” (Whiteside). “Included are ‘Newton’s identities’ providing expressions for the sums of the ith powers of the roots of any polynomial equation, for any integer i...... More
Item #4639

Antwerp: heirs of Arnold Birckman, 1567. Exceptionally fine copy, bound in citron morocco for Jacques-Auguste de Thou (1553-1617), of this rare and celebrated treatise on algebra. “Considered the greatest of Portuguese mathematicians, Nuñez reveals in his discoveries, theories, and publications that he was a first-rate geographer, physicist, cosmologist, geometer and..... More
Item #3645

Cologne [Paris]: Pierre de la Vallée, [1656-]1657. A beautiful copy of Pascal’s 18 Provincial letters, bound in fine red morocco in 1865 by Chambolle-Duru, from the collection of Benzon (his sales catalogue no. 42, 1875) with two further rare works relating to Pascal. Provenance: inscription to title ‘Ex libris Congregationis..... More
Item #3426

Turin: Bocca Brothers, 1888. First edition, rare. “Calcolo Geometrico, G. Peano’s first publication in mathematical logic, is a model of expository writing, with a significant impact on 20th century mathematics” (Kannenberg). It may be regarded (in part) as a preliminary version of his more famous work Arithmetices Principia, published in..... More
Item #4029

Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1879. A fine copy, with the original printed wrappers, of Poincaré's thesis for his doctorate in science from the University of Paris. “Poincaré's doctoral thesis [was] on differential equations (not on methods of solution, but on existence theorems), which led to one of his most celebrated contributions to..... More
Item #2928