Paris: Imprimé par autorisation du roi a l’Imprimerie Royale, 1841. First edition, journal issue in original printed wrappers, of “the most important single result in the theory of integrals of algebraic functions … Abel’s theorem” (Bottazzini & Gray, p. 236), a result which Legendre called ‘a monument more lasting than..... More
Item #5458

[N.p. N.p., ca. 1780]. A fascinating manual of astronomy, particularly as it relates to the form of the motions of the heavens, dating from the period 1780-1825, probably from the beginning of that range. It is in a single hand (with the exception of one page), though with some variations..... More
Item #5309

[Colophon:] Venice: Bernardinus Bindonus, 1537. First edition, an extraordinary copy of the greatest importance, signed and heavily annotated by the celebrated English polymath John Dee (1527-1608), and later acquired and signed by John Winthrop Jr. (1606-76), the first Governor of Connecticut, whose library was one of the most important in..... More
Item #5650

London: printed for Jacob Tonson, 1734. First edition, a spectacular copy, and one of the first issued (see below), of Berkeley’s famous attack on the calculus of Newton and Leibniz, which the historian Florian Cajori described as “the most spectacular event of the century in the history of British mathematics”..... More
Item #5457

Basel: Mechel, [1687]. First edition, exceptionally rare, of this dissertation which Bernoulli (1655-1705) submitted in order to secure the chair of mathematics at the University of Basel. This was the beginning of a remarkable career in mathematics, in which he “greatly advanced algebra, the infinitesimal calculus, the calculus of variations..... More
Item #5601

Paris: De l’imprimerie Royale, chez Debure frères, 1821. First edition, an exceptionally fine copy, of this classic in the history of mathematics, which gives the first rigorous definitions of the notions of limit, continuity and convergence of infinite series, as well as the first comprehensive theory of functions of a...... More
Item #5345

Bologna: Giacomo Monti, 1647. First edition, rare, of Cavalieri’s second work on integration methods, a sequel to and elaboration of his Geometria indivisibilibus (1635), one of the most important forerunners of the integral calculus. Cavalieri’s ‘method of indivisibles’, considers an area as made up of an indefinite number of equidistant..... More
Item #5536

Milan: Lodovico Monza, 1678. First edition, rare, of Ceva’s first and most important book. “Ceva’s most important mathematical work is De lineis rectis (Milan, 1678), dedicated to Ferdinando Carlo. Chasles mentions it with praise in his Aperçu historique. In this work Ceva used the properties of the center of gravity..... More
Item #5193

Baltimore, Maryland: John Hopkins, 1936. First edition of the first proof that the Entscheidungsproblem (‘decision problem’) is unsolvable, published seven months before Alan Turing published his own independent proof in his paper ‘On computable numbers, with an application to the Entscheidungsproblem.’ Church’s proof was via his ‘lambda-calculus’; Turing’s was via..... More
Item #4543

[Lyon]: Guillaume Huyon for Constantin Fradin, June 2, 1520. First edition, extremely rare, of the first published work on algebra in French. This is a fine copy in a beautiful contemporary binding. Born in Lyon, then the principal commercial centre of France, La Roche was a student of Nicolas Chuquet..... More
Item #4636

Basel: Eusebius & Heirs of Nikolaus Episcopius, 1575. First edition, very rare, of the first systematic treatise on algebra (Smith, Rara Arithmetica, p. 348), which “inspired the rebirth of number theory” (Britannica), translated from the Greek by Wilhelm Holtzmann [Xylander] – the original Greek text was not published until 1621..... More
Item #4710

London: William Pickering, 1847. First edition, rare in the original publisher’s cloth, of “the most attractive edition of Euclid the world has ever seen” (Werner Oechslin, in an essay to the Taschen reprint, Cologne: 2010), in which colours are substituted for the usual letters to designate the angles and lines..... More
Item #5516

St. Petersburg: ex Typographia Academiae Scientiarum, 1739. First edition, and a remarkable copy in original state, of Euler’s most important work on music. The Swiss mathematician, scientist and philosopher Leonhard Euler (1707-1783) “contributed more to theoretical acoustics as the subject is now known than has any other man” (The New..... More
Item #5636