Search Results: Authors starting with G from SOPHIA RARE BOOKS

Florence: Cosimo Giunti, 1615. First edition. THE BUOYANCY DISPUTE - GALILEO REPLIES TO HIS CRITICS. First edition, rare, from the Riccati library, of Galileo's principal text on the controversy over floating bodies. This work was written as a reply to two attacks by Delle Colombe (1565-1623) and Di Grazia on Galileo's 1612 treatise on floating bodies, Discorso ... intorno alle cose che stanno ub su l'acqua, o in quella si muovono. Although Galileo drafted replies to these (as well as two other polemical attacks on his treatise), this was the only one to be published. Like several of his polemics of this period, it appeared under the name of a colleague, in this case his pupil and friend Castelli (1578-1643). "Shortly after his return to Florence, Galileo became involved in a controversy over floating bodies. In that controversy an important role was played by Colombe, who became the leader of a group of dissident professors and intriguing courtiers that resented Galileo's position at court. Maffeo… Read More

Florence: Condotta, 1674. First edition. SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY VIVIANI TO MARIOTTE. The true first edition, very rare, signed and inscribed by Viviani to Edme Mariotte, of this important Galileanum, an assembly of previously unpublished writings by Galileo, together with texts by Torricelli and Viviani himself. Most importantly, it contains the first printing of a Galileo manuscript concerned with the Eudoxian theory of proportion which may be regarded as a supplement to the Discorsi (1638); the manuscript had been given to Viviani (1622-1703), Galileo's distinguished pupil, amainuensis, and biographer, by Cardinal de' Medici. Galileo had composed this manuscript in response to Viviani's demand that Galileo provide a more secure geometrical basis for his theory of falling bodies. As Galileo wrote to Benedetto Castelli in 1639, 'Objections made to me many months ago by this young man [Viviani] who is now my guest and disciple, against that principle postulated by me in my treatise on accelerated… Read More

[Leiden &] Strassburg: David Hautt for Elzevir, 1635. First edition. FIRST LATIN EDITION OF THE DIALOGO . First Latin edition of the Dialogo, Galileo's celebrated defence of the Copernican view of the solar system, the most notorious banned book of the 17th century. Written in dialogue form, it "was designed both as an appeal to the great public and as an escape from silence ... it is a masterly polemic for the new science. It displays all the great discoveries in the heavens which the ancients had ignored; it inveighs against the sterility, wilfulness, and ignorance of those who defend their systems; it revels in the simplicity of Copernican thought and, above all, it teaches that the movement of the earth makes sense in philosophy, that is, in physics ... The Dialogo, more than any other work, made the heliocentric system a commonplace" (PMM). "The Dialogo, far more than any work, convinced men of the truth of the Copernican system" (Gingerich). Pope Urban VIII was not persuaded, however, and… Read More

Paris: Bachelier, 1846. First edition. THE FIRST PUBLICATION OF GALOIS' MOST IMPORTANT WORKS. First edition of Galois' collected mathematical works, for the most part previously unpublished. Their posthumous publication was due to Joseph Liouville, editor of the leading French journal on pure and applied mathematics. "There have been few mathematicians with personalities as engaging as that of Galois, who died at the age of twenty years and seven months from wounds received in a mysterious duel. He left a body of work - for the most part published posthumously - of less than 100 pages, the astonishing richness of which was revealed in the second half of the nineteenth century. Far from being a cloistered scholar, this extraordinarily precocious and exceptionally profound genius had an extremely tormented life. A militant republican, driven to revolt by the adversity that overwhelmed him and by the incomprehension and disdain with which the scientific world received his works, to most of his… Read More

Paris: Bachelier, 1846. First edition. THE FIRST PUBLICATION OF GALOIS' MOST IMPORTANT WORKS. First edition, a remarkable copy uncut in the original printed wrappers and very rare thus, of Galois' collected mathematical works, for the most part previously unpublished. Their posthumous publication was due to Joseph Liouville, editor of the leading French journal on pure and applied mathematics. "There have been few mathematicians with personalities as engaging as that of Galois, who died at the age of twenty years and seven months from wounds received in a mysterious duel. He left a body of work - for the most part published posthumously - of less than 100 pages, the astonishing richness of which was revealed in the second half of the nineteenth century. Far from being a cloistered scholar, this extraordinarily precocious and exceptionally profound genius had an extremely tormented life. A militant republican, driven to revolt by the adversity that overwhelmed him and by the incomprehension and… Read More

London: Royal Society, 1888. First edition. Hardcover. THE INVENTION OF THE STATISTICAL CONCEPT OF CORRELATION. First edition, journal issue in original printed wrappers, of Galton's invention of the statistical concept of correlation, one of the most "fundamental and ubiquitous" ideas in statistics (Stigler, p. 73). "Like all major scientific discoveries, correlation did not appear in a vacuum. It was a concluding step in a 20-year research project" (ibid.). The 'correlation coefficient' measures the strength of the linear relationship between two observed phenomena. It ranges in value from -1 to +1; the closer the correlation coefficient is to 1, the stronger the relationship. It is positive if the increase in the value of one variable may be followed by an increase in the value of the other; if it is negative the increase in the value of one variable may be followed by the decrease in the value of the other. "If one individual can be credited as the founder of the field of behavioural and… Read More

Bologna, 1800. contemporary portrait of Galvani. Very rare and beautiful contemporary portrait of Luigi Galvani (1737 - 1798), who inaugurated the modern epoch in electricity with his celebrated description of the production of "current electricity" by contact between two different metals and the legs of a frog. "Although the existence of electricity had been recognized for many centuries, it was not until the eighteenth century, with the invention of man-made apparatus for its creation, that the study of electricity became a science. That electricity was involved somehow in the function of living tissue had been noted in studies of the activity of electric fishes and eels, but it was Luigi Galvani, professor of anatomy in Bologna, who first carried out systematic experiments demonstrating that muscular contraction results from an electric current" (Grolier, Medicine, p. 183). Alessandro Volta (1745-1827) repeated Galvani's experiments, correctly interpreted the results as being due to contact… Read More

Göttingen: Dieterich, 1818. PLANETARY ORBITS AND ELLIPTIC FUNCTION THEORY. First edition, very rare separately-paginated offprint, preceding the journal appearance in Commentationes Societatis Regiae Scientiarum Gottingensis (vol. 4, pp. 21-48) by two years. "In his first years at Göttingen, Gauss experienced a second upsurge of ideas and publications in various fields of mathematics. Among the latter were several notable papers inspired by his work on the tiny planet Pallas, perturbed by Jupiter ... [including] Determinatio attractionis quam in punctum quodvis positionis datae exerceret planeta si eius massa per totam orbitam ratione temporis quo singulae partes describuntur uniformiter esset dispertita (1818)" (DSB). In this paper, Gauss's last important contribution to theoretical astronomy, he showed "that the secular variations which the elements of the orbit of a planet would experience from another planet which disturbs it are the same as if the mass of the disturbing planet were… Read More

Göttingen: Dieterich, 1832. First edition. GAUSS ON THE THEORY OF COMPLEX NUMBERS OFFPRINTS IN ORIGINAL STATE. First edition, very rare separately-paginated offprints, and an exceptional copy in original state, of these two important papers, in which Gauss coined the term 'complex number' and introduced the complex plane now often referred to as the 'Gaussian plane'. Gauss offprints are especially difficult to find on the market in contemporary bindings, most having been removed from sammelbands and rebound later. "The foundations of the theory of algebraic integers were laid by Gauss in his important work Theoria residuorum biquadraticorum, Commentatio II, which appeared in 1832, in which he considered the numbers a + bi (i = √-1)" (Klein, p. 320). "In the Disquisitiones [Arithmeticae, 1801], Gauss gave the first rigorous proof of 'the gem of arithmetic' - the law of quadratic reciprocity. In a series of papers published between 1808 and 1817 Gauss worked on reciprocity laws for congruences of… Read More

Göttingen: Dieterich, 1828. First edition. GAUSS'S SECOND MASTERPIECE. First edition, the very rare separately-paginated offprint from Commentationes Societatis Regiae Scientiarum Göttingensis (Vol. VI, 1828, pp. 99-146), of this "masterpiece of the mathematical literature" (Zeidler, p. 16). This is an exceptionally fine copy, uncut in its original plain wrappers. "The single most important work in the history of differential geometry is Gauss' paper of 1827 [sic], Disquisitiones generales circa superficies curvas" (Spivak, p. 74). "The crowning contribution of the period, and his last great breakthrough in a major new direction of mathematical research, was Disquisitiones generales circa superficies curvas (1828), which ... was the seed of more than a century of work on differential geometry" (DSB). "A decisive influence on the entire course of development of differential geometry was exerted by the publication of a remarkable paper of Gauss, 'Disquisitiones generales circa superficies curvas'… Read More

Göttingen: Dieterich, 1828. First edition. GAUSS'S MOST IMPORTANT WORK ON MATHEMATICAL STATISTICS . First edition, extremely rare separately-paginated offprints, of Gauss's definitive presentation of the theory of least squares which "was the dominant theme - the leitmotif - of nineteenth-century mathematical statistics" (Stigler, p. 11). "Surveying problems motivated Gauss to develop his ideas on least squares and more general problems of what is now called mathematical statistics. The result was the definitive exposition of his mature ideas in the Theoria combinationis obseruationum erroribus minimis obnoxiae (1823, with supplement in 1828)" (DSB). The Supplementum is particularly important for the new methods of linear algebra and numerical analysis which Gauss introduces in the course of his analysis of least squares. The principle of least squares arose from the problem of combining sets of overdetermined equations to form a square system that could be solved for the unknowns. Although Gauss… Read More

Göttingen: Dieterich, 1830. First edition. RARE OFFPRINT OF GAUSS ON THE CALCULUS OF VARIATIONS. First edition, the rare separately-paginated offprint, and a fine copy in original state, of this early contribution of Gauss (1777-1855) to mathematical physics, which contains a fundamental and groundbreaking contribution to the calculus of variations. "Gauss ranks, together with Archimedes and Newton, as one of the greatest geniuses in the history of mathematics" (Printing & the Mind of Man, p. 155). He is best known today for giving the first satisfactory proof of the fundamental theorem of algebra (1799), for Disquisitiones arithmeticae (1801), which revolutionized number theory, and for Disquisitiones generales circa superficies curvas (1828), which laid the foundations of differential geometry. The present work deals with the theory of capillary action, the rise or fall of liquids in narrow tubes, the foundations of which were laid by Thomas Young in 1805, who provided a qualitative theory for… Read More

Leipzig & Berlin: B.G. Teubner & F. Deuticke, 1931. First edition. VERY RARE COMPLETE SET OF THE VIENNA ERGEBNISSE - GÖDEL ON LOGIC AND THE FOUNDATIONS OF MATHEMATICS VON NEUMANN ON MATHEMATICAL ECONOMICS. First editions, a very rare complete set in the original printed wrappers, of all eight issues of these proceedings to which Gödel contributed thirteen important papers and remarks on the foundations of logic and mathematics. The last three issues are particularly rare, and are important for containing several seminal papers on mathematical economics, notably von Neumann's "A model of general economic equilibrium" in Heft 8, which "E. Roy Weintraub, current President of the History of Economics Society, described as 'the greatest paper in mathematical economics that was ever written'" (Cabral, p. 126). "In stark contrast to the short eight years of its existence, the colloquium that met in Vienna from 1928 to 1936 had a long lasting influence on economic theory" (Debreu - winner of the 1983 Nobel… Read More

Lancaster, PA: American Physical Society, 1949. First edition. GÖDEL ON TIME TRAVEL. First edition, journal issue, in original printed wrappers, of Gödel's 'time-travel paper,' 'one of the most important [papers] on relativity since my own original paper appeared' (Einstein to Morgenstern, 1952). "In the 1920s and 1930s, the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker cosmological models had been introduced as the simplest solutions of the equations of Einstein's general theory of relativity that were consistent with the observed red-shift of distant galaxies. These models were spatially homogenous and isotropic, and were expanding but were non-rotating. Gödel was the first to consider models that were rotating. The possible rotation of the universe has a special significance in general relativity because one of the influences that led Einstein to the theory in 1915 was Mach's principle. The exact formulation of the principle is rather obscure, but it is generally interpreted as denying the existence of absolute… Read More

London: William Jones, 1635. First edition. DISCOVERY OF THE SECULAR CHANGE IN MAGNETIC VARIATION. First edition, extremely rare, of Gellibrand's most important discovery: the secular change in magnetic declination, or variation. According to William Gilbert in his De Magnete (1600), the existence of magnetic declination, the difference in direction between geographical and magnetic north, is a result of the magnetic effects of large land masses. This explained the observed dependence of variation on geographical location, but according to this theory the variation at a given location should not depend on historical time. Gellibrand's great discovery, that the variation in fact changes with time, not only disproved Gilbert's theory but was of great importance for navigation since a knowledge of the declination at various locations was used by sailors as an aid to determining their position at sea: "Thus hitherto (according to the Tenents of all our Magneticall Philosophers) we have supposed the… Read More

Zürich: Jacob Gesner, 1566. THE FIRST ILLUSTRATED BOOK ON FOSSILS. First edition and a fine copy in contemporary binding, very rare when complete, of this collection of eight treatises, the most important being De rerum fossilium [On fossil Objects], Gesner's last work, the earliest scientific attempt to classify the mineral kingdom, and the first illustrated book on fossils. "It presents a picture of the mineral kingdom as seen through the eyes of the greatest naturalist of his time" (Adams). Gesner's work contains numerous woodcuts after his own drawings, many of which are still preserved in Basel University Library. Gesner's book also famously contains the first printed illustration of a lead pencil (f. 104v). The other seven other works, by six authors, in this composite volume were all edited by Gesner. They include the first appearance of a catalogue of a mineral collection, that of Johannes Kentmann, "stated to have been the first man in Europe to make a collection of minerals." His catalogue… Read More

Rome: Camera Apostolica, 1630. First edition. THE BIRTH OF ANALYTIC GEOMETRY - PRECEDING DESCARTES - THE COPY OF KENELM DIGBY. First edition, extremely rare, and a magnificent copy from the library of Kenelm Digby, of the most important work of the great Croatian mathematician Marino Ghetaldi (or Marin Getaldić) who, while he did not introduce coordinates, is regarded by many scholars, on the basis of the present work, as the founder of analytic geometry - Descartes' Géométrie was not published until seven years later. De resolutione is the first comprehensive work devoted to the application of the methods of symbolic algebra introduced in François Viète's epoch-making In artem analyticam isagoge (1591) (a work of only 9 pages). "The final stage in the embryonic evolution of analytic geometry was to transfer the purpose of Viète's analysis away from geometrical constructions to the solution of algebraic equations, and towards the application of the already well-known algebraic techniques to the… Read More

New Haven: Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor, 1881. the beginning of modern vector analysis. First edition, first issue (see below), of this extremely rare pamphlet which "marks the beginning of modern vector analysis" (Crowe, p. 150). "Nearly all branches of classical physics and many areas of modern physics are now presented in the language of vectors, and the benefits derived thereby are many. Vector analysis has likewise proved a valuable aid for many problems in engineering, astronomy and geometry" (ibid. p. v). The genesis of the present work was described in Gibbs's own words in an 1888 letter to Victor Schlegel: "My first acquaintance with quaternions was in reading Maxwell's E & M [i.e. Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, 1873] where quaternion notations are considerably used. I became convinced that to master those subjects, it was necessary for me to commence by mastering those methods. At the same time I saw, that although the methods were called quaternionic the idea of the quaternion was… Read More

London: Peter Short, 1600. First edition. Hardcover. EVANS 26 - THE FIRST SCIENTIFIC TREATISE ON ELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM. First edition of "the first major English scientific treatise based on experimental methods of research. Gilbert was chiefly concerned with magnetism; but as a digression he discusses in his second book the attractive effect of amber (electrum), and thus may be regarded as the founder of electrical science. He coined the terms 'electricity,' 'electric force' and 'electric attraction.' His 'versorium', a short needle balanced on a sharp point to enable it to move freely, is the first instrument designed for the study of electrical phenomena, serving both as an electroscope and electrometer. He contended that the earth was one great magnet; he distinguished magnetic mass from weight; and he worked on the application of terrestrial magnetism to navigation. Gilbert's book influenced Kepler, Bacon, Boyle, Newton and, in particular, Galileo, who used his theories [in the Dialogo] to… Read More

London: The British Computer Society Ltd, 1958. First edition. THE BIRTH OF PARALLEL COMPUTING EXCEPTIONALLY RARE INSCRIBED OFFPRINT. First edition, exceptionally rare separately-paginated offprint, inscribed by Gill, of "the first paper on parallel programming ... Subsequent papers on the subject did not appear for another seven years ... A decade later, interest in parallel programming had increased dramatically" (Dauben, p. 361). The origins of parallel programming can be traced to the early 19th century work of Charles Babbage, Luigi Menabrea, and Ada Lovelace, but it was Gill who first formalised the concept on 16 December 1957, in a lecture he delivered to the British Computer Society, published as the offered paper. He summarizes the aims of the paper as follows: "By 'parallel programming' is meant the control of two or more operations which are executed virtually simultaneously, and each of which entails following a series of instructions. This can be brought about in a single… Read More