Search Results: Authors starting with V from SOPHIA RARE BOOKS

Rome: Bonfadino; Facio, 1606. First edition. Hardcover. INITIATED THE TRANSITION FROM CLASSICAL GREEK GEOMETRY TO MODERN MATHEMATICS. First editions of these two rare and fundamental works on determining centres of gravity - these are fascinating copies with numerous contemporary annotations in an untouched contemporary binding. In these books Valerio transformed the Archimedean 'method of exhaustion' into a series of important theorems "so that for a whole class of convex curves and solids it was no longer necessary to establish results by special methods" (Baron, p. 101). Valerio was thus able to determine for the first time the centres of gravity of a number of 'Archimedean solids,' notably the hemispheroid and hyperboloid "which is undoubtedly one of the most difficult results in classical-Renaissance mathematics" (Napolitani & Saito, p. 108). These works were also important for initiating the transition from classical Greek geometry to modern mathematics (see below) - for example, according to… Read More

Paris: J. Jacquin, 1630. First edition. Hardcover. THE FIRST FRENCH TRANSLATION AND EXPOSITION OF VIÈTE. First edition, very rare, and in an unrecorded 1629 issue (usually dated 1630), of the first vernacular translation and exposition of Viète's In artem analyticum isagoge (Tours, 1591), the earliest work on symbolic algebra, here bound with a first edition of Vaulezard's translation of Viète's Zeteticorum libri quinque (Tours, 1593), which gives examples of the application of his 'analytic art' to problems from Diophantus' Arithmetica. The third work is a scathing criticism by Vaulezard of a later translation of the Isagoge, published in 1630, by Anthoine Vasset (generally believed to be a pseudonym for Claude Hardy); in a lengthy introduction to his translation, L'algèbre nouvelle de Mr. Viète (Paris: Rocolet, 1630), Vasset criticized Vaulezard's translation, to which Vaulezard responded in his Examen (thus, Vasset's translation definitely post-dates Vaulezard's). The greatest French… Read More

Leiden: Bonaventure & Abraham Elzevier, 1646. First edition. THE GREATEST FRENCH MATHEMATICIAN OF THE 16TH CENTURY. First collected edition, rare, of the mathematical writings of François Viète (1540-1603), the greatest French mathematician of the sixteenth century, who was "the first extensively to use letters of the alphabet to represent numerical quantities" (Hutchinson's Dictionary of Scientific Bibliography, p. 690), and "the first mathematician of his age to think occasionally as mathematicians habitually think today" (Bell, p. 99). Viète used letters "both for known ... and for unknown quantities" and "this innovation, considered one of the most significant advances in the history of mathematics, prepared the way for the development of algebra" (DSB); it earned him the sobriquet "the father of algebra" (ibid.). Viète's Isagoge in artem analyticam, the earliest work on symbolic algebra, opens the present edition and is followed by 15 further tracts on algebra, numerical analysis, geometry,… Read More

Como: Gottardo da Ponte for Agostino Gallo and Aloisio Pirovano, 1521. First edition. DIBNER 170: FIRST VERNACULAR EDITION - A SUPERB COPY. First edition in the vernacular, and a superb large copy untouched in its first binding, of one of the finest illustrated books of the Italian Renaissance. "This handbook on classical architecture is the only Roman work inspired by Greek architecture that has come down to us. It is therefore important as a prime source of many lost Greek writings on the subject and as a guide to archaeological research in Italy and Greece. By exemplifying the principles of classical architecture it became the fundamental architectural textbook for centuries. Vitruvius, who lived during the time of Julius Caesar and Augustus, and probably composed his book prior to 27 BC, was basically a theoretical rather than a practising architect and his only known work is the Basilica at Fano. The 10 books of 'On architecture' deal with principles of building in general, building materials,… Read More

Florence: G. Cocchini, 1659. First edition. THE FIFTH BOOK OF APOLLONIUS' CONICS RECONSTRUCTED . First edition, and a fine copy, of Viviani's reconstruction of the fifth book of Apollonius of Perga's Conics, "one of the greatest scientific books of antiquity" (Stillwell), alongside those of Euclid and Archimedes. Of the eight books of the Conics only the first four were known in Latin until the mid-17th century. An Arabic manuscript of three of the missing four books came to light while Viviani was working on his reconstruction; this was published by Borelli two years later. The consonance between Viviani's reconstruction and Borelli's edition provoked great admiration. "Apollonius's theory of the conic sections (about 220 BC) is undoubtedly one of the masterpieces of ancient mathematics and will remain one of the great classics of mathematical literature" (Neugebauer, p. 136). To understand its importance in modern science, we need only recall Kepler's use of the Conics in his Astronomia Nova, where… Read More

Menasha, Wis. & New York: Published by the Society, 1951. First edition. THE BIRTH OF MODERN NUMERICAL ANALYSIS. First edition, journal issues in the original printed wrappers, of two of von Neumann's major papers. "The 1947 paper by John von Neumann and Herman Goldstine, 'Numerical Inverting of Matrices of High Order' (Bulletin of the AMS, Nov. 1947), is considered as the birth certificate of numerical analysis. Since its publication, the evolution of this domain has been enormous" (Bultheel & Cools). "Just when modern computers were being invented (those digital, electronic, and programmable), John von Neumann and Herman Goldstine wrote a paper to illustrate the mathematical analyses that they believed would be needed to use the new machines effectively and to guide the development of still faster computers. Their foresight and the congruence of historical events made their work the first modern paper in numerical analysis. Von Neumann once remarked that to found a mathematical theory one had to… Read More

Berlin: Julius Springer, 1926. First edition. Hardcover. SYMMETRY IN QUANTUM MECHANICS. First editions, very rare offprint issues, of the papers that laid the foundations of the role of symmetry in quantum mechanics. "Wigner was a member of the race of giants that reformulated the laws of nature after the quantum mechanics revolution of 1924-25. In a series of papers on atomic and molecular structure, written between 1926 and 1928, Wigner laid the foundations for both the application of group theory to quantum mechanics and for the role of symmetry in quantum mechanics" (David J. Gross, 'Symmetry in Physics: Wigner's legacy,' Physics Today, December 1995, pp. 46-50). Wigner was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1963 "for his contributions to the theory of the atomic nucleus and the elementary particles, particularly through the discovery and application of fundamental symmetry principles." Provenance: the last three offprints with the signature of German physicist Gregor Wentzel (1898-1978),… Read More