Search Results: Titles starting with T from SOPHIA RARE BOOKS

St. Petersburg: ex Typographia Academiae Scientiarum, 1739. First edition. EULER'S MOST IMPORTANT WORK ON MUSIC. 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 Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians). "Music had occupied Euler since his youth, as is shown by his notebooks from the time in Basel, and already in about mid-1731 he was able to deliver to the Academy of Petersburg - in a certain sense as a 'mandatory assignment' - a music-theoretical work, which according to the first proofs carried the title Tractatus de musica, but only eight years later appeared in print in Petersburg as a monograph under the title Tentamen novae theoriae musicae [Attempt at a new theory of music]. This work was later followed up by Euler with yet three other memoirs, mainly dedicated to… Read More

Bologne: Stamperia di S. Tommaso d'Aquino, 1799. First edition. Soft cover. UNSOLVABILITY OF THE QUINTIC. First edition, very rare, of the first statement and proof that the general equation of degree five or more cannot be solved algebraically. This is a remarkable author's presentation copy, uncut in the publisher's printed wrappers. "One of the most fascinating results in the realm of algebra - indeed in all of mathematics - is the theorem that the general polynomial of degree ≥ 5 is not solvable by radicals. Its discovery at the very end of the 18th century went counter to the belief and expectations of mathematical scholars; it came as a great surprise and was naturally met with scepticism ... this revolutionary idea was not accepted without a great deal of resistance" (Ayoub, p. 253). An exception was the great French mathematician Augustin-Louis Cauchy, who wrote to Ruffini in 1821: "Your memoir on the general resolution of equations is a work that has always seemed to me worthy of the… Read More

Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1956. First edition. Hardcover. ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PIECES OF ANALYSIS IN THIS CENTURY" (JOHN CONWAY). 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 equations" (see below). Nash, "the most remarkable mathematician of the second half of the century" (Mikhail Gromov), is best known for his work in game theory, for which he was awarded the 1994 Nobel Prize in Economics. However, even before completing his thesis on game theory, he had become interested in the geometric objects called manifolds, which play a role in many physical problems, including cosmology. The problem Nash solved asked whether every Riemannian manifold can be isometrically embedded in Euclidean space ('isometrically' means bending… Read More

London: Macmillan, 1953. A VERY FINE SET OF THE DNA PAPERS. First edition, in the form in which they first appeared, of six crucial papers documenting the discovery of the structure of DNA and the mechanism of the genetic code. The first is Watson & Crick's paper 'Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid', which "records the discovery of the molecular structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), the main component of chromosomes and the material that transfers genetic characteristics in all life forms. Publication of this paper initiated the science of molecular biology. Forty years after Watson and Crick's discovery, so much of the basic understanding of medicine and disease has advanced to the molecular level that their paper may be considered the most significant single contribution to biology and medicine in the twentieth century" (One Hundred Books Famous in Medicine, p. 362). Watson & Crick's paper is here accompanied by their paper published one month later,… Read More

Nuremberg: Christoff Gerhard for Paul Fürst, 1661. First edition. Hardcover. ONE OF THE GREATEST MACHINE BOOKS OF ITS TIME. First edition, an exceptionally fine copy in an untouched contemporary binding, of this superbly illustrated work with 154 plates of various types of powered mills and hydraulic machinery. "Here is another of the great 'machine' books with many beautiful engravings of gunpowder mills, saw mills, water raising devices, fire engines, roasting spits and so on. Böckler was a German architect and engineer interested in masses of gearing, complex workings, and devices that even by modern standards invite awe and admiration" (Hoover). The magnificent plates are of various types of motion drives powered by intricate systems of wheels employing water, wind, weights, horse power, human muscle, or some striking combinations of these. Plates 73 and 74 depict paper-making equipment and processes, which are "the clearest delineation of the art to this date" (Hunter, The Literature of… Read More

Antwerp: Officina Plantiniana, 1591. First edition. THE FIRST MODERN WORLD ATLAS HAND-COLOURED AND HEIGHTENED IN GOLD. Fourth Latin edition of the first modern world atlas, and a copy hand-coloured and heightened in gold. First published in 1570, the Theatrum is the first atlas to contain maps printed in a uniform style and format and to display a catalogue of the authors whose source Ortelius used in the drawing of the maps. Ortelius's atlas "set a standard by which subsequent collections would be judged and compared" (Short). Even though it was the most expensive work published at the time, it proved an instant success with four versions of the first edition being printed in 1570 alone. Several editions were printed at the Officina Plantiniana at the end of the 16th century and from 1585 Ortelius began to include historical maps in a section called Paregon. The maps and plates in the Parergon may be considered "the most outstanding engravings depicting the wide-spread interest in classical… Read More

Messina: Pietro Spira, 1558. First edition. Hardcover. 'EXCESSIVELY RARE' (SOTHERAN). First edition, 'excessively rare' (Sotheran), of this collection of works on 'spherics', the geometrical and trigonometrical techniques necessary for the description of the motion of the celestial bodies, including Maurolico's Latin translations of works by four ancient Greek writers, Autolycus, Menelaus, Euclid and Theodosius, those of the first two authors constituting the first printed editions. Maurolico, one of the most original mathematicians of the 16th century, appended his own original propositions on sphaerics, probably based on astronomical observations made from 1548 to 1550 in Sicily, contained in his Sphaericorum libri II, Sermo de Sphaera, and Compendium mathematicae. He also includes a number of trigonometrical tables, including the first printed tables of secants, the Tabula Benefica, "in frank imitation of Regiomontanus's Tabula Feconda for tangents. It therefore seems that Maurolico had,… 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 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

Florence: Ex Typographia S M D., 1666. PREFIGURING THE LAW OF UNIVERSAL GRAVITATIONAL ATTRACTION. First edition, very rare, and an exceptionally fine copy, of Borelli's important work on celestial mechanics, prefiguring the Newtonian theory of universal attraction. Borelli revived "Kepler's theories on the planetary orbits ... However, unlike Kepler, he believes natural motion to be in a straight line rather than a circle, hence requiring a form of gravitational force to maintain the planets in orbit. Borelli suggests that the elliptical orbit results from a balance between an attractive force of gravity between the sun and the planet and an opposing centrifugal force" (Parkinson, Breakthroughs). "During the summer of 1665 Borelli established an astronomical observatory in the fortress of San Miniato, a pleasant site on a hill a short distance from Florence. Here he used an excellent Campani telescope and some instruments of his own design to try to determine with extreme accuracy the motions of… Read More

[Altona: Hammerich- und Heineking'schen Buchdruckerey, 1825. First edition. INSCRIBED BY FRAUNHOFER TO JOHN HERSCHEL. First edition, extremely rare separately-paginated offprint (journal pagination 31-92), inscribed by Fraunhofer to John Herschel, of this work on atmospheric optical phenomena, including haloes and parhelia. "Fraunhofer had carried out experiments in 1825 with diffraction in disordered small gaps and particles, and developed the corresponding theory. Fraunhofer (1787-1826) was the first to interpret haloes around the sun and moon as diffraction phenomena. The fog particles that produce the aureole are transparent and Fraunhofer experimented with small glass spheres of the same size distributed on a glass plate. He found the same diffraction pattern as from holes in opaque plates" (Schroder & Wiederkehr, p. 251). Fraunhofer's "family and early acquaintances were closely associated with the skilled craft tradition and particularly concerned with the glass and optical trades. As he… Read More

London: Harrison & Sons for the Royal Society, 1930. First edition. ANTIMATTER. First edition, extremely rare offprint, of Dirac's prediction of antimatter - although he did not accept it as such until a year later (see below) - and the advent of the dynamical view of the vacuum which was fundamental to the later development of quantum field theory. "The consensus among today's scientists is that Dirac's role in foreseeing the existence of the positron is one of the greatest achievements in science. In 2002, shortly after the centenary of Dirac's birth, the theoretical physicist Kurt Gottfried went further: 'Physics has produced other far-fetched predictions that have subsequently been confirmed by experiment. But Dirac's prediction of anti-matter stands alone in being motivated solely by faith in pure theory, without any hint from data, and yet revealing a deep and universal property of nature'" (Farmelo, p. 226). One troubling consequence of the famous Dirac relativistic wave equation was that it… 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

[London]: Prynted in Southwarke in Saynt Thomas hospitall, by me James Nicolson, 1537. First edition. LAND AS PRIVATE PROPERTY - A NEW ERA OF CAPITALISM. First edition of "the first English textbook on geometrical land-measurement and surveying" (Buisseret, p. 39), an outstanding copy in its original binding, and extremely rare thus. Benese's Maner of Measurynge All Maner of Lande marks an epoch, the widespread idea of land as private property. "If there is a single date when the idea of land as private property can be said to have taken hold, it is 1538. In that year a tiny volume was published with a long title that began, This boke sheweth the maner of measurynge of all maner of lande. In it, the author, Sir Richard Benese, described for the first time in English how to calculate the area of a field or an entire estate ... [T]his interest in exact measurement was also new. Until then, what mattered was how much land would yield, not its size ... Accurate measurement became important in 1538… Read More

Paris: Bachelier, 1835. POISSON'S MOLECULAR MODEL OF HEAT CONDUCTION. First edition, presentation copy inscribed by Poisson to Marie Jean Pierre Flourens, of this classic work on the mathematical theory of heat conduction. "Poisson scored a point in this work by demonstrating how the conductibility of heat in the interior of bodies, far from being contained in the notion of flux as Fourier had held, must be derived from an absorption coefficient that restores a neglected functional dimension. It was in this area that ... Poisson's mechanical model for conduction of heat was the most fruitful. That conception enabled Poisson to understand on the molecular scale the complete and correct equation for radiation of heat" (DSB). "The year ... 1835 saw the appearance of the next installment of Poisson's 'treatise of mathematical physics': his Théorie mathématique de la Chaleur, a 532-page volume put out by Bachelier in 1,000 copies. The introduction included his history of heat theory, and was followed by… Read More

Paris: Bachelier, 1853. First edition. Proving the wave theory of light. First edition, rare, and an exceptionally fine copy, of Foucault's doctoral thesis on the speed of light, in which he provides a convincing proof for the wave theory of light. In the 1840s Foucault undertook a series of optical experiments using an apparatus of rotating mirrors to determine the velocity of light. Originally developed by Charles Wheatstone to measure the velocity of electricity, the rotating mirror apparatus had been proposed as an instrument for the measurement of light in 1838 by Dominique-François Arago who failed in his own attempts to carry out the experiment. Foucault's initial work was carried out in conjunction with the physicist Armand Hippolyte Louis Fizeau (1819-1896); but a personal dispute broke up their partnership in 1847 and the two collaborators became rivals, working separately on the same problem using the same technique. Both reached the same conclusion, but while Fizeau was the first to… Read More

Milan: Imprimerie Bernardoni de C. Rebeschini, 1902. First edition. ONE OF THE GREAT ACHIEVEMENTS OF MODERN REAL ANALYSIS". 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 dissertation is one of the finest which any mathematician has ever written ... [Lebesgue's] work lay almost entirely in one field-the theory of real functions; in that field he is supreme" (Burkill, pp. 484 & 488). "Lebesgue's outstanding contribution to mathematics was the theory of integration that bears his name and that became the foundation for subsequent work in integration theory and its applications ... [In his doctoral thesis] Lebesgue began to develop his theory of integration which, as he showed, includes within its scope all the bounded discontinuous functions introduced by Baire" (DSB VIII:… Read More

Bologna: Hieronymus de Benedictis, 1518. First edition. THE FIRST SEPARATE TREATISE ON HEAD INJURIES. First edition of the first separate treatise on head injuries and their neurosurgical treatment. "The work originated in a dispute between Berengario (1460-1530) and some other physicians over the treatment of Lorenzo de' Medici, who had suffered a skull fracture in battle. Berengario described several types of skull fractures and grouped the resulting lesions according to their symptoms, drawing from his own observations, as well as contemporary medical knowledge, to cite the relation between location and neurological effect. He also discussed prognosis, diagnosis and treatment, described the technique of craniotomy and provided detailed illustrations of contemporary neurosurgical instruments. The title illustration is a typical representation of the medieval cell doctrine, which localized mental functions in the ventricles or 'cells' of the brain" (Norman). "The Tractatus was written in little more… Read More

Paris: André Wechel, 1568. First edition. Hardcover. THE PLAGUE, SMALLPOX, AND MEASLES. First edition of Paré's extremely rare treatise on the plague, smallpox and measles, based upon his own direct observations of these diseases, "one of his best works" (Thornton, p. 63). "Having passed the winter of 1564-65 on tour in Provence with Catherine de Medici and the young King Charles IX, where the ravages of a plague epidemic, added to poverty and general misery, were painfully apparent, Paré was requested by the queen mother to make whatever knowledge he possessed of the disease available to the world. He therefore puts into a book his ideas as to its cause, transmission, and treatment, and says he writes only of what he has seen by long experience during his three years at the Hôtel-Dieu, his travels, his practice in Paris, and his own slight attack while he was serving his internship. This is one of Paré's most systematic treatises; for its careful symptomatology and thorough description of… Read More

Castres: F. Barcouda, 1664. CONTAINING AN ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTION BY FERMAT. First edition in French, very rare, of two works by Castelli and Torricelli which founded the modern science of hydraulics, and including an original contribution by Fermat which is published for the first time in this work - only two other scientific works of Fermat were published in his lifetime, both of extreme rarity. "The translator of Benedetto Castelli's work on measuring running water inserted into the work brilliant note of Fermat's on a letter of Synesius. The letter itself was so obscure that Père Petau, who wrote a commentary on Synesius, admitted that he could not understand it" (from Fermat's obituary in the Journal des Sçavans, mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Obituaries/Fermat_obituary/). Fermat's contribution, the 'Observation sur Synesius,' begins as follows (our translation): "The pages which remain empty in this quire made me think of filling them with the splendid observation which I learned some days ago… Read More