The first textbook of the differential calculus

L'HOSPITAL, Guillaume Francois Antoine, Marquis de.

Analyse des infiniment petits, pour l'intelligence des lignes courbes.

Paris: l'Imprimerie Royale, par les soins de Jean Anisson, 1696.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Item #002538

4to (249 x 190 mm). [20], 181 [3] pp, including first blank, final imprint leaf, title-engraving of French royal arms, 11 numbered folding engraved plates, engraved allegorical head-pieces (one by Le Pautre), engraved tail-piece by G. Audran, engraved initials, woodcut tailpiece, one signed PLS (Pierre Le Sueur). Contemporary calf, spine with 5 raised bands, gilt-lettered and gilt-decoated in compartments (boards and extremities worn, corners bumped and scuffed, head of spine chipped). Text and plates generally very clean and unstained, light browning and occasional minor spotting to text, author's name added in script to title. Provenance: Collegii Regii Sem. Episcop. Argentin. Soc. Jesu (inscription at bottom of title-page); Lycee Imperiale Strasbourg (stamp to title-page and a few text pages). All in all a fine copy. ----

Norman 1345; Honeyman 2006; DSB VIII, p.304; Babson, Supplement, p.30. - FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST TEXTBOOK OF THE DIFFERENTIAL CALCULUS "which includes the original publication of ideas originated and developed by Leibniz and the Bernoullis. L'Hospital, who learned the new calculus from Johann 1 Bernoulli, entered into a financial arrangement with Bernoulli whereby, for an allowance, Bernoulli would communicate to him some of his (Bernoulli's) mathematical discoveries. L'Hospital freely acknownledged his indeptedness to his sources, but also claimed credit for some work which was not his own. The ninth chapter of his textbook contains what is now known as "L'Hospital's rule" for finding the limiting value of a fraction whose numerator and denominator tend to zero; however, this rule was actually the work of Bernoulli, who included it in his letter to L'Hospital of 22 July 1694." (Norman 1345).

Price: 6,500 €  *  convert currency