Milestones of Science Books

LAPLACE, Pierre Simon.

Traité de Mécanique Céleste. Vol. I and II.

Paris: Crapelet for Duprat, 1799.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Item #002670

An VII [1799]. Two volumes, 4to (257 x 196 mm). xxxii, 368; [4], 382 pp., including half titles. Contemporary uniform marbled calf with rich gilt-decoration, gilt-lettered morocco spine labels and marbled endpapers (spine leather partly soiled and darkened, spine ends chipped, upper hinge of vol. I partly cracked towards head). Upper blank corner of half-title in vol. I torn. Light even browning of text, faint minor spotting mostly to outer margins, first gatherings of vol. II with small waterstain to upper blank corner. A very good set. ----

Dibner 14; Grolier/Horblit 63; PMM 252; Sparrow 125; Norman 1277 - FIRST EDITION, FIRST STATE (without the added Berlin imprint) of the first two volumes of LAPLACE'S FUNDAMENTAL WORK ON CELESTIAL MECHANICS. Published over a period of 27 years, Laplace's monumental Traite de Mecanique Celeste codified and further developed the theories and achievements of Newton, Euler, d'Alembert, and Lagrange. In the tradition of Newton's Principia, Laplace " ...applied his analytical mathematical theories to celestial bodies and concluded that the apparent changes in the motion of planets and their satellites are changes of long periods, and that the solar system is in all probability very stable" (Dibner). The first two volumes of this work appeared in 1799 and contain the laws of mechanics and their application to the motions and figures of the heavenly bodies.

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