In the original wrappers

LAPLACE, Pierre Simon.

Exposition du Systeme du Monde.

Paris: Imprimerie de Crapelet, 1799.

2nd Edition. Soft cover. Very Good. Item #003347

An VII [1799]. 4to (270 x 215 mm). [i-vi] vii-viii, 351 [1] pp. including half title. Preserved in the original pink mottled wrappers with original printed spine label, all pages uncut, housed in a custom-made slip-case (minor chipping and fraying of paper over spine. Text light even browning, a few small brown spots in places, but in all very crisp and clean. Provenance: from a French private collection. A fine, unsophisticated copy. ----

Sparrow 123; Houzeau & Lancaster 8940 - SECOND EDITION, revised and enlarged by the author, of one of the most brilliant and successful popularizations of science ever composed. "In the sixth, and last, chapter of Book V, Laplace introduced a speculation on the origin of the solar system and another on the nature of the universe beyond its confines... The former speculation, which has quite generally come to be misnamed the nebulous hypothesis, was presented with the "misgivings" [défiance] that anything should arouse that is in no way the product of observation or calculation... If we were to find a phrase that would characterize what Laplace had in mind... it would not be 'nebular hypothesis'. It would be 'atmospheric hypothesis'. And if, further, we were to identify the context in which he raised the question at all, it would not be the evolution of history of nature. It would be the probability of cause" (DSB Suppl. I, 344). Laplace merits one of the longest articles in DSB and a 5-page section in it devoted to The System of the World was specially commissioned from Dr C.A. Whitney. - Visit our website to see more images!

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