Milestones of Science Books

EULER, Leonhard.

Mechanica sive motus scientia analytice exposita.

St. Petersburg: Academy of Sciences, 1736.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Item #003351

Two volumes. 4to (249 x 188 mm). [16] 1-232, 225-480 (i.e., 488); [8], 500 pp. Engraved vignette on dedication leaf, woodcut head- and tail pieces, and 32 engraved folding plates, some mispaginations. Contemporary half calf over marbled boards, spine with 5 raised bands richly gilt in compartments (lettering pieces gone, partial fraying and chipping of spine ends, wear and chipping of board edges, corners scuffed). Text and plates with light even browning and occasional spotting mostly to outer margins, few pages dust-soiled at top margin, short pencil corrections and rare annotations in places, light occacional unobtrusive dampstains, including to the final 5 plates in vol. I, ink smudges on p. 389 in vol. I, numbering added in pencil to diagrams of plates in vol. II, offset plate VIII in vol. II slightly shaved at fore-margin, clean tear to lower blank margin of leaf E4 in vol. II. Provenance: mathematician Paul Stäckel (booklate to front-pastedowns), 19th century ownership inscription to first flyleaf of both volumes. A very good, wide-margined set. ----

Roberts-Trent, Bibliotheca Mechanica, p.103-104; DSVB IV, p.480; Enestrom 15 and 16; Roller-Goodman I, 374; Honeyman 1058. - FIRST EDITION of Euler's seminal work on mechanics. Mechanica won the praise of many leading scientists of the time: Johann Bernoulli said of the work that 'it does honor to Euler's genius and acumen,' while Lagrange in his own Mécanique analytique acknowledges Euler's mechanics to be 'the first great work where Analysis has been applied to the science of motion.' In the introduction he outlines a program of studies covering every branch of science, but it is his focus on the systematic application of analytical methods that sets the book apart by laying down a foundation of analytical mechanics. Euler was a talented Swiss mathematician, astronomer, physicist and engineer, who studied at the University of Basel, but spent most of his life in St. Petersburg, teaching at the Imperial Russian Academy of Sciences, and later taking a post at the Berlin Academy. He eventually fell out of favor with the Prussian court and returned to St. Petersburg. He made important discoveries in mathematics, contributing to the development of infinitesimal calculus, along with the Bernoullis, with whom he was closely acquainted. He also made considerable contributions to analytic number theory, graph theory, empirical logic and even music theory. Much of today's mathematical notation was introduced in Euler's work. "Euler was the first to appreciate the importance of introducing uniform analytic methods into mechanics, thus enabling its problems to be solved in a clear and direct way" (DSB). - Visit our website to see more images!

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