LAPLACE, Pierre Simon Marquis de (1749-1827). Mécanique Céleste... Translated, with a Commentary, by Nathaniel BOWDITCH (1773-1838). Boston: Isaac R. Butts for Hilliard, Gray, Little and Wilkins, 1829-1839.
LAPLACE, Pierre Simon Marquis de (1749-1827). Mécanique Céleste... Translated, with a Commentary, by Nathaniel BOWDITCH (1773-1838). Boston: Isaac R. Butts for Hilliard, Gray, Little and Wilkins, 1829-1839. 4 volumes, 4 o (278 x 222 mm). 3 engraved portraits of Laplace, Bowditch and his wife, numerous mathematical diagrams in the text (some pale staining). (Some spotting and occasional browning.) Contemporary half calf (publisher's?), red morocco lettering-pieces (some rubbing, a few splits along joints). FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH, with ample revisions and additions -- more than doubling LaPlace's text -- by Nathaniel Bowditch, American astronomer, mathematician and important navigational author. Bowditch's revisions of John Hamilton Moore's The Practical Navigator were so extensive that the book was eventually published under his own name as The New American Practical Navigator in 1802. "Laplace was among the most influential scientists in all history ( DSB ). He was the first to systematically apply Newtonian mechanics to the problems of Astronomy. Bowditch took on the monumental task of translating this work, and of spelling out the steps that Laplace had skipped with his famous phrase "it is easy to see." Zeitlinger states that only 250 copies were printed. Grolier/Horblit 63; Heralds of Science 14 (note); PMM 252 (note); Shaw & Shoemaker 39247; Sparrow Milestones of Science (French edition) 124. (4)
LAPLACE, Pierre Simon Marquis de (1749-1827). Mécanique Céleste... Translated, with a Commentary, by Nathaniel BOWDITCH (1773-1838). Boston: Isaac R. Butts for Hilliard, Gray, Little and Wilkins, 1829-1839.
LAPLACE, Pierre Simon Marquis de (1749-1827). Mécanique Céleste... Translated, with a Commentary, by Nathaniel BOWDITCH (1773-1838). Boston: Isaac R. Butts for Hilliard, Gray, Little and Wilkins, 1829-1839. 4 volumes, 4 o (278 x 222 mm). 3 engraved portraits of Laplace, Bowditch and his wife, numerous mathematical diagrams in the text (some pale staining). (Some spotting and occasional browning.) Contemporary half calf (publisher's?), red morocco lettering-pieces (some rubbing, a few splits along joints). FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH, with ample revisions and additions -- more than doubling LaPlace's text -- by Nathaniel Bowditch, American astronomer, mathematician and important navigational author. Bowditch's revisions of John Hamilton Moore's The Practical Navigator were so extensive that the book was eventually published under his own name as The New American Practical Navigator in 1802. "Laplace was among the most influential scientists in all history ( DSB ). He was the first to systematically apply Newtonian mechanics to the problems of Astronomy. Bowditch took on the monumental task of translating this work, and of spelling out the steps that Laplace had skipped with his famous phrase "it is easy to see." Zeitlinger states that only 250 copies were printed. Grolier/Horblit 63; Heralds of Science 14 (note); PMM 252 (note); Shaw & Shoemaker 39247; Sparrow Milestones of Science (French edition) 124. (4)
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
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