Beschreibung:

VON NEUMANN, John (1903-1957). A collection of nine offprints, comprising: (i) 'Eine Axiomatisierung der Mengenlehre' [drophead title], offprint from: Journal für die reine und angewandte Mathematik , vol. 154, pp. 219-240, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co, [1925]. 4° (286 x 210mm). (Occasional light marking, some slight creasing and short tears, neat repair to final leaf, fold reinforced.) (ii) 'Mathematische Begründung der Quantenmechanik', offprint from: Nachrichten der Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, Mathematisch-Physikalische Klasse , 1927, pp. 1-57, [?Göttingen: 1927]. 8° (241 x 170mm). (Slightly creased.) Original printed wrappers (edges faded, some tears and chipping causing small losses). (iii) 'Zur Hilbertschen Beweistheorie', offprint from: Mathematische Zeitschrift , vol. 26, pp. 1-46, Berlin: Julius Springer, 1927. 8° (232 x 157mm). Original printed wrappers (some light marking, minor tears and chipping). (iv) 'Ein System algebraisch unabhängiger Zahlen', offprint from: Mathematische Annalen , vol. 99, pp.134-141. 8° (231 x 156mm). Original printed wrappers (very light fading). (v) 'Über die Definition durch transfinite Induktion und verwandte Fragen der allgemeinen Mengenlehre', offprint from: Mathematische Annalen , vol. 99, pp.373-391, Berlin: Julius Springer, 1928. 8° (231 x 156mm). Original printed wrappers (light marginal fading). (vi) 'Die Axiomatisierung der Mengenlehre', offprint from: Mathematische Zeitschrift , vol. 27, pp. 669-752, Berlin: Julius Springer, 1928. 8° (232 x 156mm). Original printed wrappers (small chips and tears on spine). (vii) J. VON NEUMANN and Eugene Paul WIGNER (1902-1995). 'Zur Erklärung einiger Eigenschaften der Spektren aus der Quantenmechanik des Drehelektrons. II.', offprint from: Zeitschrift für Physik , vol. 49, pp. 73-94, Berlin: Julius Springer 1928. 8° (230 x 155mm). Original printed wrappers (very lightly marked, small chips on spine). (viii) 'Über eine Widerspruchfreiheitsfrage in der axiomatischen Mengenlehre' [drophead title], offprint from: [ Journal für Mathematik , vol. 160, pp. 227-241, 1929]. 8° (261 x 278mm). (Light browning, splitting on folds, some chipping and neatly repaired losses.) (ix) 'The Uniqueness of Haar's Measure', offprint from: Recueil mathématique. Nouvelle série , vol. I, pp. 721-734, Moscow: Academy of Sciences Publishing House, 1936. 8° (261 x 175mm). (Lightly browned.) Original printed wrappers (lightly browned). 9 works, contained in a modern cloth box. Provenance : Reinhold Baer (1902-1979, ownership inscriptions on upper wrappers of all but (ii) and (viii), one additionally inscribed 'Freiburg'; occasional pencil or ink annotations). A GROUP OF IMPORTANT OFFPRINTS BY VON NEUMANN, THE INVENTOR OF GAME THEORY AND ONE OF THE FOREMOST MATHEMATICIANS OF HIS PERIOD, FROM THE LIBRARY OF HIS SOMETIME COLLEAGUE REINHOLD BAER. Born in Budapest, Von Neumann was already recognised as a professional mathematician when he published his first paper aged nineteen. From 1927 to 1930 he was a Privatdozent at Berlin and then Hamburg, before going to Princeton, where he was appointed Professor at the Institute of Advanced Studies when it opened in 1933. He remained in America, working as a consultant on the atomic bomb at Los Alamos from 1943 and becoming a member of the Atomic Energy Commission in 1954. Von Neumann's range of mathematical interests was wide, and included game theory (which he invented), algebra, set theory, quantum mechanics, and mathematical logic. The collection of papers offered here date from the years between 1925 and 1940, 'which may be called his Sturm und Drang period, when he seemed to be advancing at breathless speed on all fronts of logic and analysis at once' (DSB XIV, p.89), and includes his third paper (i), in which 'he introduced an axiomatic system for set theory quite different from the one proposed by Zermelo and Fraenkel (it was later adopted by Gödel in his research on the continuum hypothesis' ( loc. cit .