“Among the most influential scientists in all history” — DSB
Exposition du Systême du Monde.
Paris: Imprimerie du Cercle-Social, L’An IV de la République Française [1796].
Price: $2,700.00
About the item
First edition, with half-titles, without errata as usual. 314, (4); 312, (4) pp. 2 vols. 8vo. “Among the most influential scientists in all history” — DSB. Contemporary blue-patterned boards, contrasting spine labels. Some toning, joints just starting, heads a bit chipped. Verso of half-title in volume I bears a few bibliographical notes in pencil. Very good. PMM 252 (note).
Item #231280
“Book I begins with what any attentive observer may see if he will open his eyes to the spectacle of the heavens on a clear night with a view of the whole horizon. Book II … sets out the "real" motions of the planets, satellites and comets and gives the dimensions of the solar system. Book III is a verbal précis of the laws of motion as understood in eighteenth-century rational mechanics, with special reference to astronomy and hydrostatics. In Book IV, Laplace in effect summarized his own work in gravitational mechanics. Much of it consists of simplification of the prefatory sections to the published memoirs. The topics are perturbations in planetary motions, the shape of the earth, the attraction of spheroids and the rings of Saturn, motions of the tides and atmosphere, the moons of Jupiter, precession, and lunar motions. Only Book V contains material that Laplace had not written up in technical form or presupposed. It gives an overview of the history of astronomy and concludes with the speculation since called the nebular hypothesis and another on the nature of the universe in outer space.” — DSB.
