Mecanique Celeste - Translated with a Commentary by Nathaniel Bowditch
Boston, MA: Hilliard, Gray, Little and Wilkins, 1829-1839. 1st Edition. Quarto. Very Good. Item #18096
An extremely rare complete five-volume set of the 1st Edition in English of this pioneering 18th-19th century navigator, limited to just 250 copies at the time of publication and the first important scientific work to be published in America.
An excellent untrimmed set, rarely seen in this, largely original, condition.
Four volumes plus the Appendix to Volume III, in the original muslin. Printed paper labels. All but the Appendix re-backed in sympathetic cloth with original spines laid down. . An Ex-Library edition but very clean as such, with each volume containing just a hint of marking on the colophon pages, and an obvious mark of removed labels along the lower spines where the restoration was performed. Rubbing and general light soiling and wear to bindings, with light sunning to spines and a touch of fraying here and there along the edges. previous owner bookplate to front pastedowns.
The Vol III Appendix bears the most wear, including a detached front board, and mostly missing, frayed spine, as well as a rear board intact but holding by just the binder's cords.
"In this work LaPlace presented complete analytic solutions of the mechanical problems posed by the solar system...The masterpiece was so complete that his immediate successors add little" - Kline, Mathematical Thought
Laplace "codified and developed the theories and achievements of his predecessors, notably Newton, Euler, d'Alembert and of his contemporary Lagrange, whose Mechanique Analitique had been published in 1788." (PMM).
"Bowditch brought LaPlace's work up to date with copious notes, emendations and clarifications so substantive that the present work is more than double the size of the original" - Sotheran
A lovely and desirable set, rarely, if ever, offered complete with all five volumes.
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