LAGRANGE, Joseph-Louis, comte de. Méchanique analitique. 1788.
LAGRANGE, Joseph-Louis, comte de.
Méchanique analitique.
La Haye, Veuve Desaint, 1788.
4to (255x196 mm), xii-512 pages. binding : Contemporary full mottled calf, spine gilt in six compartments, title in gilt on lettering-piece, red edges. Caps and corners worn, joints split but sound. Handwritten exlibiris on half title erased.
First edition of Lagrange's masterpiece, the foundation of modern mechanics, second in importance to Newton's Principia.
Very good copy in its contemporary binding.
references: Norman [1257 : "Lagrange's 'Méchanique analytique' extended and formalized Newton's work on mechanics"], D.S.B. ["With the appearance of the 'Mechanique Analytique' in 1788, Lagrange proposed to reduce the theory of mechanics and the art of solving problems in that field to general formulas, the mere development of which would yield all the equations necessary for the solution of every problem. The [work] united and presented from a single point of view the various principles of mechanics, demonstrated their connection and mutual dependence, and made it possible to judge their validity and scope"], En Francais dans le texte [p.179 : "il unifiera la mécanique ... dans son chef d'oeuvre, 'La Mécanique Analityque' ... [c'est le] sommet et [le] couronnement unificateur de tous les efforts des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles pour construire une mécanique rationnelle embrassant toutes les branches de cette science, statique et hydrostatique, dynamique et hydrodynamique, grâce au formalisme du calcul des variations "], Horblit [61 : "Discovery of the general equations of motions of any system of bodies"], Dibner [112], Evans [10, “perhaps the most beautiful mathematical treatise in existence. It contains the discovery of the general equations of motion, the first epochal contribution to theoretical dynamics after Newton’s Principia”].
Price : 8000 €
