LAPLACE, PIERRE-SIMON BOWDITCH, NATHANIEL, (Translator and Commentator) Mécanique céleste. by theMarquis De La Place, Peer of France; Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor;Member of the French Academy, of the Academy of Sciences of Paris, of the Board of Longitude of France, of the Royal Societies of London….Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; etc. Translated, with a Commentary, by Nataniel Bowditch, LL.D. Fellow of the Royal Societies of London, Edinburgh, and Dublin; of the PhilosophicalSociety Held at Philadelphia; of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences;etc.. Boston From the Press of Isaac R. Butts; Hilliard, Gray, Little, and Wilkins, Publishers,1829- 1839
First American Edition. 4to. (21.4 X 27.4 cm) 4 Volumes. Bound in modern half calf with marble boards and all edgeswith marble pattern. Collation: Volume I - [1] (blank), xxiv, 746 p., [2] (last blank); Volume II - [1] (blank), xviii, 990 p., [1]; Volume III- xxix [1]. 910 p. [108 (tables)]; Volume IV [9]- 168, xxxvi, 1018 p., [1] (blank). Frontispiece portrait of Laplace in Volume III; another of Bowditch in Volume IV, with portrait plate of Mrs. Bowditch facing dedication leaf,cover sheets. Contents: Vol. I 1st book. On the general laws of equilibrium and motion. 2nd book. On the law of universal gravitation, and the motions of the centres of gravity of the heavenly bodies.--Vol. II. 3d book. On the figures of theheavenly bodies. 4th book. On the oscillations of the sea and atmosphere. 5th book. On the motions of the heavenly bodies about their own centres of gravity.--Vol. III. 6th book. Theory of the planetary motions. 7th book. Theory of the moon. Appendix, presented by the author to the Board of longitude of France, August 17, 1808. Appendix by the translator. Tables.--Vol. IV. 8th book. Theory of the satellites of Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus. 9th book. Theory of comets. 10th book. On several subjects relative to the system of the world. Supplement to the tenth book: On capillary attraction. Supplement to the theory of capillary attraction. Condition: There is periodic foxing and occasional staining to edges of a few pages throughout the set. In Volume III there is a small paper loss near the spine of Table X not affecting the table or text on verso. Tables XI and XII have paper repairs to tears which slightly affects the visibility of some numbers in Table XI. In Volume IV there is paper repair to bottom right corners with new paper on p. 1015 and 1017 without affecting text. Pencil annotations in Volume I, presumably by Prof. Strong.
Provenance: Presentation copy to Professor Theodore Strong from translator (Bowditch) inscribed in ink on title page for Volumes I and III and to Prof. Strong from children of translator (last 4 letters cropped) in volume IV which was published after death of Bowditch. Ink inscription in Volume II is to “Philosophical Society from the Translator” It is safe to assume that this 4 volume set was in the possession of Prof. Strong with the dedicated copy of Volume II replaced by that to the Philosophical Society (of Philadelphia) of which Strong was a member. This is a very scarce provenance for the major work by Bowditch who was a self taught scholar.Nathaniel Bowditch was a remarkable man of humble origin who had to stop attending school at age 10 to assist family. In the course of the next years Bowditch managed to teach himself foreign languages, mathematics and other sciences. He was fortunate to obtain the use of the library of RichardKirwan was an Irish chemist. “A privateer from Salem, that is a sailor licensed to attack enemy shipping, had intercepted a ship carrying Kirwan's library between Ireland and England and having captured it brought Kirwan's library back to Salem where it was available and used by Bowditch from June 1791.” (J J O'Connor and E F Robertson - School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St Andrews, Scotland) O’Connor and Robertson go on to note that Bowditch “…learnt calculus so that he might study Newton’sPrincipia and in 1790 he learnt Latin which was also necessary to enable him to read Newton’s famous work. Later Bowditch learnt other languages in order to study mathematics in these languages; in particular he learnt French in1792.” Bowditch was a merchant seaman who had command of a ship on which he made a number of voyages to the far east and elsewhere. During these trips he continued to educate himself and began reading Laplace’s Traité de mécaniquecéleste. In time he read all extant volumes of Laplace’s work. The fifth volume was not published until 1825.“Bowditch's translation of the first four volumes of Laplace’s Traité de mécanique céleste was completed by 1818 but he would not publish it for many years. Almost certainly the cost of publication caused the delay, but Bowditch did not just put the work on one side after 1818 but continued toimprove it over the succeeding years. Bowditch was helped by Benjamin Peirce in this project and his commentaries doubled the length of the book.” (O’Connor and Robertson)Theodore Strong came from a large family, raised by an uncle, educated at Yale and entered professional life as a mathematics tutor at Hamilton College. Over the years he continued to develop as a mathematician and eventually was offered a professorship at Rutgers University where he taught from 1827 to 1863. Although Strong was one of the first American to teach mathematics based on Continental thinking and not English that was greatly influenced by Newton, he did not make major contributions in mathematics.“Among the honours which Strong received was election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1832) . He was a founder member of the National Academy of Science when it began in 1863.”(O’Connor and Robertson)Strong is listed in the among those individuals designed by Bowditch to receive inscribed copies of the translation. This is a very scarce work of major importance to celestial mechanics and science. Without Bowditch’s translation, access to the thoughts of Laplace was limited to the Frenchedition only. In addition this work has additional value in that Bowditch made corrections to Laplace’s original and provided appropriate credit to other scientists not done by Laplace. (Bibliotecha Mechanica, 198).
$US7500
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