Lyon & Turnbull

James Stirling, one of the foremost mathematicians of eighteenth-century Europe and a protégé of Sir Isaac Newton, played a pivotal role in the Newtonian revolution in mathematics. Renowned for his contributions to infinitesimal calculus and infinite series, he is commemorated in the Stirling numbers and Stirling’s formula.The library encompasses Stirling’s principal work, the Methodus Differentialis (1730), preserved in three remarkable forms: his holograph manuscript, his personally corrected first edition, and an English first edition with autograph letters from the translator. His notebooks, covering subjects from infinite series to the figure of the earth and ancient weights and measures, are complemented by a selection of landmark works by his contemporaries, including a large-paper copy of Newton’s Principia Mathematica, a first edition of Newton’s Analysis Per Quantitatum series, fluxiones, ac differentias, and a first edition of Colin Maclaurin’s Treatise on Fluxions (to which Stirling contributed), alongside presentation copies by Brook Taylor, Abraham de Moivre and Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis. A selection of scientific instruments, believed to have been used by Stirling, completes this extraordinary collection.The auction will be offered by Lyon &amp; Turnbull on 23 October 2025, representing one of the most significant assemblies of eighteenth-century mathematical thought ever to appear at auction.

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Lyon & Turnbull | Online Auction Specialists

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Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica

Session 1

Optice

Opticks

Lectiones opticae

Analysis per quantitatum series, fluxiones, ac differentias

A Treatise of the Method of Fluxions and Infinite Series

Genesis curvarum per umbras

Two Treatises of the Quadrature of Curves

De mundi systemate

Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John

The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended

A View of Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophy

Animadversions upon Sir Isaac Newton's Book intitled The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended

The Elements of Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophy

An Account of Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophical Discoveries

A Treatise of Fluxions

Ten autograph letters signed to James Stirling

Autograph letter signed on the priority dispute with George Campbell over the impossible roots of equations

An Essay on Perspective

Two autograph letters signed to James Stirling

Autograph letter signed to James Stirling, with additional mathematical demonstrations

Autograph letter signed to James Stirling

De Aquaeductibus Urbis Romae Commentarius

Opere

Opera omnia quae extant

Opera omnia

Dissertatio physica de Mercurio lucente in vacuo

Three autograph letters signed to James Stirling

Collection of works, 18th century

Regiae Scientiarum Academiae Historia

Oeuvres

Essays on several Curious and Useful Subjects, in Speculative and Mix'd Mathematicks

Sectionum conicarum libri v

Tables of Logarithms, for all Numbers from 1 to 102100

Conicorum libri octo

[Opera] quae supersunt omnia

Opus majus ad Clementem Quartum Pontificem Romanum

The Doctrine and Application of Fluxions

Some General Theorems of Considerable Use in the Higher Parts of Mathematics

Essay d'analyse sur les jeux de hazard

The Doctrine of Chances

Annuities upon Lives

Annuities on Lives

The Doctrine of Annuities and Reversions

Methodus incrementorum directa et inversa

Mathematical notebooks

'Methodus Differentialis sive Tractatus de Summatione et Interpolatione Serierum Infinitarum'

Methodus Differentialis sive Tractatus de Summatione et Interpolatione Serierum Infinitarum

The Differential Method

Diploma of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences

Discours sur les différentes figures des astres

Traité physique et historique de l'aurore boréale

La figure de la terre

De ortu et causis subterraneorum lib. v.

De re metallica libri xx

Archive of letters and paperwork relating to the management of Leadhills Mine

Group of works on the figure and history of the earth, 18th century

An Essay towards a Natural History of the Earth, and Terrestrial Bodyes, especially Minerals

The History and Present State of Electricity, with Original Experiments

Experiments upon Magnesia Alba, Quick-Lime, and Other Alcaline Substances

The Theory of the Earth, from the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh

Collection of manuscript notebooks on weights and measures

'Treatise on Weights and Measures and Coinage'

A Report from the Committee appointed to Enquire into the Original Standards of Weights and Measures

Miscellaneous Works of Mr. John Greaves, Professor of Astronomy in the University of Oxford

The Library of James Stirling, Mathematician

Sale Number: 878