Name: Auction: George II cased set of brass drawing instruments, Thomas Heath, London Circa 1730-50
Brand: Lyon & Turnbull
Price: 600 GBP
Availability: InStock

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 gives his name to two major discoveries in Stirling’s formula and the Stirling numbers. &nbsp;Stirling’s principal work, the Methodus Differentialis&nbsp;(1730), is present in the library in three remarkable forms: his holograph manuscript, his personally corrected first edition, and a first edition in English 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&nbsp;Per Quantitatum&nbsp;series, fluxiones, ac differentias, and a first edition of Colin Maclaurin’s Treatise on Fluxions&nbsp;(to which Stirling contributed), alongside presentation copies of works by Brook Taylor, Abraham de Moivre and Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis. The library also contains a spectacular collection of letters to Stirling from peers including Leonhard Euler, Nicolaus Bernoulli, and Gabriel Cramer. A selection of scientific instruments, believed to have been used by Stirling, completes this extraordinary collection.Buyer's Guide:&nbsp;

Cathy Tait | Head of Books & Manuscripts | Lyon & Turnbull Auctioneers

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The Library of James Stirling, Mathematician Auction

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the instruments include a large finely engraved heavy brass plotting scale, signed 'T. Heath, London', a large beam compass with two articulated magnifying lens, a brass and steel compass, an articulated brass and steel drawing pencil/pen point, a turned brass pointer, a small fitted box with two pen points, all inside a fitted mahogany box (the box 39cm long)

Circa 1730-50

 George II cased set of brass drawing instruments, Thomas Heath, London

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Margin Scheme

George II cased set of brass drawing instruments, Thomas Heath, London

Circa 1730-50

Description

Footnote