Name: Auction: British history Collection of works, mainly 18th century
Brand: Lyon & Turnbull
Price: 500 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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Montrose, James, Marquess of. Memoirs. Edinburgh: W. Ruddiman jun. and Company, 1756. 8vo, contemporary calf, &nbsp;[2] xxvi [2] 412 pp., engraved portrait frontispiece;&nbsp; Bolingbroke, Henry St John, Viscount. A Letter to Sir William Windham. II. Some Reflections on the Present State of the Nation. III. A Letter for Mr. Pope. London: A. Millar, 1753. 8vo, contemporary calf, half-title, etched portrait frontispiece [2] 531 pp.;&nbsp; Idem. Letters, on the Spirit of Patriotism. London: A. Millar, 1749. 8vo, contemporary calf, xi [1] 9-251 pp.;&nbsp; Mitchell, J., & Jn. Dickie. The Philosophy of Witchcraft. Paisley: Murray and Stewart, 1839. 18mo, contemporary half calf by J. Neilson of Paisley, viii 424 pp., etched frontispiece, loss to head of spine;&nbsp; [Borlase, Edmund]. The History of the Execrable Irish Rebellion. Trac'd from many preceding Acts, to the Grand Eruption The 23. of October, 1641. London: Henry Bronze, and Richard Chiswell, 1780. 4to, contemporary calf, lacking at least the folding table and errata leaf;&nbsp;and 13 others similar, all in contemporary calf (19)

British history

Collection of works, mainly 18th century

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