EINSTEIN, Albert. An important and comprehensive collection of works by Einstein, comprising
No VAT on hammer price or buyer's premium.
EINSTEIN, Albert. An important and comprehensive collection of works by Einstein, comprising

Details
EINSTEIN, Albert. An important and comprehensive collection of works by Einstein, comprising

(i) JOURNALS. Annalen der Physik. Leipzig: Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1901-1918. Fourth series, volumes: 4; 8-9; 11; 14; 17-20; 22-23; 26; 28; 33-35; 38; 40; 47; 51; 55. Parts: volume 21 (pt 3); 37 (pt 4); 49 (pt 7). 8°. Various bindings, individual parts in original wrappers--Sitzungsberichte der königlich preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Berlin: The Royal Academy of Sciences, 1915-1920. 4°. Original wrappers. Issues: 1916, XLVIII-XLIX; 1916, XXXII-XXXIII and XLII-XLIII; 1917, XLV-XLVII; 1918, VI-VIII, XII-XIV and XXIV-XXV; 1919, XX; 1920 XVIII-XXII. With 24 other volumes of journals containing contributions by Einstein.

(ii) OFFPRINTS FROM JOURNALS. A. EINSTEIN. 'Bemerkung zu dem Gesetz von Eötvös'. Leipzig: Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1911, offprint from: Annalen der Physik, vol. 34, pp. 165-169. 8°. Original wrappers. FIRST SEPARATE EDITION. PRESENTATION COPY -- A. EINSTEIN and M. GROSSMANN. 'Entwurf einer Verallgemeinerten Relativitätstheorie und einer Theorie der Gravitation'. Leipzig and Berlin: B.G. Teubner, 1913, offprint from: Zeitschrift für Mathematik und Physik, vol. 62. 8°. Original wrappers, unopened. FIRST SEPARATE EDITION -- A. EINSTEIN and M. GROSSMANN. 'Physikalische Grundlagen einer Gravitationstheorie. Mathematische Begriffsbildungen zur Gravitationstheorie'. Zurich: Zürcher & Furrer, 1913, offprint from: Vierteljahrsschrift der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft in Zürich, vol. LVIII, pp.284-297, 8°. Original wrappers. FIRST SEPARATE EDITION. PRESENTATION COPY -- A. EINSTEIN and M. GROSSMANN. 'Kovarianzeigenschaften der Feldgleichungen der auf die verallgemeinerte Relativitätstheorie gegründeten Gravitationstheorie'. Leipzig: B.G. Teubner, 1914, offprint from: Zeitschrift für Mathematik und Physik, vol. 63pp. 215-225. 8°. Original wrappers. FIRST SEPARATE EDITION -- A. EINSTEIN. 'Zur allgemeinen Relativitätstheorie. (Mit Nachtrag.)'. Berlin: Georg Reimer, 1915, offprint from: Sitzungsberichte der königlich preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1915, pp. 778-801. 8°. Original wrappers. FIRST SEPARATE EDITION. PRESENTATION COPY -- A. EINSTEIN. 'Erklärung der Perihelbewegung des Merkur aus der allgemeinen Relativitätstheorie'. Berlin: Georg Reimer, 1915, offprint from: Sitzungsberichte der königlich preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1915, pp. 831-839. 8°. Original wrappers. FIRST SEPARATE EDITION. PRESENTATION COPY. With 20 other offprints from Sitzungsberichte der königlich preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1916-1932, original wrappers and one other offprint.
(iii) BOOKS. A. EINSTEIN, H.A. LORENTZ and H. MINKOWSKI. Das Relativitätsprinzip. Eine Sammlung von Abhandlungen. Leipzig and Berlin: B.G. Teubner, 1913. 8°. Half-tone portrait frontispiece of Minkowski. Original wrappers. FIRST COLLECTED EDITION -- A. EINSTEIN. Über die spezielle und die allgemeine Relativitätstheorie (Gemeinverständlich). Braunschweig: Friedr. Vieweg & Sohn, 1917. 8°. Original wrappers. FIRST EDITION -- A. EINSTEIN. Äther und Relativitätstheorie. Berlin: Julius Springer, 1920. 8°. Original wrappers. FIRST EDITION -- A. EINSTEIN. Vier Vorlesungen über Relativitätstheorie. Braunschweig: Friedr. Vieweg & Sohn, 1922. 8°. Original wrappers. With 18 other books by or with contributions by Einstein.

A COMPREHENSIVE COLLECTION OF EINSTEIN'S WORK CONTAINING ALL OF HIS KEY PAPERS IN THE FIELDS OF QUANTUM THEORY, THE THEORIES OF SPECIAL AND GENERAL RELATIVITY, AND THE UNIFIED FIELD THEORY. 'WHEN EINSTEIN'S TOTAL WORK IN PHYSICS IS CONSIDERED, IT CAN BE SAID THAT HIS ACHIEVEMENTS ARE RIVALED ONLY BY THOSE OF SIR ISAAC NEWTON. Both scientists were guided in their work by unique insights into the nature of physical reality and both represent the utmost fulfillment of the creative imagination in science' (DSB IV, p. 332).

The present collection of Einstein's work in journal, offprint, and volume form charts the breadth and depth of one of the most penetrating of scientific minds. Much of Einstein's work was first published in journals (particularly the Annalen der Physik, where his first twenty-one publications appeared) and the collection offers the journal issue of these papers, often accompanied by an offprint issue. Due to their fragile nature, many of these offprints are becoming increasingly scarce on the market -- particularly those from the years before 1914 -- and this collection contains several of these rare pieces printed for presentation by the author, bearing a presentation statement on the upper wrapper: as Weil notes, 'it seems certain that there were few [offprints] before 1914. They were given only to the author, and mostly 'Überreicht vom Verfasser' (Presented by the Author) is printed on the wrapper' (quoted in Norman 691).

Amongst these volumes of Annalen der Physik, the justly-celebrated volume 17 of 1905 stands out, which contained three ground-breaking papers in separate fields: 'Über einen die Erzeugung und Verwandlung des Lichtes betreffenden heuristischen Gesichtspunkt (9 June 1905); 'Über die von der molekularkinetischen Theorie der Wärme geforderte Bewegung von in ruhenden Flüssigkeiten suspendierten Teilchen' (18 July 1905); 'Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter Körper' (26 September 1905). The first of these proposed that light should be considered as a collection of individual particles of energy, which Einstein termed 'light quanta'; from this hypothesis he extrapolated solutions to unsolved questions of black-body radiation, fluorescence, photoionisation and the photoelectric effect. So important were the ideas proposed in this paper that it was for this, together with his 1906 paper 'Zur Theorie der Lichterzeugung und Lichtabsorbtion' (present here in Annalen der Physik, vol. 20), that Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921.

The second paper of 1905, 'Über die von der molekularkinetischen Theorie der Wärme geforderte Bewegung von in ruhenden Flüssigkeiten suspendierten Teilchen' (18 July 1905), deals with the question of Brownian motion, first raised by Robert Brown in 1828, and proposes an atomic hypothesis to interpret the problem, which was verified experimentally by Jean Perrin in 1909. The third paper, 'Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter Körper', was Einstein's first paper on the subject of special relativity: 'Two revolutionary conclusions were reached in this paper: first, that all motion was relative to the inertial system in which it is measured; and, second, that matter and energy are equivalent. The presentation of these theories, which were proved some years later, constituted nothing less than a radical reinterpretation of the universe, dethroning the Newtonian view which had ruled for over two centuries' (Norman 691).

Although Weil states that the offprints were printed in small quantities before 1914, the print-runs remained small until the experimental confirmation of the theory of General Relativity by Sir Arthur Eddington following the eclipse of 1919; after this point, public interest demanded larger editions and the offprints become more common. Presentation copies of pre-1919 offprints in the collection include 'Bemerkung zu dem Gesetz von Eötvös' (1911), 'Physikalische Grundlagen einer Gravitationstheorie. Mathematische Begriffsbildungen zur Gravitationstheorie' (1913), 'Zur allgemeinen Relativitätstheorie. (Mit Nachtrag.)' (1915), and 'Erklärung der Perihelbewegung des Merkur aus der allgemeinen Relativitätstheorie' (1915). These are accompanied by 23 other offprints, which trace the progress of Einstein's work on the theories of Special Relativity and General Relativity, and the Unified Field Theory, dealing with different aspects of the theories and problems thrown up by them.

A full listing of the collection and a condition report is available from the Department upon request.
Special notice
No VAT on hammer price or buyer's premium.

More from VALUABLE PRINTED BOOKS & MANUSCRIPTS

View All
View All