Details
HUYGENS, Christian (1629-1695). Horologium Oscillatorium. Paris: F. Muguet, 1673.
2° (315 x 204mm). Ornamental royal armorial device on title, woodcut head- and tailpieces, initials, one full-page diagram illustrating the pendulum, 100 diagrams in the text. (Very occasional light spotting, smudge on recto of final leaf.) Contemporary calf (slightly worn, back cover detached). Provenance: Malcolm Gardner (booklabel).
FIRST EDITION of Huygens's magnum opus on harmonic oscillation, the first mathematical analysis of the pendulum. Huygens invented the pendulum clock in 1656, describing it in a work published in 1658. The pendulum clock, as opposed to the cogwheel clock dependent on balances, enabled accurate measurement of time; its application to navigation in measuring longitude was of particular importance to the sea-faring Dutch nation of the 17th-century. Huygens continued his research into harmonic oscillation, resulting in the present work. "It was the most original work of this kind since Galileo's Discorsi" (PMM). Its central exposition is on the tautochronism of the cycloid, which Huygens himself believed to be "the most fortunate finding which ever befell me" (DSB). It also contains a wealth of mathematical theories and methods on dynamics and the properties of the curve and circular motion.
One of Europe's greatest mathematicians, Huygens also contributed to the fields of astronomy, physics, and mechanistic philosophy. He built on observations of Saturn made by Galileo and discovered its first satellite; he improved the telescope; he developed a theory of the cause of gravity; and he expounded a pulse theory of light. Horologium Oscillatorium was written under the patronage of Colbert and Louis XIV, and it is dedicated to Louis XIV. DSB VI, 597-612; Horblit 53; PMM 154.
2° (315 x 204mm). Ornamental royal armorial device on title, woodcut head- and tailpieces, initials, one full-page diagram illustrating the pendulum, 100 diagrams in the text. (Very occasional light spotting, smudge on recto of final leaf.) Contemporary calf (slightly worn, back cover detached). Provenance: Malcolm Gardner (booklabel).
FIRST EDITION of Huygens's magnum opus on harmonic oscillation, the first mathematical analysis of the pendulum. Huygens invented the pendulum clock in 1656, describing it in a work published in 1658. The pendulum clock, as opposed to the cogwheel clock dependent on balances, enabled accurate measurement of time; its application to navigation in measuring longitude was of particular importance to the sea-faring Dutch nation of the 17th-century. Huygens continued his research into harmonic oscillation, resulting in the present work. "It was the most original work of this kind since Galileo's Discorsi" (PMM). Its central exposition is on the tautochronism of the cycloid, which Huygens himself believed to be "the most fortunate finding which ever befell me" (DSB). It also contains a wealth of mathematical theories and methods on dynamics and the properties of the curve and circular motion.
One of Europe's greatest mathematicians, Huygens also contributed to the fields of astronomy, physics, and mechanistic philosophy. He built on observations of Saturn made by Galileo and discovered its first satellite; he improved the telescope; he developed a theory of the cause of gravity; and he expounded a pulse theory of light. Horologium Oscillatorium was written under the patronage of Colbert and Louis XIV, and it is dedicated to Louis XIV. DSB VI, 597-612; Horblit 53; PMM 154.