Details
FOURIER, Jean Baptiste Joseph (1768-1830). Thorie analytique de la chaleur. Paris: Firmin Didot pre et fils, 1822.
4o (260 x 205 mm). Half-title; 2 engraved plates. With cancel leaves 3/4, 4/2, 4/4, 6/2.3, 53/4, 54/1, 59/1, 59/3, 63/2, 64/3, and 65/1; c4 blank removed. (Some foxing and spotting, occasional small dampstain to lower margins.) Contemporary half black morocco, spine gilt, occasional deckle edges (joints and extremities scuffed, inner hinges cracked.) Provenance: Franois Xavier Joseph Droz (1773-1850), historian and economist, author of a popular work of political economy, conomie politique, ou principes de la science des richesses, 1841 (author's presentation inscription, "a mon tres honor et tres cher confrere monsieur joseph droz jh fourier," on title-page).
FIRST EDITION, PRESENTATION COPY, of the first mathematical study of heat diffusion and a landmark in the development of mathematical physics. Fourier showed that heat diffusion was subject to simple physical constants that could be discerned through observation and expressed mathematically. His theory of heat became one of the most important branches of general physics. Fournier's achievements were twofold: the first was his "formulation of the physical problem as boundary-value problems in linear partial differential equations, which... achieved the extension of rational mechanics to fields outside those defined by Newton's Principia;... second, the powerful mathematical tools he invented for the solution of the equations... yielded a long series of descendants and raised problems in mathematical analysis that motivated much of the leading work in that field for the rest of the century and beyond" (DSB). "Fourier's methods find their widest application to problems of vibration such as in heat, sound and in fluid motion" (Dibner).
In the latter years of his life Fournier suffered terribly from a respiratory illness contracted during the Napoleonic campaigns in Egypt, in spite of the efforts of Napoleon's personal physican J. D. Larrey, who attended him throughout his illness. His poor state of health is evident from the extreme shakiness of the inscription in this copy. Presentation copies of Fourier's great work are RARE.
Dibner Heralds of Science 154; En franais dans le texte 232; Norman 824.
4o (260 x 205 mm). Half-title; 2 engraved plates. With cancel leaves 3/4, 4/2, 4/4, 6/2.3, 53/4, 54/1, 59/1, 59/3, 63/2, 64/3, and 65/1; c4 blank removed. (Some foxing and spotting, occasional small dampstain to lower margins.) Contemporary half black morocco, spine gilt, occasional deckle edges (joints and extremities scuffed, inner hinges cracked.) Provenance: Franois Xavier Joseph Droz (1773-1850), historian and economist, author of a popular work of political economy, conomie politique, ou principes de la science des richesses, 1841 (author's presentation inscription, "a mon tres honor et tres cher confrere monsieur joseph droz jh fourier," on title-page).
FIRST EDITION, PRESENTATION COPY, of the first mathematical study of heat diffusion and a landmark in the development of mathematical physics. Fourier showed that heat diffusion was subject to simple physical constants that could be discerned through observation and expressed mathematically. His theory of heat became one of the most important branches of general physics. Fournier's achievements were twofold: the first was his "formulation of the physical problem as boundary-value problems in linear partial differential equations, which... achieved the extension of rational mechanics to fields outside those defined by Newton's Principia;... second, the powerful mathematical tools he invented for the solution of the equations... yielded a long series of descendants and raised problems in mathematical analysis that motivated much of the leading work in that field for the rest of the century and beyond" (DSB). "Fourier's methods find their widest application to problems of vibration such as in heat, sound and in fluid motion" (Dibner).
In the latter years of his life Fournier suffered terribly from a respiratory illness contracted during the Napoleonic campaigns in Egypt, in spite of the efforts of Napoleon's personal physican J. D. Larrey, who attended him throughout his illness. His poor state of health is evident from the extreme shakiness of the inscription in this copy. Presentation copies of Fourier's great work are RARE.
Dibner Heralds of Science 154; En franais dans le texte 232; Norman 824.