LAPLACE, Pierre Simon. Mécanique Céleste, translated with a commentary by Nathaniel Bowditch, Boston: from the press of Isaac R. Butts, Hilliard, Gray, Little, and Wilkins, publishers, 1829-39, 4 volumes, 4°, FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH, limited to 250 copies, 3 engraved portraits (dampstains, particularly affecting the portraits, and the titles and preliminaries to vols. I, III & IV, portrait of Nathaniel Bowditch torn at lower margin, final leaves of vol. I slightly damaged at outer margin, some marginal soiling, library markings), modern blue buckram. [Honeyman 1925; Sotheran I, 2444: "the only English translation of Laplace's chef d'oeuvre ... noteworthy as the first great scientific work issued in the United States"; Sparrow 124] Provenance: Miss Mariah A. Willard, Mr. D. G. Willard (contemporary ownership inscription)