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    Sale 5084

    COLLECTION DE LIVRES DE SCIENCE ET DE MEDECINE

    Paris

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    25 June 2004

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    • [FERMAT, Pierre de (1601-1665)
    Lot 72

    [FERMAT, Pierre de (1601-1665)] -- DIOPHANTUS ALEXANDRINUS (actif vers 250 apr. J.-C.). Arithmeticorum libri sex, et de numeris multangulis liber unus. Cum commentariis C.G. Bacheti V.C. & observationibus D.P. de Fermat senatoris Tolosani. Toulouse: Bernard Bosc, 1670.

    Price realised

    EUR 25,850

    Estimate

    EUR 15,000 - EUR 20,000

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    [FERMAT, Pierre de (1601-1665)] -- DIOPHANTUS ALEXANDRINUS (actif vers 250 apr. J.-C.). Arithmeticorum libri sex, et de numeris multangulis liber unus. Cum commentariis C.G. Bacheti V.C. & observationibus D.P. de Fermat senatoris Tolosani. Toulouse: Bernard Bosc, 1670.

    In-folio (340 x 226 mm). Vignette gravée par Rabault sur la page de titre, quelques diagrammes dans le texte. (Légèrement bruni.) Basane mouchetée ancienne, dos à nerfsorné, (quelques éraflures sur les plats). Provenance: cachet non identifié sur la page de titre.

    ÉDITION ORIGINALE DES COMMENTAIRES DU MATHéMATICIEN PIERRE DE FERMAT CONTENANT SON CéLèBRE THéORèME; ce problème mathématique ne fut résolu que 325 ans plus tard, en 1995, grâce à Andrew Wiles en collaboration avec plusieurs autres mathématiciens. "The remainder of Fermat's notes contain a large number of theorems on the theory of numbers, only one of which he himself proved; the rest were proven in the eighteenth century" (Norman).

    Exemplaire semblable à celui de Norman. Certains exemplaires, probablement d'un tirage postérieur, contiennent un portrait et occasionnellement un feuillet d'errata. BEL EXEMPLAIRE DANS SA PREMIèRE RELIURE. Norman 777.

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    Post Lot Text

    First edition of Fermat's commentary, which contains his famous theorem. He had written it and other observations in the margins of his copy of Bachet's 1621 editio princeps of Diophantus (see lot 63), claiming that he could demonstrate his proposition, but that the margins were too narrow to transcribe it. After his death, Fermat's eldest son Clément-Samuel published the marginalia in this Toulouse edition of Diophantus. Although simple in form, the proposition became known as the single most difficult problem in mathematics until Andrew Wiles of Princeton finally published 130 pages of calculations as proof, using the most advanced techniques of modern mathematics. Simon Singh, Fermat's Enigma (New York 1997).


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