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Revised galley proof sheets for The Meaning of Relativity in its original German text (Vier Vorlesungen über Relativitätstheorie), with a leaf of additional text in typescript, Berlin, 26 January - 7 February and 27 April 1922
細節
Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
Revised galley proof sheets for The Meaning of Relativity in its original German text (Vier Vorlesungen über Relativitätstheorie), with a leaf of additional text in typescript, Berlin, 26 January - 7 February and 27 April 1922
18 galley proof sheets for Vier Vorlesungen über Relativitätstheorie: gehalten im Mai 1921 an der Universität Princeton. Braunschweig: Friedr. Vieweg & Sohn, 1922, printed recto only, each sheet 453 x 293mm, comprising 71 pages of text and 1 blank, plus plain card wrappers, annotated by the printer's reader, with further corrections in ink and pencil in an unidentified hand, the proofs date-stamped 26 January to 7 February 1922; with a separate typescript page comprising the last three paragraphs of the published text, dated in manuscript Berlin, 27 April 1922 (some faint stains, skillful repairs at corners and creasefolds touching one annotation, even browning); contained in a custom cloth box. Provenance: Edwin Plimpton Adams (1878-1956, American physicist, translator of the text: his name inscribed on the wrapper); Sotheby's, 18 June 2003, lot 31.
Corrected proofs of Einstein's 'definitive exposition' of relativity: the text used for the translation. 'The Meaning of Relativity ... is Einstein’s definitive exposition of his special and general theories of relativity. ...Neither before nor afterward did he offer a similarly comprehensive exposition that included not only the theory’s technical apparatus but also detailed explanations making his achievement accessible to readers with a certain mathematical knowledge but no prior familiarity with relativity theory' (H. Gutfreud, J. Renn. The Formative Years of Relativity: The History and Meaning of Einstein's Princeton Lectures, Princeton University Press, 2017). The work is in four chapters, the first giving an overview of pre-relativity physics on space and time, the second covering special relativity, and the third and fourth devoted to general relativity. The text is based on the five Stafford Little lectures given by Einstein at Princeton in May 1921: these were a centre-piece of Einstein's visit to the US in April to May 1921, which in the aftermath of the experimental confirmation of general relativity in December 1919 took place amidst a level of acclaim and publicity unprecedented for a scientist. Daily summaries were issued by Edwin Plimpton Adams, the eventual translator of the present text, and Princeton University Press contracted for the first publication of the lectures (in English) even before they took place. Einstein heavily reworked the content of the lectures between September 1921 and the submission of the manuscript to his German publishers, Vieweg, on 9 January 1922, requesting several sets of proofs so that he could forward one to Princeton for the translation. He dispatched the present corrected proof to Princeton on 20 February, though it did not arrive until 6 April; E.P. Adams had completed his translation by the following week, although the concluding paragraphs were missing and had to be supplied later in the month in the typescript present here. The font of this proof differs from that used in the first German edition, suggesting that this is an early setting: possibly the extent of the emendations required the publisher to reset the text.
The Meaning of Relativity is Einstein's most influential non-specialist work: it was to go through four further editions, with significant additions and expansions, during his lifetime, with the last completed shortly before his death in in 1955. The corrections to these proofs go beyond simple proof-reading, indicating close involvement by Einstein himself: they include the reframing of the original five lectures into four, as presented here, a set of running marginal summaries, and frequent rewriting of phrases and reframing of equations. The hand of the corrections is possibly that of Einstein's stepdaughter, Ilse, who worked as his secretary around this time and was closely involved in the publication of the lectures.
Revised galley proof sheets for The Meaning of Relativity in its original German text (Vier Vorlesungen über Relativitätstheorie), with a leaf of additional text in typescript, Berlin, 26 January - 7 February and 27 April 1922
18 galley proof sheets for Vier Vorlesungen über Relativitätstheorie: gehalten im Mai 1921 an der Universität Princeton. Braunschweig: Friedr. Vieweg & Sohn, 1922, printed recto only, each sheet 453 x 293mm, comprising 71 pages of text and 1 blank, plus plain card wrappers, annotated by the printer's reader, with further corrections in ink and pencil in an unidentified hand, the proofs date-stamped 26 January to 7 February 1922; with a separate typescript page comprising the last three paragraphs of the published text, dated in manuscript Berlin, 27 April 1922 (some faint stains, skillful repairs at corners and creasefolds touching one annotation, even browning); contained in a custom cloth box. Provenance: Edwin Plimpton Adams (1878-1956, American physicist, translator of the text: his name inscribed on the wrapper); Sotheby's, 18 June 2003, lot 31.
Corrected proofs of Einstein's 'definitive exposition' of relativity: the text used for the translation. 'The Meaning of Relativity ... is Einstein’s definitive exposition of his special and general theories of relativity. ...Neither before nor afterward did he offer a similarly comprehensive exposition that included not only the theory’s technical apparatus but also detailed explanations making his achievement accessible to readers with a certain mathematical knowledge but no prior familiarity with relativity theory' (H. Gutfreud, J. Renn. The Formative Years of Relativity: The History and Meaning of Einstein's Princeton Lectures, Princeton University Press, 2017). The work is in four chapters, the first giving an overview of pre-relativity physics on space and time, the second covering special relativity, and the third and fourth devoted to general relativity. The text is based on the five Stafford Little lectures given by Einstein at Princeton in May 1921: these were a centre-piece of Einstein's visit to the US in April to May 1921, which in the aftermath of the experimental confirmation of general relativity in December 1919 took place amidst a level of acclaim and publicity unprecedented for a scientist. Daily summaries were issued by Edwin Plimpton Adams, the eventual translator of the present text, and Princeton University Press contracted for the first publication of the lectures (in English) even before they took place. Einstein heavily reworked the content of the lectures between September 1921 and the submission of the manuscript to his German publishers, Vieweg, on 9 January 1922, requesting several sets of proofs so that he could forward one to Princeton for the translation. He dispatched the present corrected proof to Princeton on 20 February, though it did not arrive until 6 April; E.P. Adams had completed his translation by the following week, although the concluding paragraphs were missing and had to be supplied later in the month in the typescript present here. The font of this proof differs from that used in the first German edition, suggesting that this is an early setting: possibly the extent of the emendations required the publisher to reset the text.
The Meaning of Relativity is Einstein's most influential non-specialist work: it was to go through four further editions, with significant additions and expansions, during his lifetime, with the last completed shortly before his death in in 1955. The corrections to these proofs go beyond simple proof-reading, indicating close involvement by Einstein himself: they include the reframing of the original five lectures into four, as presented here, a set of running marginal summaries, and frequent rewriting of phrases and reframing of equations. The hand of the corrections is possibly that of Einstein's stepdaughter, Ilse, who worked as his secretary around this time and was closely involved in the publication of the lectures.
榮譽呈獻
Eugenio Donadoni
Senior Specialist, Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts