Traité de Mécanique Céleste

1827. Folding engraved plate in Vol. IV. Five vols. Large 4to (281 x 200 mm.), cont. polished calf, sides panelled in blind & gilt, spines decorated in blind & gilt, a.e.g.. Paris: J.B.M. Duprat & others, An VII [1798]-1825-1827.

First edition, a magnificent set on large and fine paper, complete set with all the supplements. This is the only large and fine paper set I have ever seen on the market.

In this monumental and fundamental astronomical work, Laplace — the “Newton of France” — codified and developed the theories and achievements of Newton, Euler, d’Alembert, and Lagrange. “Laplace maintained that while all planets (truncated) revolve round the sun their eccentricities and the inclinations of their orbits to each other will always remain small. He also showed that all these irregularities in movements and positions in the heavens were self-correcting, so that the whole solar system appeared to be mechanically stable. He showed that the universe was really a great self-regulating machine and the whole solar system could continue on its existing plan for an immense period of time. This was a long step forward from the Newtonian uncertainties in this respect…Laplace also offered a brilliant explanation of the secular inequalities of the mean motion of the moon about the earth — a problem which Euler and Lagrange had failed to solve…He also investigated the theory of the tides and calculated from them the mass of the moon.”–Printing & the Mind of Man 252.

A magnificent set, preserved in two boxes. Our set has the first state of the titles of Vols. I and II and all the supplements (the supplement in Vol. V, issued in 1827, is on regular paper).

❧ Dibner, Heralds of Science, 14. D.S.B., XV, pp. 273-403. En Français dans le Texte 201. Horblit 63. Roberts & Trent, Bibliotheca Mechanica, pp. 197-98. Sparrow, Milestones of Science, 125. (Inventory #: 5481)