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1798 LAPLACE ~ CELESTIAL MECHANICS ~ First Edition
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1798 LAPLACE ~ CELESTIAL MECHANICS ~ First Edition
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T R A I T É D E MÉCANIQUE CÉLESTE, P A R . P. S. . L A P L A C E , Membre de l'Institut national de France, et du Bureau des Longitudes. . DE L'IMPRIMERIE DE CRAPELET. A . P A R I S, Chez J. B. M. DUPRAT, Librarire pour les Mathématiques , quai des Augustins. ___________________ A N . V I I. ~ THE FIRST EDITION ~ Volume I. Chez J. M. B. Duprat, VII (i.e. 1798/9) Volume II. J. M. B. Duprat, VII (i.e. 1798/9) Volume III. Chez J. M. B. Duprat, XI--1802 Volume IV. Chez Courcier, XIII--1805. Contemporary half calf, recently very nicely rebacked. Some light damp staining and slight spotting to the third volume, and occasional light spotting elsew, overall a very good set. Ownership inscription to front endpaper of Geo. Fisher . Possibly GEORGE FISHER (1794-1873), English astronomer. He apparently received little early education yet through diligence and enthusiam he won the support and influence of several eminents scientific figures including Humphrey Davy and Sir Joseph Banks. He was selected as astronomer on Parry's expedition for exploring the north-west passage in 1821-3. And contributed a scientific appendix to Parry's Journal of a Second Voyage for the Discovery of a North-West Passage. Fisher was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1825, and of the Astronomical Society in 1827, acted several times as vice-president of the latter body. Four quarto volumes, they measure approximately 25.5cm (10") x 20.5cm (8") x 13cm (5¼"). Pagination pp. Volume 1: xxxii, 368; Vol. 2. [2], 382; Vol. 3. xxiv, 303, 1, 24; Vol. 4. xl, 347, [2], [1, blank], [1], 65, [1, blank], 78, [2]. Texts collate complete with the supplementary material to volumes three and four, but without the supplementary volume published 1825. PIERRE-SIMON MARQUIS DE LAPLACE (1749-1827), French mathematician, astronomer, and physicist, best known for his investigations into the stability of the solar system. He came from a poor family, but in later years he chose to say little of his early life. He attended the military academy at Beaumont, w his mathematical abilities were quickly recognized. In 1766 he entered the University of Caen, but a letter of recommendation from D'Alembert helped secure a professorship at the École Militaire, w he taught from 1769 to 1776. Napolean made him a count and appointed him minister of the interior. However, 'after standing his eccentricities for six months, the consul dismissed him with the remark that he carried into his work the spirit of the infinitesimal.' Laplace made important contrbutions to science, notably in the field of probability, but his most important work was in celestial mechanics. 'In 1773 he began his major lifework--applying Newtonian gravitation to the entire solar system--by taking up a particularly troublesome problem: why Jupiter's orbit appeared to be continuously shrinking while Saturn's continually expanded. The mutual gravitational interactionswithin the solar system were so complex that mathematical solution seemed impossible; indeed, Newton had concluded that divine intervention was periodically required to preserve the system inequilibrium. Laplace announced the invariability of planetary mean motions. This discovery in 1773, the first and most important step in establishing the stability of the solar system, was the most important advance in physical astronomy since Newton. It won him associate membership in the French Academy of Sciences the same year. Laplace's magnum opus, the Traité de mécanique céleste , translates Newton's Principia into the language of the differential calculus, and completes parts of which Newton had been unable to fill in the details. He summarized the results obtained by his mathematical development and application of the law of gravitation. He offered a complete mechanical interpretation of the solar system by devising methods for calculating the motions of the planets and their satellites and their perturbations, including the resolution of tidal problems. Laplace presented Napoleon with a cop... 
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