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Theoria motuum planetarum et cometarum. Berlin: Ambrose Haude, 1744.
Details
EULER, Leonhard (1707-1783)
Theoria motuum planetarum et cometarum. Berlin: Ambrose Haude, 1744.
First edition of Euler's first treatise on astronomy, ‘a fundamental work on calculation of orbits’ (DSB). Stimulated by the appearance of two great comets in 1742 and 1744, Euler developed new methods to determine the orbits of planets and comets. His first major contribution in the present work was to the ‘two-body problem’, the problem of determining the motion of two spherical bodies under their mutual gravitational attraction (such as the Sun and a planet). Newton had attacked the two-body problem using geometrical methods in the Principia, and preliminary analytical results had been presented in 1734 by Daniel Bernoulli, but it was Euler in the present work who gave the first complete analytical solution. Houzeau & Lancaster 11948.
Quarto (224 x 181mm). Engraved frontispiece, title vignette and 4 folding engraved plates, with A4 as frontispiece and pp.7-8 omitted as usual. Contemporary marbled boards backed and cornered in red paper, paper spine labels lettered in manuscript (spine faded and partly chipped, light wear). Provenance: Société de Lecture, Geneva (ink stamp on title, possible associated ink lettering on title and printed ‘Mathématiques’ label on rear pastedown); housed in modern morocco-backed box.
Theoria motuum planetarum et cometarum. Berlin: Ambrose Haude, 1744.
First edition of Euler's first treatise on astronomy, ‘a fundamental work on calculation of orbits’ (DSB). Stimulated by the appearance of two great comets in 1742 and 1744, Euler developed new methods to determine the orbits of planets and comets. His first major contribution in the present work was to the ‘two-body problem’, the problem of determining the motion of two spherical bodies under their mutual gravitational attraction (such as the Sun and a planet). Newton had attacked the two-body problem using geometrical methods in the Principia, and preliminary analytical results had been presented in 1734 by Daniel Bernoulli, but it was Euler in the present work who gave the first complete analytical solution. Houzeau & Lancaster 11948.
Quarto (224 x 181mm). Engraved frontispiece, title vignette and 4 folding engraved plates, with A4 as frontispiece and pp.7-8 omitted as usual. Contemporary marbled boards backed and cornered in red paper, paper spine labels lettered in manuscript (spine faded and partly chipped, light wear). Provenance: Société de Lecture, Geneva (ink stamp on title, possible associated ink lettering on title and printed ‘Mathématiques’ label on rear pastedown); housed in modern morocco-backed box.
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