[Rarebooks] fa: ARCHIMEDES - OEUVRES D'ARCHIMEDE 1807 (First Edition in a Modern European Language)

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, October 9. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

http://tinyurl.com/jj6dza6

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA


Archimedes; Francois Peyrard, ed.: Oeuvres d'Archimede, traduites litteralement, avec un commentaire, par F. Peyrard... Suivies d'un Memoire du Traducteur, sur un nouveau Miroir Ardent, et d'un autre Memoire de M. Delambre, sur l'Arithmetique des Grecs. Paris: Francois Buisson, 1807. FIRST EDITION, 4to (25.5 cm), in full period tree calf with gilt-tooled borders and elaborately gilt-tooled spine; xlviii, 601, [1] pp.; with the half-title page, engraved portrait frontispiece, two folding plates, one folding table, and numerous in-text diagrams.

The first translation of Archimedes into a modern language. The translator and editor, François Peyrard (1759?-1822), librarian of the ecole Polytechnique in Paris, was a scholar, philosopher, teacher, classicist, and apparently something of a loose cannon — he nearly lost his post in 1804. In addition to the writings of Archimedes, he worked on many of the manuscripts that Napoleon brought back from Egypt or plundered elsewhere, including previously unknown works by Euclid. The present work is dedicated to Napoleon, "l'Empereur et Roi," and includes Peyrard's essay on the "miroir ardent" (burning mirror) of Archimedes.

Rubbing to the joints and edges, wear to the spine ends with some loss to the crown; contents mildly toned with some scattered mostly light foxing, else very clean and crisp, firmly and handsomely bound in period tree calf. A very nice copy of an uncommon work, complete with the portrait, folding table and two folding plates.