Rare Book Display for Students in Analysis I

All books are in the USMA Special Collections.

These books are arranged, more or less, in the order that we encountered them in class. Then there are a few special treats at the end.

1822
Fourier, Jean Baptiste Joseph, baron, (1768-1830)
Théorie analytique de la chaleur
QC254 .F55 1822

We began our course with chapter 3, p. 159. The famous Fourier series is on p. 175. His immediate concern is convergence. For a synopsis of this book, and 76 others, see Landmark Writings in Western Mathematics, 1640-1940 (2005), edited by Ivor Grattan-Guinness.

Euler, Leonhard, 1707-1783,  Introduction a l'analyse infinitesimale, par Leonard Euler; tranduitee du Latin en Francais, avec des notes & eclaircissements, par J. B. Labey. 1796, 1797, 2 volumes. QA35 .E9 1796

 Thayer binding. This is one of Euler's most famous works. The Latin original, Introductio in analysin infinitorum, was published in 1748. The contents of Euler's seven (yes 7) volumes on the calculus are much closer to what we teach today than are the original work of Newton and Leibniz or the rigorous work of Cauchy and Weierstrass. In Euler's calculus the fundamental objects of study are functions; this does not seem innovative but earlier the concept of a curve was fundamental. Here the trigonometric functions on the unit circle were disseminated to the mathematical community. The logarithmic and exponential functions are treated as inverse functions (Chapter 8, §126, p.92 of the French). Here you will find his summation of the squares of the reciprocals of the integers. This is Euler's "pre-calculus" book --- he only uses algebraic methods, no infinitesimal ones --- The differential and integral calculus were treated in 2 + 3 additional volumes. Euler's formula is on p. 102, §138.

Euler, Leonhard, 1707-1783,  Institutionum calculi integralis, Petropoli : Impensis Academiae Imperialis Scientiarum, 1768-1770. 3 vols: QA308 .E88 1768.

Although Euler has discussed the trigonometric functions in several earlier works, we see here why he really needs them: to solve first order linear differential equations with constant coefficients. See §1132, p. 392.

It is very likely that Ferdinand Hassler sold this book and other Latin titles to the Academy in 1825.

1713
Bernoulli, Jakob (1654-1705)
Ars conjectandi.
QA3 .B485 1713

This is a seminal work on probability; yet it is the appendix on infinite series that is most interesting to us. The Bernoulli numbers first appear on p. 97, where formulas for sums of powers of integers are given (up to the 10th power). The term Bernoulli's numbers was used for the first time by Abraham De Moivre (1667-1754) and also by Leonhard Euler (1707-1783) in 1755 (Institutiones calculi differentialis, Part 2, section 155. E212). The first part of the work has been translated into English in 2006 by Edith Sylla, who, incidentally, is the great-great-granddaughter of Jared Mansfield, the first professor of mathematics at West Point.

1730
L'Hospital, marquis de (Guillaume François Antoine)  (1661-1704)
The method of fluxions both direct and inverse: the former being a translation from the celebrated Marquis De L'Hospital's Analyse des infinements petits / and the latter supply'd by the translator, E. Stone.
 QA302 .L613 1730

This is a double translation of the very first (1696) calculus book, L'Hospital's Analysis of the Infinitely Small for the Study of Curved Lines; The French is translated into English and the Leibnizian notation into Newtonian. L'Hospital's famous rule is on p. 191.

1742
Bernoulli, Jean, 1667-1748.  Johannis Bernoulli ... opera omnia, tam antea sparsim edita, quam hactenus inedita .. , Lausannæ & Genevæ, sumptibus M. M. Bousquet & sociorum.
QA3 .B52 vol. 3

These four volumes constitute the collected works of Johann Bernoulli. The third volume contains his lectures on the integral calculus. These were given in Paris in 1691-1692 to L'Hospital and a footnote on p. 387 states that his lectures on the differential calculus were published by L'Hospital in the first calculus book, 1696. What he does not say is that L'Hospital hired him to do mathematics for him.

We will take special note of volume 3 which contains Bernoulli's lectures on the integral calculus and its footnote dealing with L'Hospital's text.  

1840
Moigno, abbé (François Napoléon Marie), (1804-1884)

The phrase "indeterminate form" is used here, the earliest use of the phrase that I know of.

Lagrange, Joseph Louis, 1736-1813. Théorie des fonctions analytiques, contenant les principes du calcul différentiel, dégagés de toute considération d'infiniment petits ou d'évanouissans, de limites ou de fluxions, et réduits à l'analyse algébrique des quantités finies, Paris, Impr. de la République, prairial an v [1797]. Thayer collection: QA300 .L2 1797. Reprinted in Journal de l'École polytechnique, 9. cahier, t. III (2 p. l., viii, 276 p.)

The title of this work sets the theme: to develop calculus without infinitesimals, limits or fluxions; that is to say, using only the tools of algebra.  It is in this work that Lagrange introduces the  f '(x)  notation for derivatives, p. 14. He uses series to find derivatives; see, e.g., the derivation of the derivative of sine and cosine, p. 27-28. This volume was donated to the academy to honor Williston Fish, USMA 1881. It has a typical early nineteenth century binding and was once owned by Michael Chasles, an excellent geometer.

Journal de l'Ecole polytechnique. Paris : École polytechnique, 1798-

These volumes were purchased by Sylvanus Thayer and McRee in Paris in 1814-1817. The binding is typical of the "Thayer Books"; note the stamp on the cover "U. S. Military Academy West-Point." These volumes are loaded with papers by famous individuals, for example, Volume 9 (1813) contains an early paper of Cauchy proving that there are but five regular polyhedra (p. 68ff). Each volume has two "cahier"s, so be careful in giving references.

1627
Johannes Kepler
Tabulae Rudolphinae

The frontispiece of this work is a stunning classic which tells the whole history of astronomy. A book dealer's description in the book indicates that it was probably purchased in the early twentieth-century by Holden.

Staff Records, June 1905.

We shall look for George Patton's name. He was 109/125 in French (p. 197). "Cadet Patton was of doubtful proficiency in Mathematics (conic sections) (pp. 198, 201). "It was then moved that it be recommended to the War Department that Cadet Paton be turned back to join the incoming 4th class. Carried. Ayes 11, Noes 1, Absent 1." (p. 202). Finally, on p. 216 we find the "Fourth Class arranged according to General Merit." Patton was deficient in mathematics and had scores of 44.22 out of 50 in English, 57.05 out of 75 in French, 39.03 out of 40 in Drill and Regulations, and 46.51 in Conduct. Combining these he was "Deficient" in "General Merit" (p. 216).

1817-1818 
Delafield, Richard, 1798-1873, USMA 1818,
Drawings in Descriptive Geometry.

This volume of drawings was a new acquisition in 1990. The volume is about 24'' wide and 12'' high and about half an inch thick. It bears a paper label indicating that it is "The first book of geometry used in the United States," a claim which is almost certainly false, for Euclid would have been used previously at, e.g., Harvard. The front endpaper carries a comment closer to the truth: "This book was the first book ever gotten up in Descriptive Geometry in US. Prof. Crozet used no textbook, instructing his pupils by lecture only." There is an inventory of these drawings by Cadet Richard C. Bell, USMA `93. These should be matched up with Crozet's book on descriptive geometry. Delafield never taught at the academy; this is further evidence that these are cadet drawings; some of them are dated 1818 (e.g., a drawing of "The ionic order" is dated march 31st 1818).

Grant, Ulysses S., 1822-1885, USMA 1843.   Two drawings in descriptive geometry.

He uses U. H. in his signature and the drawings are also signed by Professor Church.

Gregorius a Sancto Vincentio, 1585-1667, P. Gregorii a Sto Vincento Opvs geometricvm qvadratvrae circvli et sectionvm coni, decem libris comprehensum, Antverpiae, Apvd Ioannem et Iacobvm Mevrsios, 1647.  QA444 .S155 1647 

This large volume (over 1250 pages) was written in the 1620s but his Jesuit superiors refused to let him publish it then. It contains the first presentation of the summation of infinite geometric series, a method of trisecting angles using infinite series, and the result Saint Vincent considered his most important: a method for squaring the circle. Alas, this result was incorrect, as Huygens first pointed out in 1651. Although this error destroyed his reputation, the work contains much of value which influenced Leibniz, Wallace, and Wren. The most important result for the calculus is a surprising connection between the natural logarithm and the rectangular hyperbola, namely the idea that we use today to define the logarithm. 

The frontispiece of the Opus geometricum is the most magnificent allegory in all of mathematical publishing. In the foreground, Archimedes is drawing the diagram for his proof of the area of a circle. Cowering attentively behind him is Euclid, who is looking on in awe. The character anachronistically wearing swim goggles has not been identified. Wading in the estuary is Neptune, whose banner carries the slogan "Plus ultra," there is more beyond this ancient geometry, yet the ancients are prevented from getting there by the Pillars of Hercules. But Gregorius has discovered this new land of mathematics---at least, this frontispiece claims so. In the background the sunbeam carries the words "Mutat quadrata rotundis" (the square is changed into a circle) which are illustrated by the putto holding the square frame which focuses the sunbeam into a circle on the ground. Note that the putti are tracing it out with a compass, and that the circle is correctly drawn in perspective as an ellipse.

This volume was once owned by René François de Sluse (1622-1685), who developed a method for finding tangents to algebraic curves just before Newton (1642-1727) discovered his own. The volume also contains notes which, I conjecture, were written by Sluse.

1543
Copernicus, Nicholas
De revolvtionibvs orbium cœlestium
QB41 .C76 1543

When I was looking at the list of books damaged or destroyed in the fire of 1838, my heart sank when I saw "Copernici insturata" for I knew that Copernicus published only one book in his lifetime. I immediately asked to see the copy and I was first given the third edition, which was indeed damaged. But the first edition was in good shape. This is the book that gives us the word "revolution" in its current political sense. To learn more about the history of this book, read The Book Nobody Read (2004) by Owne Gingerich. Since people are always interested in the value of books, we should note that a first edition of De revolutionibus was sold at Christie's recently.

The famous diagram of the solar system, with the sun at the center is on page 9 verso. The title of the book ends with the sentence: "Igitur eme, lege, fruere," buy this book, read this book, enjoy this book.

Descartes, René, 1596-1650,  Geometria  à Renato Des Cartes, anno 1637 Gallicè edita ; nunc autem cum notis Florimondi de Beavne, in curiâ Blœsensi consiliarii regii, in linguam Latinam versa, & commentariis illustrata ; operâ atque studio Francisci à Schooten,  Lugduni Batavorum : Ex Officinâ Ioannis Maire, 1649.  QA33 .D43 1649 

This is the first Latin edition of the appendix on geometry of Descartes's Discours de la méthode (1637). It is sad that this is the first edition. The second, 1659-1660, is more important for it influenced both Newton and Liebniz. The value of this work is the commentaries and new treatises on analytic geometry. The 1637 original was just over 100 pages, this is almost 350, the second edition is nearly 1000 page. Perhaps the most important result in this work was von Heurat's rectification of the semi-cubical parabola, for it led Newton to the Fundamental Theorem of the Calculus.

1867
Carroll, Lewis, (1832-1898) 
An elementary treatise on determinants: with their application to simultaneous linear,  equations and algebraical geometry / by Charles L. Dodgson,  London : Macmillan, 1867. QA191 .C3 1867.

The title page lists the author as "Charles L[udwidge] Dodgson, M.A. Student and Mathematical Lecture of Christ Church, Oxford." We know him as Lewis Carroll, author of the justly famous Alice books. Although he comments in the Preface that "New words and symbols are most always a most unwelcome addition" he introduces many of them; consequently one cannot pick up the book and start reading anywhere.  

1826-1830
Cauchy, Augustin Louis (1789-1857)
Exercices de Mathematiques
QA3 .C38 1826, 4 volumes.

Everything in these four volumes is by Cauchy!

Prepared by V. Frederick Rickey, 28 April 2009.