FOURIER, Jean Baptiste Joseph (1768-1830)

FOURIER, Jean Baptiste Joseph (1768-1830)

Théorie analytique de la chaleur. Paris: Firmin Didot pére et fils, 1822.

First edition of the first mathematical study of heat diffusion, originally presented as a paper to the Académie des Sciences in 1807. Fourier showed that heat diffusion was subject to simple observable physical constants that could be expressed mathematically. While Galileo and Newton had revolutionized the study of nature by discerning mathematical laws in the movement of solids and fluids, this approach had not been satisfactorily applied to the study of heat before Fourier. His work had major repercussions for the development of both physics and pure mathematics: first, he extended the range of rational mechanics beyond the fields defined in Newton\'s Principia, establishing an essential branch of modern physics. Secondly, his invention of unprecedentedly powerful mathematical tools for the solution of equations \'raised problems in mathematical analysis that motivated much of the leading work in that field for the rest of the century and beyond\' (DSB). Dibner Heralds 154; Norman 824.



Quarto (258 x 200mm). Half-title, cancel leaves 3/4, 4/2, 4/4, 6/2.3, 53/4, 54/1, 59/1, 59/3, 63/2, 64/3, 65/1, 2 engraved plates (first 4 leaves, 44/3 and 51/1 slightly chipped at lower corner due to paper flaws, occasional faint scattered spotting, gatherings 55, 73-74 more heavily affected). Contemporary quarter sheep and boards (extremities lightly rubbed, foot of spine slightly more heavily).