Les Oeuvres | Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis

$700.00

French mathematician, philosopher and man of letters, Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis (1698 – 27 July 1759) became the Director of the Académie des Sciences, and the first President of the Prussian Academy of Science, at the invitation of Frederick the Great.

In 1736, Maupertuis made an expedition to Lapland to determine the shape of the Earth. He is often credited with having invented the principle of least action; a version is known as Maupertuis’ principle – an integral equation that determines the path followed by a physical system. His work in natural history is interesting in relation to modern science, since he touched on aspects of heredity and the struggle for life.

This is the first collected edition of the works of Maupertuis, published in 1752 seven years before his death.

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This is the first edition of the collected works of Maupertuis, published by George Gonrad Walther, Dresden, in 1752, in the original french.

The vellum cover (9.125″ x 7.375″) has surface scuffs and spot stains, but it is clean overall, and securely connected to the inside. The author/title label is faded, but cleanly attached.

The inside is very good overall, with no stamps or other attachments, and no writing. The binding is tight, with no loose or missing pages. There are a number of spot stains, and sunning to many pages, but most pages (402 numbered) have no notable stains, and the sunning doesn’t obscure the text or art, all of which is unfaded.

The accompanying photos are accurate reflections of the book conditions.

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