LAGRANGE (Joseph-Louis). Théorie des fonctions... Lot 16

LAGRANGE (Joseph-Louis). 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. À Paris, de l'imprimerie de la République, prairial an V [1797]. In-4, (4 including those on the versos of the blank leaves)-viii-276 pp. in brown shagreened calf, smooth spine cloisonné and decorated with geometrical and vegetal motifs, fine gilded frieze framing the boards, "ST CLOUD" gilded on the upper board, ornamented edges, yellow edges speckled with red; corners and one part of the spine restored, small tear on the same part of the spine, broad but light wetness (contemporary binding). Volume housed in a modern green cloth slipcase with brown title-pieces on spine. SECOND CORRECTED EDITION, PUBLISHED IN THE YEAR OF THE ORIGINAL: compared with the first edition, the text has been recomposed with typographical errors corrected and errata deleted accordingly, with a few variants that explain the collation of 276 rather than 277 pages, with a different typographical headband at the beginning of the text, without the bookseller's mention on the verso of the false-title (deleted) and without the "achevé d'imprimer" of Duboy-Laverne, director of the Imprimerie de la République (deleted on the verso of the last leaf). Born in Turin to French parents descended from Descartes, the mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange (1736-1813) gave the calculus of variations its general formulation by taking a purely analytical approach. His theory of equations was also a major contribution to the advancement of science, and paved the way for the conceptual revolution in algebra in the following century. A member of the Académie des Sciences (1787), professor at the École normale (1794) and then at the École polytechnique (1795), he was showered with honors by Napoleon I, who made him a senator, count of the Empire and grand officer of the Légion d'honneur. DE LA BIBLIOTHEQUE IMPERIALE DU PALAIS DE SAINT-CLOUD (gilt lettering on front cover). PROVENANCE: LOUIS-PHILIPPE I (stamped "Bibliothèque du roi. Compiègne" on title). Various stamps from the Compiègne library, and stamp "Réformé et échangé par la commission" ("Reformed and exchanged by the commission"). Charles-Éloi Vial recalls that "at the Compiègne municipal library, the destruction of part of the books during a bombardment in 1918 accelerated the process of integrating them into the collections, following a 'reform' of certain volumes sold by the municipality, without the approval of the Ministry of Public Instruction. They are recognizable by their stamp 'Réformé et échangé par la commission'" (Napoléon et els bibliothèques. Paris, CNRS éditions, Perrin, 2021, p. 326, note no. 4).