LA GRANGE (LAGRANGE), JOSEPH LOUIS. - [THE FOUNDATION OF MODERN MECHANICS]
Méchanique Analytique.
Paris, Chez la Veuve Desaint, 1788. 4to. 260x200 mm. Bound in recent fine full calf. Gilt borders. XII,512 pp. A fine clean copy.
¶ First edition of Lagrange's masterpiece, "which laid the foundation of modern mechanics, and which occupies a place in the history of the subject second only to that of Newton's Principia". (Wolf). In "Méchanique Analytique" Lagrange reformulated classical Newtonian mechanics in a purely analytical manner; Newton derived his results geometrically, or synthetically, with the aid of figures.
"Lagrange proposed to reduce the theory of mechanics and the art of solving problems in that field to general formulas, the mere development of which would yield all the equations necessary for the solution of every problem" (DSB). In his preface, Lagrange draws attention to the absence of diagrams in the book, which he believed the lucidity of his own presentation had rendered superfluous.
Horblit/Grolier 61, Dibner 112. Sparrow 120, Norman 1257.
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