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Lot 144•
BOOLE (GEORGE) An Investigation of the Laws of Thought, On Which are Founded the Mathematical Theories of Logic and Probability, FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, AUTHOR'S PRESENTATION COPY
19 June 2013, 14:00 BST
London, KnightsbridgeSold for £23,750 inc. premium
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BOOLE (GEORGE)
An Investigation of the Laws of Thought, On Which are Founded the Mathematical Theories of Logic and Probability, FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, AUTHOR'S PRESENTATION COPY, inscribed to the "Rt. Revd. Bishop Terrot with the Author's Respects", ownership signature in pencil of the philosopher R.B. Braithwaite (1925), and with a loosely inserted photocopy of a letter from him (the original sold with the previous lot) gifting the two books to Professor Tim Smiley, occasional ink and pencil marginalia, with errata leaf at end and L2 & Q8 cancelled, small stain to first and last few leaves, publisher's dark-brown cloth by Edmonds & Remnants, London, blindstamped covers with Oxford-rule border and panel enclosing central lozenge with foliate corner- and side-pieces, neatly rebacked preserving original spine, corners and edges worn [Norman 266; Origins of Cyberspace 224], 8vo, Walton and Maberley, and Cambridge, Macmillan, 1854
Footnotes
FINE ASSOCIATION COPY OF BOOLE'S 'GREAT WORK ON MATHEMATICAL LOGIC' (DSB, II, p. 297). Hugely influential in the second half of the nineteenth century, Boole's theories became key in the development of computer technology when in 1937 C.E. Shannon "recognised that the true/false values in Boole's two-valued algebra were analogous to the open and closed states of electric circuits" (Norman 266).
The book is inscribed to Charles Hughes Terrot (1790–1872), Scottish Episcopal Bishop of Edinburgh, and "an excellent mathematician" (ODNB). In the copy of the letter included with the lot, R.B. Braithwaite records "I bought it in 1925 for... 21/- somewhere (in Oxford I think). You will see that it has Boole's note presenting it to Terrot, who (himself) wrote on logic".
This copy seems to correspond to Norman's first issue: the binding has the lozenge device on the covers and is without Boole's name on the spine; it has the uncancelled title-page and the errata leaf at the end, and is without the additional errata, the 'Note' leaf and the publisher's catalogue found in later issues.
Provenance: Bishop Terrot; R.B. Braithwaite, gifted to Professor Tim Smiley in 1988.