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BABBAGE, CHARLES. 1791-1871. Observations on the Analogy which Subsists between the Calculus of Functions and Other Branches of Analysis. London: W. Bulmer for Royal Society, 1817. image 1
BABBAGE, CHARLES. 1791-1871. Observations on the Analogy which Subsists between the Calculus of Functions and Other Branches of Analysis. London: W. Bulmer for Royal Society, 1817. image 2
Lot 9

BABBAGE, CHARLES. 1791-1871.
Observations on the Analogy which Subsists between the Calculus of Functions and Other Branches of Analysis. London: W. Bulmer for Royal Society, 1817.

4 December 2019, 13:00 EST
New York

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BABBAGE, CHARLES. 1791-1871.

Observations on the Analogy which Subsists between the Calculus of Functions and Other Branches of Analysis. London: W. Bulmer for Royal Society, 1817.
4to (292 x 235 mm). Contemporary (original?) string-bound blue wrappers, custom cloth slipcase and burgundy levant slipcase. Offprint from Philosophical Transactions.

PRESENTATION COPY, INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR, OF THIS RARE OFFPRINT. In full: "Mr. Soret (?) with the Author's Compliments." Babbage's major mathematical invention before he devoted his time to his differential and analytical engines. Years later, in his Passages from the Life of a Philosopher, Babbage said of his calculus of functions: "This was my earliest step, and is still one to which I would willingly recur if other demands on my time permitted. Many years ago I recorded, in a small MS. volume, the facts, and also extracts of letters from Herschel, Bromhead and Maule, in which I believe I have done justice to my friends if not to myself. It is very remarkable that the Analytical Engine adapts itself with singular facility to the development and numerical working out of this vast department of anaylsis." Hook & Norman Origins of Cyberspace 21 (journal edition).

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