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Details
WHITEHEAD, Alfred North (1861-1947) and Bertrand RUSSELL (1872-1970). Principia mathematica. Cambridge: The University Press, 1910-1913.
3 volumes, 8° (262 x 178mm). Line diagrams in the text. Original blue cloth, the spines ruled in blind at the heads and tails and lettered in gilt, gilt publisher's devices, the boards with blind-ruled double-fillet borders (volume I hinges cracked, extremities rubbed). Provenance: errata neatly added in pencil by an early hand--Dr J.P. Gabbatt (early inscription on front free endpaper of volume I; bookplates on upper pastedowns recording gift to:)--Chichester Theological College (neat inkstamps on front free endpapers, titles, and margins of 9 leaves; accession markings on front free endpapers and spines).
FIRST EDITION. A 'MONUMENTAL STUDY OF LOGIC AND SET THEORY' (Norman). Whitehead and Russell's collaboration on the Principia mathematica was born of two unfinished books; Whitehead's A Treatise on Universal Algebra, with Applications (Cambridge: 1898, volume I only published) and Russell's Principles of Mathematics (Cambridge: 1903, volume I only published). 'The two authors discovered that their projected second volumes ''were practically on identical topics,'' and decided to cooperate in a joint work. In doing so their vision expanded, and it was eight or nine years before their monumental Principia mathematica appeared' (DSB XIV, p.303). The work's purpose was to prove the logical basis of all mathematics, the thesis that Russell posited in the preface to The Principles of Mathematics thus: 'that all pure mathematics deals exclusively with concepts definable in terms of a very small number of fundamental logical concepts, and that all its propositions are deducible from a very small number of fundamental logical principles' (B. Russell The Principles of Mathematics (London: 1942), p.[xv]). To realise this purpose, Whitehead and Russell 'devised a complex but precise system of symbols that enabled them to sidestep the ambiguities of ordinary language, and to give an exposition of sentential logic that has hardly been improved upon since. [They] did not entirely achieve their goal--certain of their theories and axioms were found to be unsatisfactory--but their failures inspired further investigation of both their own and rival theories [e.g. Herbrand's Recherches sur la théorie de la démonstration, cf. lot 63], and possibly contributed more to the development of mathematical logic than their complete success would have done' (Norman).
Volume I of Principia mathematica was printed in an edition of 750 copies, but sales were poor, and the print runs of volumes II and III were reduced to 500 copies. Five sets of the first edition are recorded at auction by ABPC since 1975, of which one (the Garden copy) is described as a 'made-up' set. Norman 1868. (3)
3 volumes, 8° (262 x 178mm). Line diagrams in the text. Original blue cloth, the spines ruled in blind at the heads and tails and lettered in gilt, gilt publisher's devices, the boards with blind-ruled double-fillet borders (volume I hinges cracked, extremities rubbed). Provenance: errata neatly added in pencil by an early hand--Dr J.P. Gabbatt (early inscription on front free endpaper of volume I; bookplates on upper pastedowns recording gift to:)--Chichester Theological College (neat inkstamps on front free endpapers, titles, and margins of 9 leaves; accession markings on front free endpapers and spines).
FIRST EDITION. A 'MONUMENTAL STUDY OF LOGIC AND SET THEORY' (Norman). Whitehead and Russell's collaboration on the Principia mathematica was born of two unfinished books; Whitehead's A Treatise on Universal Algebra, with Applications (Cambridge: 1898, volume I only published) and Russell's Principles of Mathematics (Cambridge: 1903, volume I only published). 'The two authors discovered that their projected second volumes ''were practically on identical topics,'' and decided to cooperate in a joint work. In doing so their vision expanded, and it was eight or nine years before their monumental Principia mathematica appeared' (DSB XIV, p.303). The work's purpose was to prove the logical basis of all mathematics, the thesis that Russell posited in the preface to The Principles of Mathematics thus: 'that all pure mathematics deals exclusively with concepts definable in terms of a very small number of fundamental logical concepts, and that all its propositions are deducible from a very small number of fundamental logical principles' (B. Russell The Principles of Mathematics (London: 1942), p.[xv]). To realise this purpose, Whitehead and Russell 'devised a complex but precise system of symbols that enabled them to sidestep the ambiguities of ordinary language, and to give an exposition of sentential logic that has hardly been improved upon since. [They] did not entirely achieve their goal--certain of their theories and axioms were found to be unsatisfactory--but their failures inspired further investigation of both their own and rival theories [e.g. Herbrand's Recherches sur la théorie de la démonstration, cf. lot 63], and possibly contributed more to the development of mathematical logic than their complete success would have done' (Norman).
Volume I of Principia mathematica was printed in an edition of 750 copies, but sales were poor, and the print runs of volumes II and III were reduced to 500 copies. Five sets of the first edition are recorded at auction by ABPC since 1975, of which one (the Garden copy) is described as a 'made-up' set. Norman 1868. (3)
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