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2 volumes. 4to. [6], xxiv, 486, [2]; xxviii, [487]-914, [4] pp. Original gilt-decorated speckled calf, raised bands, maroon calf spine label; joints worn & slight worming to volume I, corners showing. Very good, handsome set. Rare. LOVELY COPY OF ONE OF THE EARLIEST CALCULUS TEXTBOOKS. FIRST EDITION. Reyneau was a priest who served as a professor of philosophy at Toulon and Pezenas, and then as professor of mathematics at the College of Angers. While he made no significant discoveries in the field of mathematics, Reyneau had a talent for explicating new discoveries in mathematics. His most important work, the Analyse demontree, was a popular textbook in the early 18th century, and was the book used by Jean le Rond d'Alembert to learn the fundamentals of the subject. In it Reyneau describes, explains, and demonstrates the main theories found in the works of Leibniz, Newton, Descartes, Bernoulli, and other pioneering mathematicians of the day. "Reynau is important historically as the author of a textbook, written at the request of Malebranche, that was designed to provide instruction in the mathematics developed at the beginning of the eighteenth century. . . . "As late as 1694 all that Malebranche had for Reynau to do was edit Prestet's posthumous Geometrie. But, after abandoning the last shred of Cartesian mathematics, Malebranche chose Reyneau to write the entirely new textbook required by this turnabout (1698). / "Reyneau worked with two other Oratorians, Louis Byzance and Claude Jaquemet, who were better mathematicians than he. Reyneau had some difficulty in assimilating the differential and integral calculus and was very interested in the debates, provoked by Rolle on this subject. Reyneau's editorial efforts were frustrated in various ways, and the textbook was not published until 1708." ΓΆΒ Β" Pierre Costabel, DSB XI, p. 392. REFERENCES: Poggendorf, Vol. II, 619. [FULL TITLE: Analyse demontree ou La Methode de Resoudre les Problemes des Mathematiques, et d'apprendre facilement ces Sciences; Expliquee & Demontree dans le premier Volume, & appliquee, dans le second, a decouvrir les proprietes des figures de la Geometrie simple & composee; a resoudre les Problemes de ces sciences & les Problemes des sciences Physico-mathematiques, en employant le calcul ordinaire de l'Algebre, le calcul differentiel & le calcul integral. Ces derniers calculs y sont aussi expliques & demontres. [2 volumes].]. Seller Inventory # RW1232
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