Bibliotheca Mechanica. [Bibliographical catalogue of the Verne L. Roberts Library on the history of mechanics].

Descripción

Limited edition of 1,000 copies. Cloth-backed decorated boards, 4to, xiv, 391 pp, 49 ills. Approximately 1,200 entries. A splendid catalogue of this fine collection, describing about 1200 items in the fields of mechanics and the history of technology, although it is a pity that there is no overview of the collection as a whole. Instead, the Catalogue plunges straight into excellently detailed descriptions which include bibliographical notes on the authors, title-page transcriptions, full collations, descriptions of bindings, and general notes which sometimes merely record the contents of the work in question but often also indicate the work's significance and put it in historical context. A key reference source in a field which has long been in need of a detailed and accessible bibliography. From the prospectus: "Mechanics was the dominant science of the seventeenth century as best known through the work of Galileo and Newton. Galileo invented the subjects of the strength of materials and kinematics, and Newton defined dynamics. Descartes, Borelli, and their followers extended Galileo's principles to the human body. The Verne L. Roberts collection is devoted to rare and important books in the fields of mechanics, biomechanics, the strength of materials, and the history of technology. This is one of the most remarkable private libraries to be formed in recent decades, and the books and manuscripts in this catalogue, including many of the classics of physics, demonstrate the origins of these fields of science and their development through the ensuing three centuries. The roots of these sciences are also illustrated through a number of important 15th- and 16th-century books. The catalogue describes approximately 1,200 items, including a number of manuscripts and broadsides. The extensive descriptions of the books and authors document and define the growth and development of ideas in the history of science and technology. Many of the books are of noted rarity and have not been hitherto well described from a historical or bibliographical point of view. Other important aspects of the collection are the rich holdings in the development of thermodynamics, hydraulics, and the theory of structures, including key works by Black, Watt, Poisson, Clausius, Fourier, and others. The evolution of hydraulics is shown by a progression of thought from Gugliemini to Lamb. The theory of structure begins with Wallis' little-known contribution and concludes with Castigliano's Théorie de l'Équilibre des Systèmes Élastiques (1879)." Near Fine. With a copy of the Prospectus laid in. N° de ref. del artículo ABE-48976

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