Wolff,C.

Elementa matheseos universae. Editio nova, priori multo auctior et correctior. 5 vols. Geneva, Bousquet 1732-41. Cl.4°. With engraved portrait frontispiece and 163 folded engravings. Copperplate. Damaged. Prgtbde. d. BBKL XIII, 1509 ff. Zedler LVIII, 549 ff. Lutz 823 f. - Relevant second edition, the first edition was published in 1713-15 in only two volumes. Christian Wolff (1679-1754) was the most important German philosopher between Leibniz and Kant. His greatest achievement was perhaps to leave behind a complete work that encompassed almost all areas of knowledge, which he recorded and described using his deductive mathematical method. This also made him an outstanding figure of the German Enlightenment. The present work was rewritten and significantly expanded by himself. In addition to the title (in German: Anfangsgründe aller mathematischen Wissenschaften), it also includes the fields of mechanics, hydraulics, optics, astronomy, geography, hydrography, gnomonics, pyrotechnics, architecture, etc. The concluding fifth volume contains a detailed index as well as bibliographical material on older mathematical works. Our copy is complete with the portrait copperplate in volume one and the 163 copperplates. - Some spotting and browning, some plates torn.