GEOMETRY

[Prince Matila Ghyka, Romanian mathematician.] Correspondence to him in French from Karl Häuptli, Swiss architect (TLS and three Autograph Studies, with diagrams, on ‘le nombre d’or’) and A. Andre of Marseilles (TLS and enclosures on the I Ching).

Author: 
Prince Matila Ghyka [Matila Costiescu Ghyka] (1881-1965), Romanian aristocrat, mathematician and polymath; Karl Häuptli (b.1894), Swiss architect associated with Theodor Fischer; A. Andre]
Publication details: 
ONE (Häuptli): 11 April 1953; on his letterhead as ‘Diplomierter Architekt / Fachlehrer am Kantonalen / Technikum in Biel [Switzerland].’ TWO (Andre): 17 March 1965; ‘17 av. des Coccinelles / Les Caillols / Marseille (XIIe) [France]’.
£850.00

Ghyka, who was grew up and was educated in France, settled in London after the Second World War, and is considered one of the most significant members of the Romanian diaspora. His main preoccupation was with geometry and mathematical aesthetics, and his publications on the subject were influential: the ‘first epiphany’ of theatre director Peter Brook ‘came while reading a book by the Romanian prince Matila Ghika while staying with Salvador Dalí in Spain’ (Guardian, 17 January 2010).

Autograph Letter Signed ('John B. Inglis') from the book collector John Bellingham Inglis to Isaac Preston Cory of Caius College, Cambridge, about the superiority of his 'method of trisecting an angle' over that of 'Mr. Rowbotham' [John Rowbotham].

Author: 
John B. Inglis [John Bellingham Inglis] (1780-1870), book collector [Isaac Preston Cory (1801/2-1842), Hebrew Lecturer, Caius College, Cambridge, and writer on accountancy; John Rowbotham (1793-1846)]
Publication details: 
21 Upper Montagu St; 24 February 1836.
£120.00

2pp., 12mo. 42 lines. Bifolium. Fair, on aged paper. Addressed on reverse of second leaf to 'I. P. Cory Esq'. The letter begins: 'A friend of mine Mr. Jackson having told Mr. Rowbotham [Ruskin's tutor John Rowbotham] that I had discovered a method of trisecting an angle that gentleman said he had done it himself, which I believe he has, upon the proposition you showed me - he says it was originally published by Professor Leslie'. Inglis considers that 'Mr. R. seems to have hit upon something he does not quite comprehend'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('S. P. Rigaud') from Stephen Peter Rigaud, Savilian Professor of Geometry at the University of Oxford, to Rev. W[illiam]. T[oovey]. Hopkins of Elmdon House, Coventry [Rector of Nuffield], explaining a mistake.in geometry.

Author: 
Stephen Peter Rigaud (1774-1839), mathematian and astronomer, successively Fellow of Exeter College, Savilian Professor of Geometry at the University of Oxford, and Savilian Professor of Astronomy
Publication details: 
Richmond; 28 January 1824.
£80.00

2pp., 4to. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Black wax seal adhering to reverse of second leaf, which is addressed, with postmarks, by Rigaud to 'Revd. W. T. Hopkins / Elmdon House / Coventry'. He explains, with two diagrams, a geometrical mistake by Hopkins, the letter beginning: 'Your difficulty arises entirely from your imagining that the squares of lines are proportionate to the lines themselves - This is by no means the case'.

Rules of the Mathematical Association.

Author: 
The Mathematical Association [founded in England in 1871 as founded in 1871 as the Association for the Improvement of Geometrical Teaching]
Publication details: 
January 1939. Printer and place of publication [England] not stated.
£56.00

8vo, 12 pp. Stapled and in original blue printed wraps. Good, with minor staining to wraps at top of spine. Eight 'Rules' and three 'Regulations', with a separate entry on 'Regulations for the Use of the Library'. Not listed on COPAC.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Cousinery | Ingr en Chf') to 'Monsieur Legrand, Sous Secrètaire d'État des Travaux Publics'.

Author: 
Barthélémy Édouard Cousinéry [Barthelemy Edouard Cousinery] (1790-1851), of the Ministere des Travaux Publics, Ponts et Chaussées, pioneer of projective geometry
Publication details: 
26 September 1839; Paris.
£56.00

4to: 2 pp. Text clear and entire on lightly creased, grubby and dogeared paper. Titled by Cousinéry 'Création d'un Musée des Travaux Publics, Envoi d'une Note à ce sujet.' The note is not present.

Autograph Note Signed ('E. de Jonquieres'), on visiting card, to 'Monsieur Lalanne, Conservateur de la Bibliothèque de l'Institut'.

Author: 
Ernest de Jonquières (1820-1901), French naval officer and mathematician [Léon Lalanne [Léon Louis Chrétien Lalanne] (1811-1892), French engineer and mathematician]
Publication details: 
9 July 1886; Paris.
£56.00

Written on both sides of the card, dimensions 5.5 x 9 cm. Good, with a little light scuffing on the front. Communication between two leading lights of French nineteenth-century mathematics. Printed text reads 'VICE-AMIRAL DE JONQUIERES | MEMBRE DE L'INSTITUT | AVENUE BUGEAUD, 2'. Asks Lalanne to 'inscrire Monsieur Bonnaffé, lauréat de l'Institut, parmi les lecteurs'.

Corrected Typescript of 'Der Pyramidenbauer'; Corrected Typescript of German lecture; photocopy of Manuscript article 'Der Kanon des Kosmos', with English translation; two pages of German manuscript notes; 56 printed cosmological diagrams.

Author: 
Eberhard Wortmann [Hermann Hesse; Sacred Geometry; Neoplatonism]
Publication details: 
Der Kanon des Kosmos' dated '24. II. 71, Berkeley, California'; the whole in envelope postmarked 1975.
£450.00

Wortmann - whose 'Das Gesetz Des Kosmos' (1965) is considered a cosmological masterpiece - corresponded with Hermann Hesse, and was the only modern author to be described by him as a master of the Glass Bead Game. The Sacred Science Institute in America is presently working with Wortmann's family to bring out an edition of his work. The collection is discoloured with age and some leaves are slightly dog-eared, but the whole is in good condition.

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