MATHEMATICS

[ Seymour Aubrey Papert, MIT mathematician and computer scientist. ] Typed scientific paper in French: 'Sur les treillis des ouverts et les paratopologies | par Mrs Dona Papert et Seymour Papert'.

Author: 
Seymour Aubrey Papert (b.1928), MIT mathematician and computer scientist, pioneer of artificial intelligence, inventor of Logo Programming System [ Dona Papert Strauss; Charles Ehresmann (1905-1979) ]
Publication details: 
'Faculté des Sciences de Paris | Séminaire de Topologie et de Géométrie Différentielle (C. Ehresmann) | Année 1957 / 58.'
£200.00

Papert has been described by by Marvin Minsky as 'the greatest living mathematics educator'. At the time of this paper he was studying for a PhD at Cambridge University and living in London, where he was a leading figure in the revolutionary socialist circle centred on the magazine 'Socialist Review'. 9pp., 8vo. On nine leaves stapled together. In fair condition, aged and worn, with creasing to last couple of leaves. Divided into three parts: '1. Propriétés des treillis des ouverts et représentation des treillis comme treillis d'ouverts; | 2.

[James Williamson, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Glasgow.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Jas. Williamson') to his brother Alexander Williamson, Laird of Balgray, discussing financial matters and his son George's choice of career.

Author: 
James Williamson (d. 1795), Professor of Mathematics at the Universtiy of Glasgow, 1761-1795 [Alexander Williamson, Laird of Balgray (fl. 1802)]
Publication details: 
'College Glasgow'. 1 June 1792.
£90.00

2pp., foolscap 8vo. Bifolium. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper. The breaking of the seal has resulted in slight loss at the foot of the gutter, affecting two words of text. Verso of second leaf addressed, with two postmarks and red wax seal, to 'Alexander Williamson Esqr | Alisons Square | Edinburgh'.

[James Williamson, Professor of Mathematics, Glasgow University.] Manuscript bond for £225 to 'William Ewart in Middlegill', signed by him and James Kirkpatrick, George Kirkpatrick and Alexander Williamson

Author: 
James Williamson (d. 1795), Professor of Mathematics at the Universtiy of Glasgow, 1761-1795
Publication details: 
'At Closeburn Castle'. 18 September 1769.
£60.00

1p., large quarto. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper. With two embossed stamps ('VI PENCE' and 'I SHILLING ADDITIONAL DUTY') and ink stamp ('Nine Pence Quire') on reverse. Folded into the customary packet and docketted: 'Bond £225 | Messrs. James & George Kirkpatricks, James and Alexr. Williamsons | To Mr. William Ewart | 1769'. The document begins: 'We Mr. James Kirkpatrick Advocate George Kirkpatrick one of hte deputy Clerks of Session, Doctor James Williamson Professor of Mathematicks in the University of Glasgow and Alexr. Williamson Secretary to the Rt. Honble.

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 ('Olinthus Gregory') from the English mathematician Olinthus Gilbert Gregory to Knight Spencer, Secretary, Surrey Institution[, regarding a series of lectures by his friend John Mason Good]. With engraved portrait of Gregory.

Author: 
Olinthus Gregory [Olinthus Gilbert Gregory] (1774-1841), Mathematical Master, Royal Military Academy, Woolwich [Knight Spencer, Secretary, Surrey Insitution; John Mason Good (1764-1827), lecturer]
Publication details: 
Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. 26 March [1812].
£90.00

1p., 4to. Bifolium. Very good, on lightly-aged paper, with slight traces of mount on reverse of second leaf, which is addressed, with three postmarks and docketing by Spencer, to 'Knight Spencer Esq. | Surry [sic] Institution | Blackfriar's Road'. Gregory is pleased to learn 'that there is a probability of Mr. Jones being able to accommodate us with apparatus for our proposed Lectures, upon such terms as are likely to square pretty well with the funds of the Surry Institution'.

Autograph Letter Signed "R.L. Ellis" to R. Rothman, M.D., applying mathematics to a political economy issue.

Author: 
R.L. Ellis, English polymath (1817-1859), remembered principally as a mathematician and editor of the works of Francis Bacon.
R.L. Ellis, English polymath (1817-1859)
Publication details: 
No place or date.
£500.00
R.L. Ellis, English polymath (1817-1859)

Three pages, 8vo, good condition. He commences with a mathematical supposition (in formula terms) then proceeds with putting the suppositions of "the master" [Malthus, Ricardo or their like?) in mathematical terms, concluding a fall of price to "3/4d or one quarter", adding that "The suppositions he makes are incompatible with the ratio theory ...", doing sums which he concludes with the an answer he describes as "absurd".

Autograph Letter Signed ('Geo Sanderson') to Lowry.

Author: 
George Sanderson (c.1835-1814), English mathematician [Wilson Lowry (1762-1824), engraver]
Autograph Letter Signed ('Geo Sanderson') to Lowry.
Publication details: 
17 January 1803; Stanhope Street, London.
£225.00
Autograph Letter Signed ('Geo Sanderson') to Lowry.

8vo, 1 p. Text clear and complete. On aged and creased paper, with chipping to extremities. Thin strip of stub adhering to reverse, which carries the address in Sanderson's hand: 'Mr: Lowry | No: 57 | Tichfield St:'. He asks him to 'send the Books by the Bearer. | I find my self better & am in hopes of goeing out in a Day or two if weather permits'. He concludes by sending his compliments to Lowry's wife and daughters. Docketed in a contemporary hand at foot of page: 'One of the greatest Mathematicians of this country | Originally (and occasionally till his Death) a Taylor'.

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 Signature.

Author: 
Olinthus Gilbert Gregory (1774–1841), English mathematician
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£23.00

Good firm signature on slip of paper roughly 2.5 x 10 cm. Laid down on slightly larger rectangle of grey paper cut down from leaf of autograph album. A little ruckled, otherwise very good.

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'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Costaz') to 'Monsieur Dupont' and his son.

Author: 
Baron Louis Costaz (1767-1842), French mathematician and engineer
Publication details: 
19 October 1841; Mousseau.
£75.00

12mo, 1 p, 12 lines. Inviting 'M.M. Dupont, père et fils' to help him eat 'le civet d'un lievre qui a eu la Bêtise de se laisser tuer par une femme du hameau du Mousseau'.

The Theory of Chances, or The Modern Development of the Rules of Probability; with some notes regarding 'probabilities' in the game of roulette at Monte Carlo.

Author: 
James McGowan, FIA, formerly Government Actuary to the South African Government [Gambling; Roulette; Monte Carlo; Theory of Probability]
Publication details: 
London: Lamley & Co. 1, 3, and 5 Exhibition Road, South Kensington. [Printed at the Oxford University Press by Frederick Hall.]
£120.00

Small octavo: 31 pages. Unbound and stapled. Very good, in grubby original pink printed wraps. According to one authority McGowan is the 'first fully qualified actuary in South Africa of whom there is record [becoming] Cape Government Actuary of the former Cape Colony in 1890'. COPAC (under mispelt name "MacGowan") only recordds the BL copy.

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