Huygens, Christiaan.

Estimate

12,000 - 15,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

Horologium oscillatorium sive de motu pendulorum ad horologia aptato demonstrationes geometricae. Paris: F. Muguet, 1673

folio (317 x 213mm.), woodcut device on title-page, woodcut initials and headpieces, woodcut diagrams (one full-page), contemporary vellum, title-leaf torn and repaired (without loss), a few leaves slightly browned

Literature

Norman 1137; Dibner, Heralds 145; PMM 154

Catalogue Note

first edition of Huygens's treatise on the dynamics of bodies in motion, and his most influential work. He analyses the mathematics of the motion of a pendulum, on which he based his invention of the pendulum clock (published in an earlier work, Horologium, in 1658), building on earlier research by Galileo into the isochronicity of the pendulum.

This work is dedicated to Louis XIV of France, under whose auspices the Académie des sciences was founded a few years earlier, with Huygens as one of the founding members.