A System of Analytic Mechanics.

New York:: D. van Nostrand, 1855., 1855. Printer: Allen and Farnham, Printers, Cambridge. (20 x 25.8 cm). 4to. xxxix, [1], 496 pp. Subscribers list (showing 200 copies subscribed for). Folding engraved plate, errata, index; short marginal tear to front blank professionally repaired. Original brown blind-stamped cloth, gilt spine, rebacked with dark brown morocco, original cloth spine mounted; gilt spine lettering partially lacking, original endleaves preserved with the rear e.p. reinforced along margins. Very good. FIRST EDITION, EARLY ISSUE (probably a second issue) with the date on the title-page; additionally, Peirce's name is miss-spelled on both the title-page and the spine. WITH THE AUTHOR'S NAME MISSPELLED TWICE: "PIERCE" Dedicated to Nathaniel Bowditch, this work is a masterpiece of 19th century American mathematics. / "In A System of Analytic Mechanics (1855) Peirce again set forth the principles and methods of the science as a branch of mathematical theory, a subject he developed from the idea of the 'potential.' The book has been described as the most important mathematical treatise that had been produced in the United States up to that time. Peirce's treatment of mechanics has also been said, by Victor Lenzen, to be 'on the highest level of any work in the field in English until the appearance of Whittaker's Analytical Dynamics' in 1904." [DSB]. / Peirce "was a disciple of Laplace. Peirce's teacher when he was a schoolboy in Salem, Nathaniel Bowditch, was the author of the standard English translation of Laplace's Traite de mechanique celeste; Peirce helped to check the proof sheets while he was a student at Harvard College…. Peirce thought that 'no grander conception of the physical universe has ever been presented to philosophical discussion' than the nebular hypothesis" – Menand, p. 2. / There are two publishers who issued this work in 1855: Boston: Little, Brown, and New York: D. van Nostrand (as above). Of the NY issue, the Verne Roberts' copy (see below) does not have the date of issue on the title, but the pagination and content are the same. Both issues are made up of sheets printed by Allen and Farnham, Printers, Cambridge. The Boston Little, Brown issue also is seen with an alternative added title, Physical and Celestial Mechanics Developed in four systems of Analytic Mechanics, Celestial Mechanics, Potential Physics, and Analytic Morphology, 1855. Additionally, it is important to note that the Little, Brown copies have a larger version of the original sheets, measuring 21 x 27.4 cm. I suspect the Van Nostrand issue is trimmed down from the original sheets. The Peirce Editions Project, headed by Nathan R. Houser, is at the time of this description, looking into the history of the relationship of these various issues. According to Houser, Van Nostrand also made later issues of the book in 1865 and 1872. All are scarce on the market. REFERENCES: DSB Vol. X, p. 480; Roberts, Bibliotheca Mechanica, p. 248 (2nd issue). Not in Norman. (Inventory #: S14283)