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LAPLACE, PIERRE-SIMON, Marquis de. Mécanique Céleste . . . translated, with a Commentary, by Nathaniel Bowditch, LL.D. [with A Memoir of the Translator, by his Son, Nathaniel Ingersoll Bowditch]. 3 engraved portraits. xxiv, 746, [2]; xviii, 990, [2]; xxix, [1], 910, [54]; 168, xxxvi, 1018 pages, including half-titles, and errata leaf at end of Volumes 1 and 2. 4 volumes. 4to, 282x231 mm, later 19th-century 1/2 brown morocco gilt, covers slightly warped; light marginal dampstaining toward end of Volume 3, contents otherwise generally quite clean. volume one inscribed: "Henry P. Bowditch from his Father [i. e., Jonathan Ingersoll Bowditch, second son of Nathaniel] December 25th 1879." Boston: Isaac B. Butts for Hilliard, Gray, Little, and Wilkins, 1829-34
first edition in english of the first 4 volumes of the Mécanique Céleste. "This translation . . . had a threefold purpose: to supply steps omitted from the original text, to incorporate later results, and to give credits omitted by Laplace. Although generally more admired than read, outside of France it was this edition, rather than the original, that was most often the means of learning about the mechanics of the heavens" (Bibliotheca Mechanica). "It would be difficult to overestimate the value of Bowditch's translation and commentary to American physical astronomy during the first half of the nineteenth century. The work marked the beginning of American participation in the field of celestial mechanics' (ANB). Bibliotheca Mechanica 198 (this edition).
