HUME (James)

Lot 52
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1500 - 2000 EUR
HUME (James)
New Arithmetic containing a brief method for all Operations both Astronomical, & Geometrical, and Supputations of the Merchants. Paris, Jean Moreau, 1625. In-8, calf turned over, double framed with cold fillets joined at the corners, three-ribbed spine, red title-piece (Modern binding in the taste of the time). First edition. First book of James Hume, mathematician and astronomer of Scottish origin, born in 1584 and died in Paris in the middle of the 17th century where he had settled. We owe this scholar a free and commented translation of Viète. This work contains Hume's research and innovations concerning mathematical operations. Catherine Goldstein, historian of mathematics, in Les fractions décimales : un art d'ingénieur ?2010, explains the method used by Hume: "The method in question is a decimal calculus (integer and fractional) which Hume claims to have invented; like Stevin, Hume combines this calculus with those of trigonometry and, later, algebra, developing for the latter an alternative notation to that of Viète and analogous to that which he uses for his decimal calculus. [...] Hume seems to ignore Stevin's treatise when he devises his method [...]." Stains and soiling to a few leaves.
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