Beschreibung:

L'Hospital (Guillaume-François-Antoine, Marquis de Saint-Mesme) .- Paulian (Aime Henri) Analyse des Infiniment Petits...Suivie d'un Nouveau Commentaire, first edition, half-title, 8 folding engraved plates, the first 3 slightly browned, occasional light browning to text, contemporary French mottled sheep, spine gilt with red morocco label, slightly scuffed, spine ends a little chipped, 8vo, Avignon & Paris, 1768. ⁂ The first edition of Paulian's commentary on the celebrated Analyse des Infiniment Petits by the outstanding French mathematician and member of the Parisian Academy of Sciences Marquis de l'Hospital (1661-1704). The work shows how quickly the calculus elaborated by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz spread in France. Its popularity is further attested by the publication of editions supplemented with lenghty commentaries. The commentary presented here was composed by the Jesuit mathematician Aimé-Henri Paulian (1722-1801), following those by Jean-Pierre de Crousaz and Pierre Varignon, published respectively in 1721 and 1725. In Paulian's opinion, however, both Crousaz's and Varignon's commentaires had failed as an introduction for beginners, and his aim is to provide an easier explanation of the rather complicated statements by L'Hospital. Paulian is also well known as the compiler of the popular Dictionnaire de physique portatif, the first edition of which appeared in Avignon in 1769, likewise issued from the press run by the widow Girard and François Seguin. Curiously, the copy offered here contains a leaf from his Dictionnaire, bound in at the end before the plates, revealing that both books were printed almost simultaneously.