MACLAURIN (Colin):

A Treatise of Algebra. In Three Parts. Containing I. The fundamental Rules and Operations; II. The Composition and Resolution of Equations of all Degrees; and the different Affections of their Roots. III. The Application of Algebra and Geometry to each other. To which is added an Appendix, concerning the general Properties of Geometrical Lines. The Third Edition.

London, Printed for J. Nourse, W. Strahan, J. and F. Rivington, W. Johnston, T. Longman, Robinson and Roberts, S. Bladon, and T. Cadell. 1771/ 8vo, 210 x 11 mms., pp. [xiv], 432, 12 folding engraved plates, contemporary lightly speckled calf, red leather label; spine a bit creased, dried and worn, with the armorial bookplate of Alexander Speirs Esq of Eldersley (1714 - 1782), the Glasgow tobacco merchant. Maclaurin (1698 - 1746) died before this work could be published in 1748, superintended through the press by his wife, Anne, who dedicated the work to the Archbishop of Canterbury. The work presents what mathematicians now call Cramer's rule, which he might have formulated as early as 1729. Gabriel Cramer (1704 - 1752) published Introduction à l'analyse des lignes courbes algébraique in which he presented the rule as an appendix only appeared in 1750. Alexander Carlyle (1722-1805) recalls that "Mr Maclaurin was at this time a favourite professor, and no wonder, as he was the clearest and most agreeable lecturer on that abstract science that ever I heard. He made mathematics a fashionable study, which was felt afterwards in the war that followed in 1743, when nine-tenths of the engineers of the army were Scottish officers."

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Book number: 10054

Catalogue: Algebra

Keywords: algebra mathematics prose