The Principles of Analytical Calculation by Robert Woodhouse - 1803

Woodhouse (Robert)The Principles of Analytical Calculation, first edition, 11" tall, 219 pp. occasional light browning, occasional damp-staining to head, second and third ff. torn at inner margin, contemporary half calf, rebacked, rubbed, [Tomash & Williams W109], Cambridge University Press, 1803. Overall in very good condition.

Provenance: This volume was held by the famous Erwin Tomash Library on the History of Computing as No. W 109, and bears the Library's label on the inside of the front cover (shown in photo),

From the Library's catalogue:

Robert Woodhouse was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics in Cambridge—a post once held by Newton and to be held by Nicholas Saunderson, Charles Babbage and many other distinguished individuals. Woodhouse was one of the first in Britain to embrace the newer influences in the teaching of mathematics developed on the continent. He strongly encouraged the study of mathematical analysis in contrast with the, by that time out of date, work of Newton. In this he was aided by his disciples George Peacock, John Herschel and Charles Babbage when they became students at Cambridge. It is entirely possible that they adopted the name for their Analytical Society from their association with Woodhouse (see entry for Babbage, Charles; Memoirs of the Analytical Society, 1813). In this work Woodhouse reviewed the various methods that had been used to deal with changing quantities (infinitesimals, limits, etc). While he criticized some of the concepts being put forward by Lagrange and others as being insufficient, he did, despite these criticisms, throw his influence behind the continental methods. This work is highly technical, and one must be familiar with mathematics to see some of the more subtle points.