Descripción

Paris, Gauthier-Villars, 1905-1917. Four parts in four. Large 8vo (25.1 x 16.5 cm). I (1905) frontispiece portrait of Hermite (lithograph), xl, 498 pp.; II (1908) frontispice portait of Hermite (lithograph), [i], 520 pp.; III (1912) frontispiece portrait of Hermite (heliogravure), [i], 522 pp.; IV (1917) vi, 594 pp. Uniform original printed wrappers. = Charles Hermite (1822-1901) was a French mathematician who did research on number theory, quadratic forms, invariant theory, orthogonal polynomials, elliptic functions, and algebra. Hermite polynomials, Hermite interpolation, Hermite normal form, Hermitian operators, and cubic Hermite splines are named in his honor. One of his students was Henri Poincaré. Hermite was the first to prove that e, the base of natural logarithms, is a transcendental number. His methods were later used by Ferdinand von Lindemann to prove that p is transcendental too. The three frontispice portraits show Hermite as a young man, a middle aged man, and in his later days. The two photographic frontispice illustration show two sides of a commemorative medal made in his honour at the occasion of his 70th birthday in 1892. The quality, especially of the frontispieces, is better than in the Cambridge University Press modern reprint. Uncut, unopened. Wrappers very lightly soiled, the first two a bit chipped at the lower edge due to the paper quality. Otherwise a very good, clean set.