MONGE 1799

Description

Géométrie Descriptive, Leçons données aux écoles normales, l΄an 3 de la république, par Gaspard Monge, Paris, Baudouin, 1799

Contemporary quarter calf, flat spine. 4to (250×191 mm), vii-(1)-132 pages and 25 plates. First edition, first issue with the errata at the verso of page vii.

First edition in book form of Monge’s geometry lectures at the Ecole Normale, the first public course in descriptive geometry. Like those of the other professors, the lectures were taken down by stenographers and published in installments in the Journal des séances des écoles normales. Monge should be considered the true creator of descriptive geometry. He viewed descriptive geometry as a powerful tool for discovery and demonstration in various branches of pure and infinitesimal geometry, which had been partially abandoned because of the success of Cartesian geometry.

It was primarily through Monge’s teachings, both at the ephemeral École de l’an III and the École Polytechnique, that descriptive geometry, analytical geometry and differential geometry were established as special fields”.(Norman).

References : Norman [1536 : “The true creator of descriptive geometry”.]