The William Marshall Bullitt Collection of Rare Mathematics and Astronomy
Louisville attorney William Marshall Bullitt began to collect rare mathematics books in 1936. Building upon a family history of book collecting and his own passion for mathematics, Bullitt set out to gather first editions works by the twenty-five greatest mathematicians of all time, a goal established during a parlor game instigated by his friend G.H. Hardy. Within a decade Bullitt had amassed over 300 volumes by sixty mathematicians and astronomers. Except for a loan of choice volumes to Harvard for a 1953 exhibition, he kept the collection in his law office where he could refer to his favorites and use them as examples when he asked young attorneys aspiring to employment with his firm, "How much mathematics have you had?"
Mr. Bullitt, shown here with his wife Nora in the library at Oxmoor, their
home in Louisville, left all his books to her when he died in 1957. The
following year, Mrs. Bullitt gave the rare mathematics and astronomy books
to the University of Louisville. Mr. Bullitt's files of correspondence with
mathematicians and rare book dealers joined the collection in 1980, thanks
to the initiative of Uof L Mathematics professor Richard M. Davitt.
Although William Marshall Bullitt enjoyed success as an expert in
actuarial law and even served as Solicitor General of the United States
under President Taft, his avocation as a mathematician kept him active in
the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Association of America.
He participated in the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, served
on the Visiting Committee for the Department of Mathematics at Harvard and
corresponded with Albert Einstein. Einstein's gratitude for Bullitt's sponsorship
of Karl Loewner during the war is reflected in signed copies of the great
physicist's work found in the collection. The selection of mathematicians
represented is a credit to Bullitt's knowledge, the enthusiasm of his friends
G.H. Hardy and Harlow Shapley and their colleagues, and the recommendations
of E.T. Bell, author of a popular work outlining the lives of great mathematicians.
The presence of monumental works by Copernicus and Kepler, along with Rheticus'
first statement of the Copernican system, is due to the advice of savvy
book dealers and Bullitt's own instincts as a collector desiring books of
great rarity and value. Bullitt made his final purchase for the collection,
Abel's Mémoire sur les équations algébriques, in 1951 for $500, an "outrageous price" in his estimation. Today
the William Marshall Bullitt Collection of Rare Mathematics and Astronomy
is priceless, not only for faculty and students at the University of Louisville,
but for those to whom we offer the following list, a subset of a 370 volume
collection.
Christiania, Groendahl, 1824.One of three extant copies of Abel's finding that fifth degree polynomial equations (over Q) are not solvable by radicals.
Berkeley, George (1685- 1753). The Analyst; or, A Discourse Addressed to an Infidel Mathematician. London, Tonson, 1734. First edition of Berkeley's justified objections to Newtons's logical foundations for calculus.
Bernoulli, Jacques (1654- 1705). Ars Conjectandi. Basel, Thurnisiorum,
1713. Bernoulli numbers and first principles of discrete probability.
Bolyai, Janos (1802- 1860). Scientiam Spatii Absolute Veram Exhibens. Maros Vásárhely, Kali, 1832 -33. A twenty-six page
appendix to his father's book in which Bolyai introduced non- Euclidean,
or hyperbolic, geometry to the world.
Copernicus, Nicolaus ( 1473 -1543). De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium. Nuremberg, Petreius, 1543. First edition of his work expounding on the
heliocentric model of the solar system.
Dedekind, Richard (1831- 1916). Was Sind und Was Sollen die Zahlen? Braun-
Schweig, Vieweg, 1888. First careful logical treatment of the real numbers.
Descartes, René (1596 - 1650). Discours de la Methode pour Bien
Conduire sa Raison et Chercher la Verité dans les Sciences. Leyden,
Maire, 1637. The appendix "La Geometrie" gives the first version
of analytic geometry.
Einstein, Albert (1879 - 1955). Entwurf Einer Verall Gemeinerten Relativitäts
- Theorie und Einer Theorie der Gravitation. Leipzig & Berlin, Teubner,
1913. Presentation copy of Einstein's early work in relativity.
Euclid of Maegara (FL.c. 300 B.C.). Elementa. Venice, Ratdolt, 1482.
First printed edition.
Euclid. The Elements of Geometrie. London, Daye, 1570.
The first English translation of Euclid, with three dimensional models tipped into the text .
Euler, Leonard (1707 - 1783). Institutiones Calculi Differentialis cum
Ejus usu in Analysi Finitorum ad Doctrina Serierum. Petrograd, Imperial
Academy of Sciences, 1755. One of the first comprehensive calculus texts.
Euler. Introductio in Analysin Infinitorum. Lausanne, Bosquet, 1748.
2 volumes. Early calculus text.
Euler. Theoria Motuum Planetarum et Cometarum... Berlin, 1744.
Galilei, Galileo ( 1564-1642). Dialogo de Galileo Galilei Linceo Matematico Sopraordinario... Florence, 1632.
Galois, Evariste (1811- 1832). "Articles Publiés par Galois dans les Annales de Mathematiques" de M. Gergonne, Paris, published by J. Liouville in his Journal de Mathematiques pures et Appliquées, II (1846), 385-394. "Et Alia Opera ..." 395- 407, 408-416 , 417- 433, 434-444 with four page introduction (381 -384) by Liouville. Fourteen years after Galois' death, Liouville published all his known mathematical works, including the letter Galois wrote to Chevalier the night before his death in a duel.
Gauss, Karl Fredrich (1777-1855). Demonstratio Nova Theorematis Omnem Functionem Algebraicam Rationalem Integram Variabilis in Factores Reales Primi vel Secundi Gradus Resolvi Posse. Helmstadt, Fleckeisen, 1799. Presentation copy of Gauss' dissertation in which he first proved the fundamental theorum of alegebra.
Gauss. Disquisitiones Arithmeticae. Leipzig, Fleischer, 1801. Gauss' fundamental results in number theory, including the first proof of the law of quadratic reciprocity.
Gauss. Theoria Residuorum Biquadraticum. Commentatio Prima. Göttingen, Dieterich, 1825.
Hamilton, Sir William Rowan (1805-1865). Lectures on Quaternions. Dublin, Hodges and Smith, 1853. Hamilton's first exposition of his 4- dimensional skew-field extension of the real numbers.
LaGrange, Joseph Louis (1736-1813). Mechanique Analytique. Paris, 1788. First exposition of the general equations of motion of any system of bodies.
Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm (1646-1716). Acta Eruditorum - Anno 1684. Leipzig, Günther, 1684. Contains "Nova Methodus Pro Maximis et Minimis," a first presentation of Leibniz' discovery of differential calculus. Leibniz' essay, published in this journal which he founded, preceded Newton's first published exposition.
Lobachevsky, Nicholas Ivanovich (1793 -1856). Études Géométriques sur la Théorie des Paralléles. Paris, Gauthier- Villars, 1866. No copies of Lobachevsky's first publication of his non- Euclidean, hyperbolic, geometry in the Kazan Messenger are known to exist. This French translation is the earliest publication available.
Loewner, Charles. "Some Classes of Functions Defined by Difference or Differential Inequalities." Reprint from Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society. 56 (July 1950). A sample of work by the Chechoslovakian immigrant mathemathician whom Mr. Bullitt sponsored at the University of Louisville during World War II.
Moivre, Abraham de (1667-1754). The Doctrine of Chances. London, Pearson, 1718.
An early work in probability theory which contains many basic results of modern discrete probability theory.
Newton, Sir Isaac (1642- 1727). Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica. London, Streater, 1687. First edition presentation copy to Lord Halifax, with Newton's own handwritten corrections on the errata leaf. Newton. Opticks. London, Smith & Walford, 1704. Newton's explanations of optical phenomena and assertions of his priority over Leibnez in the discovery of calculus.
Poincaré, Jules Henri (1854-1912). Les Méthodes Nouvelles de la Méchanique Céleste. Paris, Gauthier-Villars, 1892-99. 3 volumes. A great advance in the study of the 3-body problem.
Rheticus, Georg (1514-1576). Narratio Prima. Danzig, Rhodus, 1540.
Exceptionally rare first announcement of the heliocentric system by the pupil of Copernicus.
Riemann, Georg Friedrich Bernhard (1826-1866). Grundlagen für
Eine
Allgemeine Theorie der Functionen Einer Veränderlichen Complexen
Gröss Göttingen, Huth, 1851. Seminal work in the theory of complex
analysis including the Cauchy - Riemann equations.
Weierstrass, Karl (1815- 1897). Beitrag zur Theorie der Abel'schen Integrale. Braunsberg, Heyne, 1849. One of Weierstrass' first efforts in his program
to arithmeticize analysis.
Apollonius of Perga (fl.225 B.C.). Conicorum. Bound with Cylindri
& Coni. Oxford, 1710. Edited by Edmund Halley.
Annotations:
Richard M. Davitt, Department of Mathematics
Photography:
Barbara J. Crawford, Special Collections, Ekstrom Library
For printed lists of this subset or the complete Bullitt Collection contact:
Delinda Stephens Buie
dsbuie@louisville.edu