FONTAINE Des BERTINS, Alexis. Mémoires donnés à l'académie royale des sciences non imprimés dans leur temps, par M.Fontaine, de cette académie. 1764.
FONTAINE Des BERTINS, Alexis.
Mémoires donnés à l'académie royale des sciences non imprimés dans leur temps, par M.Fontaine, de cette académie.
Paris, Imprimerie Royale, 1764.
Un volume in quarto (256x197 mm), (8)-588 pages, 8 planches et 2 tableaux dépliants. reliure : Plein veau de l'époque, triple filet doré encadrant les plats, dos à cinq nerfs orné et doré portant la pièce de titre, tranches rouges, gardes en papier marbré. Reliure très frottée, mors fendus avec manque mais solide. Intérieur très frais malgré une mouillures très marginale touchant quelques feuillet en marge in fine.
Édition originale.
Douze mémoires, portant essentiellement sur la géométrie différentielle, le calcul intégral, la mécanique et l'astronomie.
A noter en particulier son mémoire sur "les principes de l'art de résoudre les Problèmes sur le mouvement des corps" dans lequel Fontaine traite du Principe d'Alembert.
Fontaine affirmant avoir communiqué ce mémoire à l'Académie des Sciences en 1739, soit 4 ans avant la publication du "Traité de la dynamique" d'Alembert, il s'attira les foudres de ce dernier.
références: DSB [V pp. 54-55 : "Fontaine studied at the College de Tournon before his introduction to mathematics at Paris under the guidance of Pere Castel.
(...he ) presented several memoirs to the Academie des Sciences, which admitted him as 'adjoint mecanicien' on 11 June 1733. Although promoted to geometer in 1739 and to pensionary geometer in 1742, Fontaine rarely participated in the work of the Academie and led a rather solitary existence.
A difficult personality, he showed almost no interest in the work of others and incurred considerable enimity by clainming priority in certain discoveries.
(...) ) Fontaine's work is of limited scope, often obscure, and wilfully ignorant of the contributions of other mathematicians. Nevertheless, its inspiration is often original and it presents, amid confused developments, a number of ideas that proved fertile, especially in the fields of calculus of variations, of differential equations, and of the theory of equations.
(...) In his ('Memoires') of 1764 Fontaine included a study of dynamics dated 1739 and based a principle closely analagous to the one that d'Alembert had made the foundation of his treatise of 1743.
Although Fontaine did not raise any claim of priority, he attracted the hostility of a powerufl rival who subsequently took pains to destroy the reputation of his work, which--without being ofthe first rank--still merits mention for its original inspiration and for certain fecund ideas that it contains."].
Prix : 750 €
