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Pioneering British mathematician and mechanical engineer (1791-1871) whose Difference Engine and Analytical Engine are generally acknowledged as the first programmable computers. Signed book: Observations on the Analogy Which Subsists Between the Calculus of Functions and Other Branches of Analysis by Charles Babbage. London: Offprint from The Philosophical Transactions, printed by W. Bulmer and Co., 1817. Custom leather-bound hardcover with marbled boards, 7.75 x 10, 22 pages. Signed on the title page in ink by Babbage, "From the Author." In fine condition, with light foxing and toning to the textblock.
Charles Babbage’s 1817 paper "Observations on the Analogy Which Subsists Between the Calculus of Functions"—first paper read by Babbage himself to the Royal Society after his selection as a member—is one of his early works, introducing his ideas on functions and symbolic operations. In it, Babbage explores analogies in calculus and aims to generalize operations beyond numerical values to apply to functions themselves, laying the groundwork for the concept of symbolic computation. The paper is highly innovative and brought from French mathematician Augustin-Louis Cauchy the remark that it proved that 'in the land of Newton there were still geometricians who worked for the progress of analysis'—the note of surprise is not hidden in this somewhat back-handed compliment. This work foreshadows Babbage's later innovations in mechanical computation and demonstrates his early focus on abstract mathematical principles.
