Kiøbenhavn, Thiele, 1781 - 1799.
4to. Uniformly bound, uncut, in recent blue boards. Stamp to title-page in vol. 1 (Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab). Washed. A very nice and clean copy. XII, 640, (20) pp. 19 plates; VIII, (4), 603, (13) pp. + 17 plates; XII, 576, (1) pp. + 18 plates; XII, 621 pp. + 7 plates; XII, 670 pp. + 10 plates.
First edition of the complete second series of the transactions of the Royal Danish Society of Sciences, preceded by “Skrifter, som udi de Kongelige Videnskabers Selskab ere Fremlagde, og nu til Trykken Befordrede” and subsequently continued as “Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskabs Skrifter”. A nice set containing a wealth of scientific material of the Enlightenment period with substantial contributions in botany and zoology (including several important papers by Lorentz Spengler and Christen Friis Rottbøll), as well as astronomy, mechanics, meteorology, mathematics, and other fields. Of particular interest is the final volume (1799), which contains Caspar Wessel’s landmark paper “Om directionens analytiske betegning, et forsög, anvendt fornemmelig til plane og sphaeriske polygoners oplösning”, representing the first systematic treatment of complex numbers and Lorentz Spengler's: Nogle nyligen opdagede smaa Snekkers Beskrivelse (+) Beskrivelse over nogle i Havsandet nylig opdagede Kokillier, med forstorrede afbildninger (+) Beskrivelse over en nye og sielden Koral-Art (+) Beskrivelse over et ganske besynderligt Corall-Produkt Other papers of interest are:
Order-nr.: 62602