PRINCIPIA MATHEMATICA
Cambridge: printed by John Clay, at the University Press, 1910, 1912, 1913. First editions. Three volumes in blue cloth with gilt stamped spines. 26 cm. xiii, (1), errata, 666; xxxiv, 772; x, 491 pp. Ex-library copy, Univ. of Missouri, with usual markings: small paper labels (mostly removed) at bottom of spine, bookplate on front pastedowns; perforated stamp on title page; remains of library pockets or numbers on rear pastedowns. Some shallow chipping to spine ends; damping to rear board of vol. one, with some bleeding of color to rear endpapers and old staining to gutter; hinges of vol. two cracked, and some ink speckling to fore-edge. Text clean. A seminal work of mathematical logic.
According to information from the sale of the Haskell F. Norman collection of science and medicine (1998), 750 copies of the first volume were produced by the publishers, but disappointing sales resulted in only 500 copies of the next two volumes. This is one of only 500 possible sets of the first edition, therefore. Item #70377
This work of Whitehead and Russell "is acknowledged to be the 'greatest single contribution' to logic since Aristotle; it is also the most remarkable of modern collaborations." [Newman, "The World of Mathematics," (NY: 1956), vol. 1, p.397].
Price: $50,000.00