The Library of James Stirling, Mathematician Auction

23 October 2025 from 13:00 GMT

The Library of James Stirling, Mathematician

Sale Number: 878

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Cathy Tait

Head of Sale

MEET THE COLLECTOR

James Stirling: Mathematician of the Newtonian Age

Discover more about one of the leading mathematicians in Europe in the early 18th century.

The Catalogue Flipbook

Browse /download the catalogue flipbook

AUCTION VIEWING

Edinburgh Auction Viewing

20 - 22 October 2025

33 Broughton Place, Edinburgh EH1 3RR

LOTS (160)

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Newton, Sir Isaac

Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica

Estimate: £10,000 - £20,000

Newton, Sir Isaac

Optice

Estimate: £2,000 - £3,000

Newton, Sir Isaac

Opticks

Estimate: £2,000 - £3,000

Newton, Sir Isaac

Lectiones opticae

Estimate: £2,000 - £3,000

Newton, Sir Isaac

Analysis per quantitatum series, fluxiones, ac differentias

Estimate: £40,000 - £60,000

Newton, Sir Isaac

A Treatise of the Method of Fluxions and Infinite Series

Estimate: £1,000 - £1,500

Newton, Sir Isaac

Genesis curvarum per umbras

Estimate: £300 - £500

Newton, Sir Isaac

Two Treatises of the Quadrature of Curves

Estimate: £2,000 - £3,000

Newton, Sir Isaac

De mundi systemate

Estimate: £3,000 - £5,000

Newton, Sir Isaac

Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John

Estimate: £600 - £800

Newton, Sir Isaac

The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended

Estimate: £600 - £800

Pemberton, Henry

A View of Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophy

Estimate: £300 - £500

Bedford, Arthur

Animadversions upon Sir Isaac Newton's Book intitled The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended

Estimate: £200 - £300

Voltaire

The Elements of Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophy

Estimate: £300 - £500

Maclaurin, Colin

An Account of Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophical Discoveries

Estimate: £400 - £600

Maclaurin, Colin

A Treatise of Fluxions

Estimate: £2,000 - £3,000

Maclaurin, Colin (1698-1746)

Ten autograph letters signed to James Stirling

Estimate: £15,000 - £20,000

Maclaurin, Colin (1698-1746)

Autograph letter signed on the priority dispute with George Campbell over the impossible roots of equations

Estimate: £3,000 - £5,000

Gravesande, Willem Jacob 's

An Essay on Perspective

Estimate: £400 - £600

Euler, Leonhard (1707-1783)

Two autograph letters signed to James Stirling

Estimate: £3,000 - £5,000

Cramer, Gabriel (1704-1752)

Ten autograph letters signed to James Stirling

Estimate: £3,000 - £5,000

Klingenstierna, Samuel (1698-1765)

Autograph letter signed to James Stirling, with additional mathematical demonstrations

Estimate: £1,000 - £1,500

Castel, Louis-Bertrand (1688-1757)

Autograph letter signed to James Stirling

Estimate: £400 - £600

Poleni, Giovanni (editor) - Sextus Julius Frontinus

De Aquaeductibus Urbis Romae Commentarius

Estimate: £300 - £500

Galilei, Galileo

Opere

Estimate: £2,000 - £3,000

Bacon, Francis

Opera omnia quae extant

Estimate: £300 - £500

Bernoulli, Johann

Opera omnia

Estimate: £800 - £1,200

Nebel, Wilhelm Bernard

Dissertatio physica de Mercurio lucente in vacuo

Estimate: £1,000 - £2,000

Bernoulli, Nicolaus (1687-1759)

Three autograph letters signed to James Stirling

Estimate: £1,500 - £2,000

Campailla, Tommaso (1668-1740)

Autograph letter signed to James Stirling

Estimate: £1,000 - £1,500

Mathematics and geometry

Collection of works, 18th century

Estimate: £400 - £600

Du Hamel, Jean-Baptiste

Regiae Scientiarum Academiae Historia

Estimate: £200 - £300

Mariotte, Edme

Oeuvres

Estimate: £300 - £400

Cuming, Sir Alexander (c.1690-1775)

Autograph letter signed to James Stirling

Estimate: £500 - £800

Simpson, Thomas

Essays on several Curious and Useful Subjects, in Speculative and Mix'd Mathematicks

Estimate: £300 - £400

Simson, Robert

Sectionum conicarum libri v

Estimate: £500 - £800

Simson, Robert (1687-1768)

Autograph letter signed to James Stirling

Estimate: £800 - £1,200

Gardiner, William

Tables of Logarithms, for all Numbers from 1 to 102100

Estimate: £300 - £500

Halley, Edmond (editor) - Apollonius of Perga

Conicorum libri octo

Estimate: £1,500 - £2,000

Euclid

[Opera] quae supersunt omnia

Estimate: £400 - £600

Bacon, Roger

Opus majus ad Clementem Quartum Pontificem Romanum

Estimate: £1,200 - £1,800

Simpson, Thomas

The Doctrine and Application of Fluxions

Estimate: £300 - £500

Stewart, Matthew

Some General Theorems of Considerable Use in the Higher Parts of Mathematics

Estimate: £300 - £500

[Montmort, Pierre Rémond de]

Essay d'analyse sur les jeux de hazard

Estimate: £500 - £800

Moivre, Abraham de

The Doctrine of Chances

Estimate: £3,000 - £4,000

Moivre, Abraham de

The Doctrine of Chances

Estimate: £1,000 - £1,500

Moivre, Abraham de

Annuities upon Lives

Estimate: £2,000 - £3,000

Moivre, Abraham de

Annuities on Lives

Estimate: £300 - £500

Simpson, Thomas

The Doctrine of Annuities and Reversions

Estimate: £300 - £500

Taylor, Brook

Methodus incrementorum directa et inversa

Estimate: £800 - £1,200

Stirling, James (1692-1770)

Mathematical notebooks

Estimate: £3,000 - £5,000

Stirling, James (1692-1770)

'Methodus Differentialis sive Tractatus de Summatione et Interpolatione Serierum Infinitarum'

Estimate: £40,000 - £60,000

Stirling, James (1692-1770)

Methodus Differentialis sive Tractatus de Summatione et Interpolatione Serierum Infinitarum

Estimate: £20,000 - £30,000

Stirling, James

The Differential Method

Estimate: £3,000 - £5,000

Stirling, James (1692-1770)

Diploma of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences

Estimate: £800 - £1,200

Maupertuis, Pierre Louis Moreau de

Discours sur les différentes figures des astres

Estimate: £1,000 - £1,500

Dortous de Mairan, Jean-Jacques

Traité physique et historique de l'aurore boréale

Estimate: £500 - £800

Maupertuis, Pierre Louis Moreau de

La figure de la terre

Estimate: £600 - £800

Bouguer, Pierre

La figure de la terre

Estimate: £400 - £600

Agricola, Georgius

De ortu et causis subterraneorum lib. v.

Estimate: £3,000 - £5,000

Agricola, Georgius

De re metallica libri xx

Estimate: £3,000 - £5,000

Stirling, James (1692-1770) - The Scots Mining Company

Archive of letters and paperwork relating to the management of Leadhills Mine

Estimate: £3,000 - £4,000

[Geodesy]

Group of works on the figure and history of the earth, 18th century

Estimate: £500 - £800

Bradley, James (1693-1762)

Autograph letter signed to James Stirling

Estimate: £2,000 - £3,000

Clairaut, Alexis (1713-1765)

Autograph letter signed to James Stirling

Estimate: £500 - £700

Machin, John (1680-1751)

Two autograph letters signed to James Stirling

Estimate: £2,000 - £3,000

Woodward, John

An Essay towards a Natural History of the Earth, and Terrestrial Bodyes, especially Minerals

Estimate: £200 - £300

Priestley, Joseph

The History and Present State of Electricity, with Original Experiments

Estimate: £1,000 - £1,500

Black, Joseph

Experiments upon Magnesia Alba, Quick-Lime, and Other Alcaline Substances

Estimate: £500 - £800

Science and medicine

Collection of works, 18th century

Estimate: £500 - £800

Hutton, James

The Theory of the Earth, from the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh

Estimate: £3,000 - £5,000

Stirling, James (1692-1770)

Collection of manuscript notebooks on weights and measures

Estimate: £12,000 - £16,000

Stirling, James (1692-1770)

'Treatise on Weights and Measures and Coinage'

Estimate: £3,000 - £4,000

Stirling, James (1692-1770), his copy, with annotations

A Report from the Committee appointed to Enquire into the Original Standards of Weights and Measures

Estimate: £400 - £600

Greaves, John

Miscellaneous Works of Mr. John Greaves, Professor of Astronomy in the University of Oxford

Estimate: £600 - £800

Weights and Measures, Coinage, Currency

Collection of works, 18th century

Estimate: £500 - £700

Clarke, William

The Connexion of the Roman, Saxon, and English Coins

Estimate: £150 - £250

Agricola, Georgius

De mensuris et ponderibus Romanorum atque Graecorum lib v.

Estimate: £600 - £800

Plato

Apanta ta sozomena

Estimate: £3,000 - £4,000

Aristotle

Opera omnia quae extant

Estimate: £600 - £800

Strabo

Geographikon bibloi 17

Estimate: £300 - £500

Xenophon

Ta euriskomena

Estimate: £300 - £500

Archimedes

Panta Sozomena

Estimate: £1,000 - £1,500

Cato, Marcus Porcius, & others

Libri de re rustica

Estimate: £300 - £500

Dioscorides

Tou anazarbeos ta sozomena hapanta

Estimate: £300 - £500

Suidas

[Opera] nunc primum integer Latinitate donatus

Estimate: £300 - £400

Vitruvius Pollio, Marcus

De architectura libri decem

Estimate: £500 - £800

Stirling, James (1692-1770), his copies

Classical literature, a group of works from his library, 17th-18th century

Estimate: £400 - £600

[Justinian]

'In Quatuor Libro Institutionum Justiniani Annotationes Inchoates'

Estimate: £400 - £600

Continental books

Collection of works, 17th-18th century

Estimate: £600 - £800

Greek historians

Collection of folio editions, 17th-18th century

Estimate: £300 - £500

Greek authors

Collection of folio editions, 17th-18th century

Estimate: £400 - £600

Greek and Latin authors

Collection of works, 17th-18th century

Estimate: £400 - £600

Classical literature

Collection of British editions of Greek and Latin authors, 17th-18th century

Estimate: £400 - £600

Classical literature

Collection of works, continental imprints, 16th-18th century

Estimate: £500 - £700

Plutarch

The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romanes

Estimate: £2,000 - £3,000

Stukeley, William

Stonehenge

Estimate: £500 - £800

Antiquarian literature

Collection of works, mainly 18th century

Estimate: £300 - £500

British history

Collection of works, mainly 18th century

Estimate: £300 - £500

Prideaux, Humphrey

Marmora Oxoniensia, ex Arundellianis, Seldenianis, aliisque conflata

Estimate: £200 - £300