Atticus Rare Books

Raum-Zeit-Materie. Vorlesungen uber Allgemeine Relativitatstheorie in Die Naturwissenschaften, Heft 25, Berlin: Julius Springer, 21 Juni [June] 1918, p. 373 [SINGLE ISSUE IN ORIGINAL WRAPPERS: EINSTEIN’S REVIEW OF WEYL’S SEMINAL RAUM-ZEIT-MATERIE]

Einstein, Albert [Hermann Weyl]

Berlin: Julius Springer, 1918. 1st Edition. FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL WRAPPERS OF EINSTEIN’S REVIEW OF WEYL’S SEMINAL WORK, RAUM-ZEIT-MATERIE [SPACE-TIME-MATTERS] -- WEYL’S STUDY OF THE THEORY OF RELATIVITY, written after spending a year with Einstein as the latter was working out the details of his theory. Weyl’s work is still considered "the standard treatise on the general theory of relativity" (Nature). In the very favorable review offered here, Einstein writes “every page shows the amazingly steady hand of the master who has penetrated the subject matter from the most diverse angles… [Weyl] understood how to combine mathematical rigor with graphic intuition” (Einstein, 373).

Weyl’s work includes “an exposition and examination of Einstein's general theory of relativity and the concomitant theory of gravitation. A detailed investigation follows devoted to gravitational waves, a rigorous solution of the problem of one body, laws of conservation, and the energy of gravitation” (Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy). The Dictionary of Scientific Biography notes that Weyl’s work played "an important role in the development of mathematical physics" (DSB XIV, p. 281). "Whatever the future may bring, Professor Weyl's book will remain a classic of physics" (British Journal for Philosophy and Science”).

Hermann Klaus Hugo Weyl (1885-1955) was a German mathematician, theoretical physicist, and philosopher. “His work had a vast range, encompassing analysis, algebra, number theory, topology, differential geometry, spacetime theory, quantum mechanics, and the foundations of mathematics” (Stanford). In 1913, Weyl took a teaching post at the ETH Zurich where he was a colleague of Einstein’s just as the latter was working out the details of the theory of general relativity.

In 1914, Einstein left Zürich and the theoretical physics program at the ETH. The program was much weakened in his absence, and Weyl “needed no external prompting to work in, and to teach, theoretical physics: his interest in the subject in general and, above all, in the theory of relativity, gave him more than sufficient motivation in that regard. Weyl decided to lecture on the general theory of relativity in the summer semester of 1917, and these lectures became the basis of his famous book, Raum-Zeit-Materie of 1918” – the one Einstein here reviews (ibid).

NOTE: We separately offer two other works by Weyl, The Mathematical Way of Thinking and his 1923 paper Zur Allegemeinen Relativatstheorie. We also offer many works by Einstein. Item #1385

CONDITION & DETAILS: Berlin: Julius Springer. Complete. 4to. (10.5 x 7.5 inches; 262 x 187mm). 3 plates and in-text illustrations. Name "Fitch" in light pencil. Very minor old crease in front wrap, long flattened. Very good + condition.

Raum-Zeit-Materie. Vorlesungen über Allgemeine Relätivitatstheorie in Die Naturwissenschaften.

Price: $200.00