Albert Einstein. Die Grundlagen der allgemeinen Relativitätstheorie. Leipzig: Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1916. Firs...
Description
First Separate Edition of Einstein's Theory of General Relativity
Albert Einstein. Die Grundlagen der allgemeinen Relativitätstheorie. Leipzig: Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1916. First separate edition, and the first separate appearance in print of Einstein's fundamental statement of the General theory of Relativity. This is not an offprint from Annalen der Physik as is often thought, but a completely new setting of type with additions and revisions, and the first appearance of the introduction that was not in the journal issue. Weil states that this first edition may be identified by the presence of the printer's imprint "Druck von Metzger & Wittig in Leipzig" on the verso of the title, and "Metzger & Wittig, Leipzig" on the back wrapper. Original appearance of this work was as part of the journal Annalen der Physik 4. Folge, Band 49, 1916. Large octavo. Original tan printed wrappers, untrimmed, some minor darkening to edges, a couple minor blemishes, otherwise a very good copy.More Information:
"Whereas Special Relativity had brought under one set of laws the electromagnetic world of Maxwell and Newtonian mechanics as far as they applied to bodies in uniform relative motion, the General Theory did the same thing for bodies with the accelerated relative motion epitomized in the acceleration of gravity. But first it had been necessary for Einstein to develop the true nature of gravity from his principle of equivalence ... Basically, he proposed that gravity was a function of matter itself and that its effects were transmitted between contiguous portions of space-time ... Where matter exists, so does energy; the greater the mass of matter involved, the greater the effect of the energy which can be transmitted. In addition, gravity affected light ... exactly as it affected material particles. Thus the universe which Newton had seen, and for which he had constructed his apparently impeccable mechanical laws, was not the real universe ... Einstein's paper gave not only a corrected picture of the universe but also a fresh set of mathematical laws by which its details could be described." (R.W. Clark, Einstein, New York, 1984, page 253). Printing and the Mind of Man 408. Weil 80a. Grolier/Horblit 26c; Norman 696. Boni 78.1.
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