2 volumes. xxix, [3], 425; xxiii, [1], 444 + 15 ad pp.; errata slip in Vol. I. With 20 plates. 8½x5½, original reddish-brown cloth, spines lettered in gilt. First Edition, First Issue.
First edition of the fundamental book on modern electromagnetism. James Clerk Maxwell is considered by many to be the greatest theoretical physicist of the nineteenth century. Clerk Maxwell, while acknowledging his dept to Faraday, extended the theoretical to the mathematical, leading him to define light an electromagnetic phenomenon. In Printing and the Mind of Man, 355, it is noted that Einstein's work on relativity was founded directly upon Maxwell's electromagnetic theory.
The book exists in different states of binding, errata and advertisement leaves. This copy with a single errata slip, before p.1 in Vol. I; later copies were issued with one in Vol. II as well. With bookplates of the Ashmolean Society on front pastedowns, each of which is signed by Herbert Goldstein, Cambridge, June 1950; small shelf label at top corner of each front pastedown.
Condition:
Fading to spines, a bit of extremity rubbing, Vol. II with rear joint splitting, repair to spine head; else very good or better, contents quite fresh, in custom-made folding cloth box.