‎"MAUPERTUIS, PIERRE LOUIS MOREAU de.‎
‎Loi du Repos des Corps. (20 Février 1740).‎

‎Paris, L'Imprimerie Royale, 1742. 4to. Uncut in contemp. blue blank covers. Issued in ""Historie de L'Academie Royale des Sciences. Paris."" Année 1740, pp. 170-176 and 1 engraved plate. With titlepage to the whole volume.‎

Reference : 38731

‎First edition of this important paper - Laws of Bodies at Rest - in which Maupertuis showed that a system of bodies at rest tend to reach a position in which any change would create the smallest possible change in a quantity that he argued could be assimilated to action. This is the forerunner of his ""Principle of least Action"".‎