The foundation of modern mathematics, logic & computer science. First English language edition of Gödel's incompleteness theorems, originally published in Monatshefte für Mathematik in 1931. A lovely, fresh copy in the unusually bright dust jacket.

Gödel's incompleteness theorems are some of the most significant statements ever contributed to the fields of mathematics and logic, proving that even in elementary arithmetic there exist propositions that cannot be proven or disproven within the system. Gödel's work overturned a century's worth of efforts to establish an axiomatic basis for all mathematics, showing instead that the field cannot be bound within one formal system. It laid the foundations for theoretical computer science and demonstrated that computers can never be programmed to answer all mathematical questions.

The original owner of this copy, R.M.P. Quilliam, seems to have been a chemist or materials scientist. He was educated at the Liverpool Institute High School and entered New College, Oxford in 1962, the year before this volume was published. Quilliam is listed as an author on a handful of materials science papers published during the 1960s while a member of the Oxford Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory, and he contributed to New College as an alumni donor until his death in 2023.

First English language edition, first impression; 8vo; original grey cloth, titles to spine in red; neat contemporary ownership signatures to the front pastedown and free endpaper and date to the rear pastedown, in the very lightly rubbed jacket with bright spine panel, excellent condition; 72pp.