ANALYTICAL MACHINE. - MENABREA (L.-F.), Captain of the Military Engineers. Notions sur la machine analytique de M. Charles Babbage. In: Bibliothèque universelle de Genève. Nouvelle série. Volume forty-one. Genève; B. Glaser ; Paris, Anselin, 1842 ; pp. 352-376. In-8, green half-basane, smooth spine decorated, red title page (contemporary binding). The Bibliothèque universelle, a periodical founded in 1796, published a wide variety of literary and scientific articles. Volume 41 contains an article by Dargaud on Job; les Progrès des travaux géographiques by Chaix; Recherches sur l'acide nitrique by Millon... This 1842 issue contains, above all, the first article devoted to the invention of the analytical machine, in 1834, by the English mathematician Charles Babbage. Following a meeting in Turin, the Italian engineer and mathematician Menabrea was put in charge of this report and explained Babbage's principles of calculation. This programmable mechanical calculator is in fact the forerunner of the modern computer; it was never built, as the English Parliament finally stopped its financial support in 1842. "Charles Babbage devoted several years to the realisation of a gigantic thought. He proposed nothing less than to build a machine capable of performing not only arithmetical calculations, but also analytical calculations, the laws of which would be known. At first, the imagination is frightened by such an undertaking, but as one reflects more calmly, success seems less impossible". (p. 353). Restorations to spine, darkened, pale brown spots.