RARE FIRST EDITION of Hermann Minkowski`s groundbreaking essay on the fourth dimension, read by him in Cologne only a few months before his death. Minkowski`s space-time hypothesis was in effect a restatement of Einstein`s basic principle in a form that greatly enhanced its plausibility and also introduced important new developments. The beginning part of his address delivered at the 80th Assembly of German Natural Scientists and Physicians (21.9.1908) is now famous: "The views of space and time which I wish to lay before you have sprung from the soil of experimental physics, and therein lies their strength. They are radical. Henceforth space by itself, and time by itself, are doomed to fade away into mere shadows, and only a kind of union of the two will preserve an independent reality." Einstein himself at first viewed Minkowski`s treatment as a mere mathematical trick, before eventually realizing that a geometrical view of space-time would be necessary in order to complete his own later work in general relativity (1915). Contains the author`s portrait as frontispiece. 250x175mm. 14 pages. Softcover. Cover worn and age-stained. Cover corners and edges peeling. Cover and pages wavy. Front cover detached. Page corners bumped/wrinkled. Page edges worn. Pages slightly yellowing. [SUMMARY]: This rare first edition of the revolutionary study in physics has suffered some wear, but is still in good reading condition.