This volume on mechanics of rigid and elastic bodies contains early papers concerning geometric statics, accompanied by works dealing with the motion of compound pendula and the deformation of beams.The papers on mechanics in this volume do not encompass the area of hydraulics, which occupies approximately one half of the papers dealing with mechanical problems and which are included in volume 7. This collection constitutes, roughly, one eighth of the entire work written by Bernoulli.

Editor-in-chief: Patricia Radelet de Grave