London: printed for J. Mawman and sold by J. Booth, 1826. First edition of Babbage’s first substantial published work, the first thorough treatise on actuarial theory, complete with folding table of mortality statistics, generally considered the first reliable life table. It serves as an early example of the desire and... More
Item #3302
London: John Murray, 1851. First edition, rare, especially in the original publisher’s cloth. Chapter 13, entitled ‘Calculating engines,’ contains a description of the current state of development of Babbage’s Analytical Engine. Conceived by him in 1834, this machine was designed to evaluate any mathematical formula and to have even higher... More
Item #3299
Basel: Impensis Thurnisiorum Fratum, 1713. First edition, an exceptionally fine copy, rare in this condition. “Jakob 1 Bernoulli’s posthumous treatise, edited by his nephew [Nicholas I Bernoulli], (the title literally means “the art of [dice] throwing”) was the first significant book on probability theory: it set forth the fundamental principles of... More
Item #4063
First edition. Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1888. His text book on probability in which he stated the famous problem later known as ‘Bertrand’s paradox’. 8vo: 235x158 mm. Publishers half cloth over printed boards. Some browning to boards and half title. Otherwise clean and fine throughout. LVII,(1),332 pp. More
Item #1934
First edition. London: Taylor, 1851. A fine copy, in original wrappers, of Boole’s first paper probability. The ideas he put forth in this work were later developed and included in his famous Laws of Thought (1854). “This seems to have been the first mention, by any author, of the close... More
Item #2974
First edition. Berlin: Julius Springer, 1928. A fine copy, from the library of Niels Bohr, of Fermi’s statistical approach to the determination of atomic structure. The association is particularly appropriate since Bohr had inaugurated the quantum-theoretical approach to atomic structure in 1913. Fermi’s approach was developed independently and simultaneously by... More
Item #3540
First edition. Berlin: Königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1828. First printing of what is now called the Gauss-Newton interpolation formula; which enables one to predict the value of a quantity given a finite number of observations. Gauss had lectured on the interpolation formula at Göttingen in 1812; his then student Encke... More
Item #2983
First edition. Paris: Courcier, 1816. A fine uncut copy of his influential text book on probability - beeing the first exposition of Laplace's 'Théorie analytique des probabilités' (see Landmark Writings in Western Mathematics, p.339). 8vo (213 x 140 mm). VIII, 299, (3: errata) pp. Original interims-brochur, spine heavely worn but... More
Item #2025
![Théorie Analytique des Probabilités. Paris: Courcier, 1812. [With:] Supplément a la Théorie Analytique des Probabilités, Paris: Courcier, n.d. [1816]; Deuxième Supplément …, n.p., February 1818; Troisième Supplément …, Paris: Courcier, n.d. [1819]; Quatrième Supplément …, Paris: Huzard-Courcier, n.d. [1825]. Pierre Simon LAPLACE, Marquis de.](/pictures/thumb/4159.jpg?v=1488371701)
Paris: Courcier, 1812-25. First edition, very rare, accompanied by all four supplements (the fourth supplement is especially rare), of “the most influential book on probability and statistics ever written” (Anders Hald), which John Herschel called “the ne plus ultra of mathematical skill and power” (Essays from the Edinburgh and Quarterly... More
Item #4159
London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1876. First edition, rare on the market in this condition, of Maxwell's textbook on dynamics, “a masterpiece of natural philosophy, notable especially for introducing into physics the term relativity in a passage that combines strenuous scientific insight with a mystical awareness … [It] had... More
Item #3849
First edition. London: Printed by W.P. and sold by F. Fayram; Benj. Motte; and W. Pearson, 1725. A very nice copy of de Moivre’s influential study of annuities based upon the mortality statistics gathered by Edmund Halley in the 1690s. “De Moivre’s contribution to annuities lies not in his evaluation... More
Item #3291
Paris: J. Quilau, 1708. Rare first edition, first issue (i.e., without plates and with significant textual differences in comparison with the second issue also from 1708 which has plates). Based on the problem’s set forth by Huygens in his famous treatise De Ratiociniis in Ludo Aleae (1657), it spawned the... More
Item #2862
![Lettres de A[mos] Dettonville contenant Quelques-unes de ses Inventions de Géométrie. Sçavoir – La Résolution de tous les Problèmes touchant la Roulette qu’il avoit proposez publiquement au mois de Juin 1658. L’Égalité entre les Lignes courbes de toutes sortes de Roulettes, & des Lignes Eliptiques. L’Égalité entre les Lignes Spirale, & Parabolique, demonstrée à la manière des Anciens. La Dimension d’un Solide formé par le moyen d’une Spirale autour d’un Cone. La Dimension & le Centre de gravité des Triangles Cylindriques. La Dimension et le Centre de gravité de l’Escalier. Un Traitté des Trilignes & de leurs Onglets. Un Traitté des Sinus, et des Arcs de Cercle, Un Traitté des Solides Circulaires. Blaise PASCAL.](/pictures/thumb/4403.jpg?v=1511689615)
Paris: Guillaume Desprez, 1659. First edition, extremely rare (one of about 120 copies printed), of one of Pascal’s most brilliant works. “Édition originale, extrêmement rare, de la dernière œuvre de Pascal, l’une des plus éclatantes de son génie” (Lucien Scheler in Tchemerzine, V, pp. 54-55). “Pascal devoted himself during 1658... More
Item #4403
Paris: Chez Batilliot jeune et Genets jeune, 1802. A fine copy of the important first French edition (see below) of The Statistical Breviary. Playfair, the founder of graphical methods of statistics, published this work originally in English in 1801. It is considered his most theoretical book about graphics in which... More
Item #3265