NEWTONIANISM -- DE MOIVRE, Abraham (1667-1754). The Doctrine of Chances; or A method of calculating the probability of events in play, London: by W. Pearson for the author, 1718, 4°, FIRST EDITION, engraved title vignette, head- and tailpiece (perforation affecting 3 letters of title, stamp on verso, accesion stamp at foot of dedication, some browning of margins, occasional soiling and ink-staining), modern cloth [Babson 181; Honeyman 2240] Provenance: JCL -- Francis MASERES (editor) (1731-1824). The Doctrine of Permutations and Combinations, being an essential and fundamental part of the doctrine of chances ... by Mr. James Bernoulli ... Dr. John Wallis ... with ... other useful mathematical tracts, London: by B. and J. White, 1795, 8°, FIRST EDITION (lacking half title, stamps), modern buckram [Babson 179; Wallis 262] Provenance: Schultz Collection; together with the second edition of De Moivre's work (London, 1738) and Benjamin Peirce's A System of Analytic Mechanics (Boston, 1855). (4)

Details

NEWTONIANISM -- DE MOIVRE, Abraham (1667-1754). The Doctrine of Chances; or A method of calculating the probability of events in play, London: by W. Pearson for the author, 1718, 4°, FIRST EDITION, engraved title vignette, head- and tailpiece (perforation affecting 3 letters of title, stamp on verso, accesion stamp at foot of dedication, some browning of margins, occasional soiling and ink-staining), modern cloth [Babson 181; Honeyman 2240] Provenance: JCL -- Francis MASERES (editor) (1731-1824). The Doctrine of Permutations and Combinations, being an essential and fundamental part of the doctrine of chances ... by Mr. James Bernoulli ... Dr. John Wallis ... with ... other useful mathematical tracts, London: by B. and J. White, 1795, 8°, FIRST EDITION (lacking half title, stamps), modern buckram [Babson 179; Wallis 262] Provenance: Schultz Collection; together with the second edition of De Moivre's work (London, 1738) and Benjamin Peirce's A System of Analytic Mechanics (Boston, 1855). (4)

Lot Essay

This first edition of The Doctrine of Chances is without C2 called for by Babson, but this is evidently a misprint since the pagination is as called for and the catch-word on C1 follows on correctly. De Moivre was the friend of Newton and his classic work on the theory of probability is dedicated to him. Maseres' compendium includes "a demonstration of Sir Isaac Newton's famous binomial theorem, in the cases of integral powers, and of the reciprocals of integral powers."

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