Nouvelles méthodes pour la détermination des orbites des comètes Soft cover - 1805

Paris: chez Firmin Didot, 1805. 1st Edition. Soft cover. Very Good. 1st Edition. Soft cover. 1805 (an XIII). 4to (264 x 212 mm). viii, 80 pp., engraved plate bound at end. Simple pink paper wrappers, all pages uncut and partly unopened (somewhat frayed and dust-soiled and spotted, endpapers browned). Light even browning and spotting, exposed outer margins of first leaves tanned, minor fraying of outer edges, light offsetting from plate to p. 80. Provenance: from a French private collection. A very good, unsophisticated copy. ---- EXCEPTIONALLY RARE FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE of this treatise with important implications in the history of statistics. Legrende is in fact believed to be the originator of the method of least squares, developed in the field of astronomy as part of statistical analysis for the observation of celestial bodies. The authorship of the method was debated as Gauss claimed its use as early as 1795. "The method of least squares is the automobile of modern statistical analysis: despite its limitations [. . .] this method and its numerous variations carry the bulk of statistical analyses. Adrien Marie Legrende published the method in 1805. [He] appears to have discovered the method in early 1805 but in 1809 Gauss had the temerity to claim that he had been using the method since 1795" (Stigler, Statistics on the Table, The History of Statistical Concepts and Methods, pp. 320-325. A first supplement was published in 1806 together with a reprint of the first edition and a second one in 1820. Bibliography: Houzeau-Lancaster I, 11968; DSB VIII, p. 137-138. - Visit our website to see more images!