Arithmetical Books from the Invention of Printing to the Present Time being Brief Notices of a Large Number of Works Drawn Up from Actual Inspection.

London: Taylor and Walton, 1847. First edition of this pioneering bibliographical study by one of the foremost mathematicians of his day. Hinges cracked, but sound, some chipping along front joint, label browned, a little light foxing. Ownership signature, dated 1877, on half-title. A good, clean copy of a scarce and fragile book. Publisher's brown ribbed cloth, printed paper spine label. Octavo. [4], xxviii, 124 pp. Item #15941

After a lengthy and informative introduction, De Morgan provides careful descriptions of some 500 books examined by him and arranged chronologically, with full annotations for each work. The second part, much briefer, is a list of 1580 reputed writers on arithmetic, intended also to serve as an index to the first part. Bibliographer A.N.L. Munby notes that " it is one of the earliest, and still one of the best, of the class of work now called a catalogue raisonnée. The notes, based on total familiarity with the subject-matter of each work, are testimony to the extraordinary range of its author's learning."

The DSB states that this work is "probably the first significant work of scientific bibliography"

Price: $300.00

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