Early statistical analysis of the Geonese Lottery

STAMPA, Giuseppe Maria.

Ludus serio expensus ... nec non eiusdem de arithmetica progressione tractatus. In quo praeter alias scitu digna de quantitate discreta tota resoluitor combinatoria.

Milan: Ex typographia Iosephi Pandulfi Malatestae, 1700.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Item #003036

8vo (236 x 193 mm). [8], 87 [1] pp. Woodcut device on title-page, decorative woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces, errata on final page, double page woodcut table. Near contemporary simple cardboard (light staining and soiling). Text little browned, occasional minor spotting and brown staining, incompletely erased old ink scribbling on 4 pages. ----

Riccardi I, 475:2 ('raro'). - RARE FIRST EDITION, devided into two parts, of a Stampa's work on combinatorics and the game of chance. The first, more prosaic and non-mathematical part, Ludus serio, deals with the game of chance and the Genoese lottery (Sortilegio Genuensi) with verses and prose in Latin and Italian, while the second part, De arithemtica progressione treats the arithmetic progressions and combinatorics behind gambling. "The Genoise lottery was the first number lottery. It and its variants were discussed by many mathematicians, including Leonhard Euler, because such lotteries were perceived to be unfair and because they gave rise to many interesting problems. Usually it took the form of choosing 5 from 100 with various payoffs depending upon the wager made. Beside the Genoese lottery there are other games mentioned in the work." (Richard J. Pulskamp, Sources in the History of Probability and Statistics, online resource). - Visit our website for additional images and information.

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