Milestones of Science Books

QUETELET, Lambert Adolphe Jacques.

Sur l'homme et le développement de ses facultés, ou essai de physique sociale. Two parts in one volume.

Paris: Bachelier, 1835.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Item #003246

8vo (209 x 130 mm). [4], xii, 327 [1]; [4], viii, 327 [1] pp., including half-titles and 6 folding plates, of which 4 are engraved and 2 lithographed. Near contemporary half calf over marbled boards, spine with two lettering pieces lettered in gilt, sprinkled edges, marbled endpapers (upper hinge split but cords holding, slight rubbing to extremities). Text slightly browned in margins, occasional minor spotting, one plate somewhat foxed, tear in p. 323/4 of first part slightly affecting frame of table, a few clean short tears elsewhere, few pages with finger-soiling, lower blank corner of 3 leaves and blank fore-margin of one leaf torn with loss, a few light pencil markings. Very good copy. ----

Kress C.4017; Einaudi 4601; Palgrave III, 247; Garrison-Morton 1698.1; DSB XI, p.237. - EXCEPTIONALLY RARE FIRST EDITION of Quetelet's foundation work of social statistics. He was among the first to apply statistics to social science, planning what he called "social physics". His goal was to understand the statistical laws underlying such phenomena as crime rates, marriage rates or suicide rates. He wanted to explain the values of these variables by other social factors. "With Quetelet's work of 1835 a new era in statistics began. It presented a new technique of statistics or, rather, the first technique at all. The material was thoughtfully elaborated, arranged according to certain preestablished principles, and made comparable ... Quetelet's average man became a slogan in ninetheenth-century discussions on social science ... Quetelet's impact on nineteenth century thinking can in a certain sense be compared with Descartes's in the seventeenth century" (DSB XI, p.237). Visit our website to see more images!

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