Theoria Motus Corporum Coelestium in Sectionibus Conicis Solem Ambientium

Described by one reviewer as ‘one of the most perfect books ever written on theoretical astronomy’, this work in Latin by the German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855), the ‘Prince of Mathematicians’, derived from his attempt to solve an astronomical puzzle: where in the heavens would the dwarf planet Ceres, first sighted in 1801, reappear? Gauss’ predicted position was correct to within half a degree, and this led him to develop a streamlined and sophisticated method of calculating the effect of the larger planets and the sun on the orbits of planetoids, which he published in 1809. As well as providing a tool for astronomers, Gauss’ method also offered a way of reducing inaccuracy of calculations arising from measurement error; the primacy of this discovery was however disputed between him and the French mathematician Legendre, whose Essai sur la theorie des nombres is also reissued in this series.