Probability.- Bunyakovsky (Viktor) Osnovaniya Matematicheskoy Teorii Veroyatnostey [Foundations of the mathematical theory of probability], first edition, engraved plate at end, occasional spotting, light marginal surface abrasion to p.67, contemporary half cloth, extremities lightly rubbed, spine label slightly chipped, 4to, St Petersburg, Imperial Academy of Sciences, 1846.

⁂ The scarce first edition of the first Russian work on probability by the great mathematician Bunyakovsky (1804-89), who developed Russian probabilistic terms still in use today.

Bunyakovskiy studied mathematics in Paris, where he attended the lectures of Laplace, before completing his doctoral work under Cauchy. On his return to Russia, he demonstrated how probabilistic theory could be applied in real-world situations, examining, among other topics, the navy's pension fund and the statistical likelihood of deaths in army battles. He subsequently became the first head of the Department of Probability at the University of St Petersburg.

In addition to being the author's most significant work on probability, Principles blends theory with applied practice, with many hypothetical case studies examining topics such as the veracity of witnesses to a crime, elections, and solutions to the so-called "Petersburg puzzle" using the Bernoulli distribution and the Poisson distribution.