Political arithmetic.- [Petty (Sir William)] Observations upon the Dublin-Bills of Mortality... and the State of that City, title within ruled woodcut border, 4 folding plates, marginal browning, neatly repaired tear to title, 20th century marbled boards, [Goldsmith's 2516; Wing P1929], 8vo, for Mark Pardoe, at the sign of the Black Raven, over against Bedford-house in the Strand, 1683.

⁂ The first published work on political arithmetic in Ireland. Rare, we can trace only two other copies at auction in the last 70 years.

Petty likely wrote his Observations sometime after his return to Ireland in 1666 but did not publish them until several years later. Petty was largely influence by John Graunt's London-Bills of Mortality (1662) and hoped to produce a similar work for Dublin, although in his preface he laments the paucity of the Dublin records when compared to the London ones.