Gauss (Carl Friedrich).
Disquisitiones Arithmeticae.
Leipzig: Gerh. Fleischer, 1801, first edition, octavo, xviii, 668, [10] pp., B7, G4, K3, Ff7, and Tt6 appear to be cancels, none are bound-in in their uncancelled form, and Uu4 is not present, library bookplate and shelfmark label on front pastedown, pencil shelfmarks on front and rear pastedowns and front free endpaper, 'Leipzig' in pencil to title-page, Uu3 with small closed tear to head of blank margin, very faint damp-staining to bottom corner of page edges in the second half of the book, marbled boards, all edges stained green, joints and spine ends rubbed, corners bumped.

A first edition of a work that "is considered to be a book that begins a new epoch in mathematics", it was published when Gauss was just twenty-four: "Gauss ranks, together with Archimedes and Newton, as one of the greatest geniuses in the history of mathematics" (PMM 257, p. 155). "In this book [Gauss] standardized the notation; he systematized the existing theory and extended it; and he classified the problems to be studied and the known methods of attack and introduced new methods. . . . [The Disquisitiones] not only began the modern theory of numbers but determined the directions of work in the subject up to the present time" (Kline, Mathematical Thought from Ancient to Modern Times, p. 813).

The book was issued with a lengthy errata because of the complicated composition of the text, however, the most significant errors within the book were to be corrected with several cancel leaves. The number of cancel leaves in each copy varies, with this copy appearing to have five. The book rarely appears at auction.

Norman 878; PMM 257.