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 théorie des nombres is also reissued in this series.

Liber I. Relationes Generales Inter Quantitates, per quas Corporum Coelestium Motus Circa Solem Definiuntur: 1. Relationes ad locum simplicem in orbita spectantes; 2. Relationes ad locum simplicem in spatio spectantes; 3. Relationes inter locos plures in orbita; 4. Relationes inter locos plures in spatio; Liber II. Investigatio Orbitarum Corporum Coelestium ex Observationibus Geocentricis: 1. Determinatio orbitae e tribus observationibus completis; 2. Determinatio orbitae e quatuor observationibus, quarum duae tantum completae sunt; 3. Determinatio orbitae observationibus quoteunque quam proxime satisfacientis; 4. De determinatione orbitarum, habita ratione perturbationum; Tabulae.

This 1809 Latin work by the German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855) offered a streamlined and sophisticated method of calculating the effect of the larger planets and the sun on the orbits of planetoids, and a way of reducing inaccuracy of calculations arising from measurement error.