STATISTICS FOR HAPPINESS

A PASSIONATE ADVOCATE OF DATA-INFORMED DECISION-MAKING

Indole, estensione, vantaggi della statistica. Confutazione dell’ opuscolo che ha per titolo: Del fine delle statistiche. Risposta alle obbiezioni fatte alle Tavole statistiche.

Risposta alle obbiezioni fatte alle Tavole statistiche. Milan, Pirotta and Maspero, March 1809.

8vo, pp. viii, 195, [1 (blank)]; a remarkably clean, unsophisticated copy, uncut in original yellow wrappers; light dust-staining to wrappers with a few minor creases and chips; ink presentation inscription ‘a S. E il Senatore Felici / in attestato di rispetto / l’autore’ to front pastedown, contemporary ink shelfmark to upper margin of title and ink ownership stamp to lower margin, pencil mark to front pastedown, remains of an old paper label to rear pastedown.

£1250

Approximately:
US $1619€1488

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Indole, estensione, vantaggi della statistica. Confutazione dell’ opuscolo che ha per titolo: Del fine delle statistiche. Risposta alle obbiezioni fatte alle Tavole statistiche.

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First and only edition of this rare work on the nature and necessity of statistics by Melchiorre Gioia, presented by the author to the former Minister for the Interior, Daniele Felici.

The publication of the Indole, estensione, vantaggi della statistica was a momentous event in the controversy that led to the exile of its author, the statistician and econonomist Melchiorre Gioia (1767–1829). It was conceived as a defence of his work of the previous year, the Tavole statisiche, in which he had presented ‘algebraic formulas for an optimal solution for balancing the happiness of each and every person’ (DBI trans.) with the use of statistics on seven topics: topography, population, agriculture, arts and crafts, trade, public administration, and the character of the people. Met by immediate and public rebuke from contemporary administrators, Gioia wrote this riposte exploring the central role of statistics in the pursuit of public welfare; it, too, was dismissed, and in May he resorted to publishing a satirical novel to highlight his predicament, La scienza del povero diavolo, for which he was exiled in July and not allowed to return to Milan until the following November.

His subsequent highly praised contributions to economics continued to be underpinned by his belief in the fundamental importance of data as drivers of policies for the happiness of nations.

Provenance:
The present copy was inscribed by Gioia to the Senator and erstwhile Minister for the Interior, Daniele Felici (1769–1836), under whom he had been appointed to lead the Office for Statistics in 1803.

OCLC finds one copy in the UK (Senate House) and only two in the US (Harvard, Washington); no copies traced at auction.

Not in Sraffa.

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