Adolphe Quételet, *The Social Order and Its Laws* [1874]

Title: The Social Order and Its Laws.

Author: Adolphe Quételet (1796–1874) [Belgian astronomer, mathematician, and statistician; one of the founders of social statistics and a precursor of sociology].

Translation: Translated from French by law students with the author’s authorization.

Publisher: Warsaw, Published by Cels Lewicki & Co. Bookstore.

Year of publication: 1874.

Format: 22 cm.

Number of pages: 266.

Binding: Paperback.

Polish translation of the treatise “Du système social et des lois qui le régissent,” published in Paris in 1848. In it, Quételet presented a program for studying society using the methods of the exact sciences. He sought regularities in the numbers of births, deaths, marriages, and crimes that were comparable to the laws of nature. On this basis, he developed the concept of the “average man” (l’homme moyen) and used it to construct an argument about the mechanisms of collective life. With the author’s permission, law students in Warsaw undertook the translation. The volume was published by Celsa Lewicki’s bookstore in the year of the scholar’s death. It appeared at a time when Warsaw positivists were vigorously debating the scientific understanding of society.

Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quételet was born in 1796 in Ghent. In 1819, he earned a doctorate in mathematics from the university there. On his initiative, the Royal Observatory in Brussels was established, and he became its first director. From 1834 until his death, he served as permanent secretary of the Royal Belgian Academy. In 1853, he organized and presided over the first International Statistical Congress in Brussels. He referred to his research as “social physics.” His name has also endured beyond the social sciences: the body mass index he developed is known as the Quetelet index, or BMI. He died on February 17, 1874, in Brussels.

Provenance: on the cover, an ink ownership stamp reading “Fr. Gawroński.” On the reverse of the title page and on the last page, there are “National Library” stamps with cancellation marks—evidence that the volume was held in the National Library’s collection and was officially withdrawn as a duplicate. There are notes on the title page, and in the text there are old underlinings in pencil and ink. All stamps and deaccession marks are legible.

This is a classic work of 19th-century social statistics in a contemporary Polish translation, in its original publisher’s binding. A must-have for researchers of the origins of sociology and statistics, as well as historians of science and Polish Positivism.

The block is complete but has come loose: the original stitching is weakened, and several of the initial sections and endpapers are coming loose from the spine. The paper shows natural foxing, acid-induced yellowing, minor soiling, and fraying along the uncut edges of the pages. The original paperback cover is in fair condition—with surface soiling, as well as losses and cracks in the flexible spine. The volume requires comprehensive bookbinding restoration.

Catalog ID: 14269-22-A-X