Fermat and the first mathematization of gambling (Q735090)

This is a meticulous study of the celebrated correspondence between Pascal and Fermat (1654) on games of chance. Its reading is somewhat time-consuming (demanding first of all to understand and get used to the author's notation) but necessary for anyone concerned with that topic. The author argues that five of their letters are missing but that the letter from Fermat to Pascal dated by the year (1654) only and included for example in Vol. 1 of Pascal's ``Oeuvres complètes'' (Paris, 1998) was actually written by someone else. He also notes that Pascal had probably edited the first version of his ``Traité du triangle arithmétique'', in Latin, in 1652--1653 and that a new edition of the works of Fermat ``est en cours de publication''. Reviewer's remark: In the appended Bibliography, Hold's name is mistakenly written as Wald.