Banishing Fortuna: Montmort and De Moivre

In 1708 Pierre Rémond de Montmort published Essay d’analyse sur les jeux de hazard, an analysis of contemporary games of chance using probability theory. Three years later Abraham de Moivre published De Mensura Sortis in which various probability problems were solved. Montmort felt that De Moivre had plagiarized his work. In 1718 De Moivre expanded his work under the title The Doctrine of Chances. Montmort remained unhappy with this new work. Both the Essay d’analyse and The Doctrine of Chances contain allegorical engravings that describe in pictures the nature and importance of their respective author’s work.