Abstract
The equation that at present time is known as "Laplace’s equation" achieved considerable visibility thanks to the publication of the famous work of Pierre-Simon Laplace "Traité de Mécanique Céleste" (1799). Laplace is acknowledged as the developer of an analytical theory to deal with problems of astronomy understood as "celestial mechanics". In this context, the equation models the problem of gravitational attraction that a spheroid exerts on a generic material point. However, the equation was already known to Leonhard Euler, who had obtained it in 1752 in a work in which he describes the motion of an incompressible fluid. Adopting an epistemological perspective and comparing the contributions of Euler and Laplace, in this note we discuss the question of whether it is correct to associate only Laplace’s name with the equation we are considering.