Histoire des Mathématiques

Abstract

TO write within the compass of less than 240 octavo pages an intelligible outline of the history of mathematics from the earliest times to the present day is a task so difficult that its accomplishment might reasonably be thought impossible. Yet by adopting a consistent, if modest, programme, and frankly accepting its necessary limitations, M. Boyer has achieved a considerable measure of success; possibly as much as the scope of his essay could allow. A reader whose mathematical knowledge is only moderate, or even elementary, will obtain from this book some idea, trustworthy so far as it goes, of the contributions made to the science of mathematics by the ancient Babylonians, Egyptians, Indians and Greeks; he will be able to follow the feeble course of geometry and analysis through the Middle Ages, and appreciate to some extent the glorious renascence of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; and he will acquire some conception of the work of the giants, from Newton to Laplace, who established the primary landmarks of modern mathematics.

Histoire des Mathématiques.

Par J. Boyer. Pp. xii + 260. (Paris: G. Carré et C. Naud, 1900.)