This book is a history of complex function theory from its origins to 1914, when the essential features of the modern theory were in place. It is the first history of mathematics devoted to complex function theory, and it draws on a wide range of published and unpublished sources. In addition to an extensive and detailed coverage of the three founders of the subject – Cauchy, Riemann, and Weierstrass – it looks at the contributions of authors from d’Alembert to Hilbert, and Laplace to Weyl. Particular chapters examine the rise and importance of elliptic function theory, differential equations in the complex domain, geometric function theory, and the early years of complex function theory in several variables. Unique emphasis has been devoted to the creation of a textbook tradition in complex analysis by considering some seventy textbooks in nine different languages. The book is not a mere sequence of disembodied results and theories, but offers a comprehensive picture of the broad cultural and social context in which the main actors lived and worked by paying attention to the rise of mathematical schools and of contrasting national traditions. The book is unrivaled for its breadth and depth, both in the core theory and its implications for other fields of mathematics. It documents the motivations for the early ideas and their gradual refinement into a rigorous theory.
This book describes the history of modern mathematics, from the invention of the calculus to the modern era. Addressed not only to those with some knowledge of mathematics but also to those interested in the history of an important part of modern culture, the book provides an image of the complex development of mathematics from the end of the seventeenth century to the Second World War. The discussions take into account the broader social and political currents that affected the development of mathematics, but gives prominence to the development of the ideas of mathematics: the motivations and articulations, the problems and theories that drives the work of mathematicians. The theme of the book comes from Hilbert: "In the history of every mathematical theory three phases can be clearly identified: the creative, the formal, and ultimately, the critical." Bottazzini thus investigates how the developments of mathematics flow into each other, how critical assessment of one theory leads to discoveries of connections to others or to creation of entirely new theories.
The true method of foreseeing the future of mathematics is to study its history and its actual state." With these words Henri Poincare began his presentation to the Fourth International Congress of Mathematicians at Rome in 1908. Although Poincare himself never actively pursued the history of mathematics, his remarks have given both historians of mathematics and working mathematicians a valuable methodological guideline, not so much for indulging in improbable prophecies about the future state of mathematics, as for finding in history the origins and moti va tions of contemporary theories, and for finding in the present the most fruitful statements of these theories. At the time Poincare spoke, at the beginning of this century, historical research in the various branches of rna thema tics was emerging with distinctive autonomy. In Germany the last volume of Cantor's monumental Vorlesungell iiber die Gesehiehte der Mathematik had just appeared, and many new specialized journals were appearing to complement those already in existence, from Enestrom's Bibliotheea mathematiea to Loria's Bollettino di bibliogra/ia e di storia delle seienze matematiehe. The annual Jahresberiehte of the German Mathematical Society included noteworthy papers of a historical nature, as did the Enzyklopadie der mathematisehen Wissenseha/ten, an imposing work constructed according to the plan of Felix Klein.
This book is a history of complex function theory from its origins to 1914, when the essential features of the modern theory were in place. It is the first history of mathematics devoted to complex function theory, and it draws on a wide range of published and unpublished sources. In addition to an extensive and detailed coverage of the three founders of the subject – Cauchy, Riemann, and Weierstrass – it looks at the contributions of authors from d’Alembert to Hilbert, and Laplace to Weyl. Particular chapters examine the rise and importance of elliptic function theory, differential equations in the complex domain, geometric function theory, and the early years of complex function theory in several variables. Unique emphasis has been devoted to the creation of a textbook tradition in complex analysis by considering some seventy textbooks in nine different languages. The book is not a mere sequence of disembodied results and theories, but offers a comprehensive picture of the broad cultural and social context in which the main actors lived and worked by paying attention to the rise of mathematical schools and of contrasting national traditions. The book is unrivaled for its breadth and depth, both in the core theory and its implications for other fields of mathematics. It documents the motivations for the early ideas and their gradual refinement into a rigorous theory.
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