This classic work (first published in 1947), in three volumes, provides a lucid and rigorous account of the foundations of modern algebraic geometry. The authors have confined themselves to fundamental concepts and geometrical methods, and do not give detailed developments of geometrical properties but geometrical meaning has been emphasized throughout. This first volume is divided into two parts. The first is devoted to pure algebra: the basic notions, the theory of matrices over a non-commutative ground field and a study of algebraic equations. The second part is in n dimensions. It concludes with a purely algebraic account of collineations and correlations.