MONTUCLA 1792

Description

Histoire de Mathématiques, Nouvelles edition, considerablement augmentée et prolongée jusque vers l΄époque actuelle, par J.F.Montulca, 4 vol., à Paris, chez Henri Agasse, 1799-1802

Jean-Étienne Montucla (1725 –1799) was a French mathematician and historian, born at Lyon. In 1754 he published an anonymous treatise on quadrature, Histoire des recherches sur la quadrature du cercle. Montucla’s deep interest in history of mathematics became apparent with his publication of Histoire des Mathématiques, the first part  in two volumes appearing in 1758. According to George Sarton, the Histoire is “ a history of the mathematical sciences, and might almost be called a history of science from the mathematical angle, even as many histories of medicine are to some extent histories of science written from the medical angle”.

His Histoire des Mathématiques was expanded to four volumes (1799–1802), the two new being published posthumously and with considerable additions by Jérôme Lalande (1732–1807) and other French mathematicians. This work was the most complete history of mathematics published before the 19th century. Volume I considered the origins of mathematics until the fall of the Roman Empire; each successive volume expanded the chronology of the development of mathematics. Volume IV, the last book in the series, discusses mathematics in the West up to the end of the 18th century.