A Cultural History of Mathematics in the Early Modern Age covers the period from 1450 to 1687, a time marked by increasing interplay between science and society. Classical writing on science which had been lost and Arabic thinking which was new both percolated into the West, fertilizing new ideas and giving birth to what has been called the “Scientific Revolution”. From artisanal workshops to academic institutions, mathematicians thrived. And, with the development of symbolic algebra and infinitesimal calculus, mathematics became one of the major tools for describing and understanding the world.

The six volume set of the Cultural History of Mathematics explores the value and impact of mathematics in human culture from antiquity to the present. The themes covered in each volume are everyday numeracy; practice and profession; inventing mathematics; mathematics and worldviews; describing and understanding the world; mathematics and technological change; representing mathematics.

Jeanne Peiffer is Senior Scientist at the French National Centre for Scientific Research, affiliated to the Centre Alexandre-Koyré, Paris, France. Volker R. Remmert is Professor of History of Science at the University of Wuppertal, Germany.

Volume 3 in the Cultural History of Mathematics set.
General Editors: David E. Rowe, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany, and Joseph W. Dauben, City University of New York, USA.

Jeanne Peiffer has made her career as a research scientist at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), and was affiliated with the Centre Alexandre Koyré, Paris, where she is still active as emerita. As a historian of mathematics, she focused on early modern mathematics, namely on Albrecht Dürer's contributions to geometry and on Johann Bernoulli's correspondence. She is part of an international network devoted to the study of the circulation of mathematics within and via journals. For more details, see http://koyre.ehess.fr/index.php?404


Volker Remmert has been trained as mathematician and historian. He teaches history of science and technology at the University of Wuppertal. His research interests are in the history of early modern science and in the history of mathematics in Germany in the 19th and 20th centuries.