The book is aimed at people working in number theory or at least interested in this part of mathematics. It presents the development of the theory of algebraic numbers up to the year 1950 and contains a rather complete bibliography of that period.  The reader will get  information about results obtained before 1950. It is hoped that this may be helpful in preventing rediscoveries of old results, and might also inspire the reader to look at the work done  earlier, which may hide some  ideas which could be applied in contemporary research.

Wladyslaw Narkiewicz is a Polish mathematician who is particularly active in the fields of (analytic) number theory, algebra and the history of mathematics. He received his PhD in 1961 and his habilitation in 1967 at the University of Wroclaw, where he also taught from 1974 to 2006 as a full professor. He is the author of several Springer books, among which the “Rational Number Theory in the 20th Century” and “The Development of Prime Number Theory”.  Narkiewicz held during his career various administrative functions at the University of Wroclaw, including Deputy Head of the Mathematical Institute, Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics and Vice Rector for Scientific Affairs. In 1968 he was awarded the Stefan Banach Prize.