Bücher der Reihe Cambridge Library Collection - Mathematics

The mathematician Charles Babbage (1791-1871) was one of the most original thinkers of the nineteenth century. In this influential 1830 publication, he criticises the continued failure of government to support science and scientists. In addition, he identifies the weaknesses of the then existing scientific societies, saving his most caustic remarks for the Royal Society. Asserting that the societies were operated largely by small groups of amateurs possessing only superficial interest and knowledge of science, Babbage explores the importance of the relationships between science, technology and society. Exposing the absence of a true scientific culture, he states, 'The pursuit of science does not, in England, constitute a distinct profession, as it does in other countries.' These concerns found favour with many, influencing reforms of the Royal Society and leading to the founding of the British Association.

Problems of Cosmogony and Stellar Dynamics is a theoretical prelude to Jeans's later and more mature work on the subject, Astronomy and Cosmogony. The impetus for publishing his theories on the behaviour of rotating masses, and on general dynamical theory, was the 1917 Adams Prize on the 'rotating and gravitating fluid mass'.

The two volumes reissued here are the only completed part of a survey of the entirety of the physical sciences by Lord Kelvin and his fellow Scot, Peter Guthrie Tait, first published in 1867. This edition is the second, published in 1879.

Nobel laureate Lord Rayleigh was justifiably renowned for the clarity and quality of his work, which has had a continuing impact on modern science. This first of six chronological volumes of his most important scientific papers covers the period 1869-1881, including the early work relating light scattering to wavelength.

The 967 Collected Papers of the Victorian mathematician Arthur Cayley consist of 13 volumes plus an index volume. A key figure in the creation of modern algebra, Cayley became Sadleirian Professor at Cambridge in 1863, and president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1883.

Henry Frederick Baker (1866-1956) was a renowned British mathematician specialising in algebraic geometry. First published between 1922 and 1925, this six-volume work provides a detailed insight into the geometry which was developing at the time of publication. Volume 1 describes the foundations of projective geometry.

Considered by many to be the greatest geometer since Apollonius of Perga, the Swiss mathematician Jakob Steiner (1796-1863) did important work on systemising geometry. This two-volume edition of his collected works in German was edited by Karl Weierstrass (1815-97) and published between 1881 and 1882.

Peter Dirichlet (1805-59) belonged to a network of influential French and German mathematicians, and his many achievements included foundational work in analytic number theory. These two volumes, which appeared in 1889-97, are a collection of all his published work, together with several unpublished papers and selected correspondence.

These selected works by French physicist and mathematician Joseph Fourier (1768-1830) were published in two volumes in 1888-90. Volume 1 is given over entirely to the immortal Theorie analytique de la chaleur (1822), from which the world learnt about the heat equation and the series which bears Fourier's name.

In the two-volume Mecanique analytique, sometimes claimed to be the most important book on classical mechanics since Newton, Lagrange developed the law of virtual work, from which single principle the whole of solid and fluid mechanics can be derived.

Charles Hermite (1822-1901) was a French mathematician who made significant contributions to pure mathematics, and especially to number theory and algebra. The four volumes of his collected papers were published between 1905 and 1908.

Sir George Stokes established the science of hydrodynamics with his law of viscosity describing the velocity of a small sphere through a viscous fluid. He published no books, and these collected papers (issued between 1880 and 1905) constitute the main surviving record of the work of this outstanding mathematician.

Baron Cauchy (1789-1857) was the pre-eminent French mathematician of the nineteenth century. He was a pioneer in real analysis, the theory of functions of a complex variable, and theoretical mechanics. Twenty-six volumes of his collected papers were published between 1882 and 1958.

From short notes to major treatises, this twelve-volume collection contains the complete scientific works of the German mathematician, physicist and astronomer Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855). Volume 4, published in 1873, focuses on probability, differential geometry and topography, and includes data from Gauss' geodesic surveys of the Kingdom of Hanover.

The French mathematician Gerard Desargues (1591-1661) was one of the founders of projective geometry. His writings, published in two volumes in 1864 by Noel-Germinal Poudra (1794-1894), reveal Desargues' important role in the scientific debates of the seventeenth century. Volume 1 contains the majority of Desargues' treatises.

Originally published in 1881, this is the first volume of the collected works of the Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel (1802-29). It contains many of Abel's fundamental discoveries, including his proofs of the 'impossibility theorem' and the binomial theorem, and his famous 'Paris memoir' on elliptic functions.

Baron Cauchy (1789-1857) was the pre-eminent French mathematician of the nineteenth century. He was a pioneer in real analysis, the theory of functions of a complex variable, and theoretical mechanics. Twenty-six volumes of his collected papers were published between 1882 and 1958.

Published in 1810, this report on the current state of mathematics was commissioned by Napoleon I and written by French mathematician and astronomer Jean-Baptiste Delambre (1749-1822). It presents an overview of progress during Napoleon's reign in the fields of geometry, algebra, astronomy and geography.

An important figure in mathematical logic and abstract algebra, Augustus De Morgan (1806-71) also wrote wittily on paradoxical and illogical thinking through time. Edited by his widow and published in 1872, this entertaining work parades all varieties of crackpot, from circle-squarers to inventors of perpetual motion machines.

Originally published between 1880 and 1886, this two-volume work by George Shoobridge Carr (1837-1914) was intended as an aid to students preparing for the Cambridge Mathematical Tripos. Most notably, it played an important part in the mathematical education of the Indian prodigy Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887-1920).

Originally published between 1880 and 1886, this two-volume work by George Shoobridge Carr (1837-1914) was intended as an aid to students preparing for the Cambridge Mathematical Tripos. Most notably, it played an important part in the mathematical education of the Indian prodigy Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887-1920).

The German mathematician Karl Weierstrass (1815-97) is generally considered to be the father of modern analysis. This seven-volume edition of his collected mathematical works in German, published between 1894 and 1927, demonstrates his rigorous approach, which still dominates the first analysis course at any university.

The Cambridge polymath Isaac Barrow (1630-77) was Lucasian Professor of Mathematics between 1663 and 1669. This one-volume collection of his mathematical writings in Latin was first published in 1860. It includes the first general statement of the fundamental theorem of calculus as well as Barrow's 'differential triangle'.

Edward John Routh (1831-1907) was a highly successful mathematics coach at Cambridge. He also contributed to the foundations of control theory and to the modern treatment of mechanics. Published in 1898, this textbook offers extensive coverage of dynamics, with formulae and examples throughout.

Edward John Routh (1831-1907) was a highly successful mathematics coach at Cambridge. He also contributed to the foundations of control theory and to the modern treatment of mechanics. Published between 1896 and 1902, this revised two-volume textbook offers extensive coverage of statics, with formulae and examples throughout.

The French mathematician Abraham de Moivre (1667-1754) is remembered for his formula which relates complex numbers and trigonometry. Reissued here is the revised and expanded 1738 second edition of the influential textbook on probability theory that he first published in English in 1718.

First published in 1795 and reissued here in its 1815 sixth edition, The Elements of Algebra by James Wood (1760-1839) was one of the standard Cambridge texts for decades, also accompanying Charles Darwin aboard the Beagle. It gives an interesting glimpse of the mathematical standards expected of undergraduates.

A distinguished mathematician and notable university teacher, Isaac Todhunter (1820-84) became known in his time for his successful textbooks. Edited and completed by Karl Pearson (1857-1936), and published between 1886 and 1893, this three-part work traces the mathematical understanding of elasticity from Galileo to Lord Kelvin.

A largely self-educated mathematician, George Boole (1815-64) was widely recognised for his ability and became the first professor of mathematics at Cork. The influence of this 1859 work can still be traced in many modern treatments of differential equations and numerical analysis.

An indefatigable mathematician and university teacher at Cambridge, Isaac Todhunter (1820-84) is best remembered for his successful textbooks. This 1865 publication traces the progress of probability theory from its roots in the seventeenth century through to the early nineteenth century and Pierre-Simon Laplace's wide-ranging coverage of the subject.