Gathering, Preserving, Transmitting

This contributed volume examines in detail the function and role of dictionaries and encyclopedias published between the 18th and 20th centuries in the compilation, preservation and transmission of mathematical knowledge.

In what ways does encyclopedism deal with mathematics? What choices were made in organizing this knowledge within the general economy of dictionaries and encyclopedias? In what ways is mathematics preserved and perpetuated? What processes of selection, appropriation, adaptation, codification, or standardization of mathematical knowledge and practices are at work in such publications? To address these questions, the book gathers contributions from historians of mathematics on dictionaries and encyclopedias, spanning a wide geographical area (France, Germany, Italy, the UK, and the USA). By focusing on the specificities of mathematics, on certain types of mathematical knowledge, on the biographical treatment of the mathematical persona and the construction of posterity, or on the national or non-national character of the knowledge featured, the chapters raise the question of the long-term nature of mathematical knowledge, and especially that of the practical, sometimes contingent, ways in which this is created and the memorial selection that results from it. The contributions adopt some common methodological approaches, especially in the broad choice of dictionaries and encyclopedias studied.

This volume will be of interest not only for mathematicians but also for non-experts, literate or popular readers, as it considers mathematics in its social dimension, at a time when its uses and applications were proliferating, and it was entering the common culture.