The mathematical career of Pierre de Fermat, 1601-1665. (2nd edition). 2nd ed. (English) Zbl 0820.01017

Mahoney, Michael Sean

Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. xii, 432 p. (1994).

This is the second and revised edition of the book of 1973 (see Zbl 0264.01007). The author writes in his Preface (1994): “The revisions consist of corrections of errors indicated by reviewers and friends and inclusion of results from more recent literature and my own subsequent research where they seemed to bear directly on the story my younger self was trying to tell.”
Contents: Preface (1994). Introduction. Acknowledgements. I The Personal Touch. II Nullum Non Problema Solvere: Viète’s Analytic Program and Its Influence on Fermat. III The Royal Road. IV Fashioning One’s Own Luck. V Archimedes and The Theory of Equations. VI Between Traditions. Epilogue: Fermat in Retrospect. Appendix I and II. Index.

Reviewer: P.Müürsepp (Tartu)

MSC:

01A70	Biographies, obituaries, personalia, bibliographies
01A45	History of mathematics in the 17th century
01-02	Research exposition (monographs, survey articles) pertaining to history and biography

Citations:

Zbl 0264.01007