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Mathematical Treasure: French Edition of Disquisitiones Arithmeticae

Author(s): 
Frank J. Swetz (The Pennsylvania State University)

In 1798, when he was only twenty-one years old, Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777–1855) wrote his revolutionary text on number theory, Disquisitiones Arithmeticae. He published this work in 1801. It was translated from Latin into French by Antoine Charles Marcelin Poullet-Delisle (1778–1849), a professor of mathematics in Orleans, and appeared as Recherches Arithmétiques in 1807.

Title page of Recherches Arithmétiques by Carl Friedrich Gauss, 1807

The “Table of Contents” outlines the material discussed in the book.

First page of table of contents of Recherches Arithmétiques by Carl Friedrich Gauss, 1807

Second page of table of contents of Recherches Arithmétiques by Carl Friedrich Gauss, 1807

Third page of table of contents of Recherches Arithmétiques by Carl Friedrich Gauss, 1807

Fourth page of table of contents of Recherches Arithmétiques by Carl Friedrich Gauss, 1807

Fifth page of table of contents of Recherches Arithmétiques by Carl Friedrich Gauss, 1807

The images above were obtained through the courtesy of the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto, and are available via the Internet Archive.

Index to Mathematical Treasures

Frank J. Swetz (The Pennsylvania State University), "Mathematical Treasure: French Edition of Disquisitiones Arithmeticae," Convergence (February 2020)