Bourbaki - Elements of The History of Mathematics PDF

Bourbaki· Elements of the History of Mathematics
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Nicolas Bourbaki
Elements
of the History
of Mathematics
Translated from the French
by John Meldrum
, Springer
Nicolas Bourbaki
Translator
John Meldrum
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
James Clerk Maxwell Building
University of Edinburgh, Mayfield Road
Edinburgh EH9 3Jz,Scotland
Second Printing 1999
Title of the French edition:

Elements d'histoire des mathematiques
© Masson Editeur, Paris 1984
English edition by special arrangement with Springer-Verlag
Mathematics Subject Classification (1991): 01-XX

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bourbaki, Nicolas.
[BI6ments d'histoire des math6matiques. Bnglish]
Blements of the history of mathematics I Nicolas Bourbaki ;
translated from the French by John Meldrum.
p. cm.
"Second printing" - T.p. verso.
Includes bibliographical references (p. - ) and index.
I. Mathematics--History I. Title.
QA21.B7613 19948
510' .9--dc21 98-39221
eIP
ISBN-13: 978-3-540-64767-6 e-ISBN-13: 978-3-642-61693-8

DOl: 10.1007/978-3-642-61693-8
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PREFACE.
This work gathers together, without substantial modification, the major-

ity of the historical Notes which have appeared to date in my Elements de
M atMmatique. Only the flow has been made independent of the Elements to
which these Notes were attached; they are therefore, in principle, accessible
to every reader who possesses a sound classical mathematical background, of
undergraduate standard.
Of course, the separate studies which make up this volume could not in
any way pretend to sketch, even in a summary manner, a complete and con-
nected history of the development of Mathematics up to our day. Entire parts
of classical mathematics such as differential Geometry, algebraic Geometry,
the Calculus of variations, are only mentioned in passing; others, such as the
theory of analytic functions, that of differential equations or partial differ-
ential equations, are hardly touched on; all the more do these gaps become
more numerous and more important as the modern era is reached. It goes
without saying that this is not a case of intentional omission; it is simply
due to the fact that the corresponding chapters of the Elements have not yet
been published.
Finally the reader will find in these Notes practically no bibliographic or
anecdotal information about the mathematicians in question; what has been
attempted above all, for each theory, is to bring out as clearly as possible
what were the guiding ideas, and how these ideas developed and reacted the
ones on the others.
The numbers in square brackets refer to the Bibliography at the end of
the volume.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
1. Foundations of Mathematics; Logic; Set Theory ................. .

2. Notation; Combinatorial Analysis .............................. 45
3. The Evolution of Algebra .................................... 47
4. Linear Algebra and Multilinear Algebra ......................... 57
5. Polynomials and Commutative Fields ........................... 69
6. Divisibility; Ordered Fields ................................... 85
7. Commutative Algebra. Algebraic Number Theory ................. 93
8. Non Commutative Algebra ................................... 117
9. Quadratic Forms; Elementary Geometry ......................... 125
10. Topological Spaces .......................................... 139
II. Uniform Spaces ............................................ 145
12. Real Numbers .............................................. 147
13. Exponentials and Logarithms .......... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 157
14. n Dimensional Spaces ....................................... 159
15. Complex Numbers; Measurement of Angles ..................... 161
16. Metric Spaces .............................................. 165
17. Infinitesimal Calculus ........................................ 167
18. Asymptotic Expansions ...................................... 199
19. The Gamma Function ....................................... 203
20. Function Spaces ............................................ 205
21. Topological Vector Spaces .................................... 207
22. Integration in Locally Compact Spaces ......................... 219
23. Haar Measure. Convolution ................................... 231
VIII TABLE OF CONTENTS
24. Integration in Non Locally Compact Spaces ..................... 237

25. Lie Groups and Lie Algebras ................................. 247
26. Groups Generated by Reflections; Root Systems .................. 269
Bibliography .................................................. 275
Index ........................................................ 297
1. FOUNDATIONS OF MATHEMATICS;
LOGIC; SET THEORY.
The study of what is usually called the "foundations of mathematics" , which

has been carried out ceaselessly since the beginning of the 19th century, was
impossible to bring to fruition except with the help of a parallel effort to
systematise Logic, at least those parts that govern the links between mathe-
matical statements. So it is not possible to separate the history of set theory
and the formalisation of mathematics from that of "Mathematical Logic" . But
traditional logic, like that of the modern philosophers, covers in principle, an
area of applications far greater than Mathematics. Therefore the reader must
not expect to find in what follows a history of Logic, even in a very sum-
marised form; we have limited ourselves as far as possible to retracing the
evolution of Logic only in so far as it impinged on that of Mathematics. It is
because of this that we will say nothing about the non-classical logics (many-
valued logics, modallogics)j all the more so will we be unable to tackle the
history of those controversies which, from the Sophists to the Vienna School,
have never stopped dividing philosophers both as to the possibility and the
manner of applying Logic to objects in the real world or to concepts of human
thought.
That there was a well-developed prehellinic mathematics is not today in

any doubt. Not only are the notions (already very abstract) of whole number
and of the measurement of quantities commonly used in the most ancient
documents which have reached us from Egypt or Chaldea, but Babylonian
algebra, because of the elegance and sureness of its methods, should not be
thought of as a simple collection of problems solved by empirical fumbling.
And, if nothing is found in the texts which resembles a "proof" in the formal
meaning of the word, it is reasonable to believe that the discovery of such
methods of solution, whose generality appears through particular numerical
applications, was not possible without a minimum of logical links (perhaps
not entirely conscious, but rather like those ori which a modern algebraist
depends when he undertakes a calculation, before "setting down formally"
all the details) ([232], pp. 203 ff.).
The essential originality of the Greeks consisted precisely of a conscious
effort to order mathematical proofs in a sequence such that passing from one
link to the next leaves no room for doubt and constrains universal assent.
2 1. FOUNDATIONS OF MATHEMATICS; LOGIC; SET THEORY.
That Greek mathematicians made use, in the course of their research, just like
modern mathematicians, of "heuristic", rather than convincing, arguments,
is what was proved for example (if there were any need), by the "treatise of
method" of Archimedes [153 c]; note also in this, allusions to results "found,
but not proven" by earlier mathematicians. 1 But from the first detailed texts
that are known to us (and which date from the middle of the Vth century),
the ideal "canon" of a mathematical text is properly settled. It will find its
highest expression in the great classics, Euclid, Archimedes and Apolloniusj
the notion of proof, in these authors, differs in no way from ours.
We have no texts allowing us to follow the first steps of this "deductive
method", which seems to us already near perfection at the exact moment
when we become aware of its existence. One can only think that it fits fairly
naturally into the perpetual search for "explanations" of the world which
characterises Greek thought and which is so discernible already amongst the
Ionian philosophers of the VIIth century; moreover tradition is unanimous in
ascribing the development and refinement of the method to the Pythagorean
School, in a period which fits between the end of the VIth century and the
middle of the Vth century.
It is on this "deductive" mathematics, fully conscious of its goals and
methods, that the philosophical and mathematical thought of subsequent
times will be concentrated. We will see on the one hand the establishment
little by little of "formal" Logic modelled on mathematics, to conclude with
the creation of formalised languages; on the other hand, mainly starting at
the beginning of the XIXth century, the basic concepts of mathematics will
be queried more and more and a great effort will be made to clarify their
nature, especially after the birth of the Theory of sets.
THE FORMALISATION OF LOGIC.
The general impression which seems to emerge from the (very patchy) texts
that we have on Greek philosophical thought of the Vth century, is that it is
dominated by an increasingly conscious effort to extend to the whole field of
human thought the procedures for conducting discussion put in hand with so
much success by contemporary rhetoric and mathematics - in other words,
to create Logic in its most general form. The tone of philosophical writings
1 Notably Democritus, to whom Archimedes attributes the discovery of the formula

giving the volume of a pyramid ([153 cl, p. 13). This allusion must be put alongside
a famous fragment attributed to Democritus (but of contested authenticity) where
he states: "No one has ever surpassed me in conatructingjigures by means of proofs,
not even the Egyptian "harpedonaptes", as they are called." ([89], v. I, p. 439 and
v. II, 1, pp. 727-728). The comment by Archimedes and the fact that proofs (in the
classical sense) have never been found in those Egyptian texts which have reached
us, lead us to think that the "proofs" to which Democritus refers were no longer
considered such in the classical period, and would not be so today either.
1. FOUNDATIONS OF MATHEMATICS; LOGIC; SET THEORY. 3
undergoes at this time a sudden change: while in the VIIth and VIth centuries
the philosophers affirm or vaticinate (or at most outline vague arguments,
based on equally vague analogies), starting with Parmenides and especially
Zenon, they argue and try to draw out general principles which can serve as a
basis for their dialectic: it is in Parmenides that one finds the first statement
of the principle of the excluded middle, and the proofs "by contradiction"
of Zenon of Elea remain famous. But Zenon writes in the middle of the Vth
century; and, whatever the uncertainties of our documentation,2 it is very
likely that at this time, mathematicians, in their own sphere, were currently
using these principles.
As we said above, it is not for us to retrace the innumerable difficulties
which abound at every step in the gestation of this Logic, and the controver-
sies which result, from the Eleatics to Plato and Aristotle, via the Sophists;
let us pick up here only the role played in this evolution by the assiduous
cultivation of oratorical art and the analysis of language which is one of its
corollaries, developments that it is agreed should be attributed mainly to
the Sophists of the Vth century. On the other hand, even if the influence of
mathematics is not always explicitly recognised, it is none the less manifest,
in particular in the writings of Plato and Aristotle. It can be said that Plato
was almost obsessed by mathematics; without being himself an inventor in
this area, he kept up, after a particular period in his life, with the discov-
eries by contemporary mathematicians (many of whom were his friends or
his pupils), and never after ceased from a most direct kind of interest, even
going so far as to suggest new directions of research; so it is that constantly,
in his writings, mathematics serves as illustration or model (and sometimes
even, as with the Pythagoreans, feeding his leanings towards mysticism). As
for his pupil Aristotle, he could not have avoided receiving the minimum
of mathematical foundations required of the pupils of the Academy, and a
volume has been produced consisting of extracts of his work that are about
mathematics or refer to it [153 d]; but he seems never to have made a great
effort to keep in touch with the mathematical movements of his time, and
he only quotes in this area results that had been popularised a long time
before. This displacement will besides only become more marked with the
majority of later philosophers, of whom many, due to the lack of technical
preparation, believe themselves in all good faith to be speaking knowledge-
ably about mathematics, whereas they will only be referring to a stage long
since overtaken in its evolution.
The end product of this period, as far as Logic is concerned, is the mon-
umental work of Aristotle [6], whose great merit is to have succeeded in
systematising and codifying for the first time procedures of reasoning which
2 The best classical example of proof by contradiction in mathematics is the proof
of the irrationality of ../2, to which Aristotle often refers; but modern experts have
not been able to date this discovery with any accuracy, some putting it at the be-
ginning and others at the very end of the Vth century (see p. 148 and the references
cited there concerning this topic).
4 1. FOUNDATIONS OF MATHEMATIOS; LOGIO; SET THEORY.
had remained vague or unformulated in his predecessors.3 We must above

all retain here, as our aim, the general thesis of this work, to know that it
is possible to reduce all correct reasoning to the systematic application of a
small number of immutable rules, which are independent of the particular
nature of the objects in question (an independence which is clearly demon-
strated by the representation of the concepts or propositions by means of
letters - probably borrowed by Aristotle from the mathematicians). But
Aristotle concentrates his attention almost exclusively on a particular type
of relations and logical chains, making up what he calls the "syllogism": it
is mainly a case of relations that we would translate nowadays in the form
A C B or An B :/: 0 in the language of the theory of sets,4 and with the way
of chaining these relations or their negations, by means of the schema
(A C Band B C C) => (A C C).
Aristotle was still sufficiently informed of the mathematics of his era in order
to have seen that schemas of this type were not sufficient to take account of
all the logical operations used by mathematicians, nor, all the more, of the
other applications of Logic ([6], An. Pr.,I, 46).5 At least the deep study of
the different forms of "syllogisms" which he undertakes (and which is almost
entirely consecrated to the elucidation of the perpetual difficulties raised by
the ambiguity or the obscurity of the objects on which the reasoning bears)
gives him among others the chance to formulate the rules for obtaining the
negation of a proposition ([6], An. Pr., I, 46). It is also to Aristotle that is
3 In spite of the simplicity and the "obviousness" that the rules of logic formulated
by Aristotle appear to layout for us, it is only necessary to put them back in their
historical setting in order to appreciate the difficulties that presented themselves in
trying to obtain a precise statement of these rules, and the effort that Aristotle must
have put forth in order to succeed: Plato, in his dial~gues, where he is addreaaing a
cultured public, still lets his characters get embroiled with questions as elementary
as the relationships between the negation of A C B and the relation A n B =• (in
modern notation), however making the correct answer appear later [264].
• The corresponding statements of Aristotle are "All A is B" and "Some A is B"; in
this notation A (the "subject") and B (the "predicate") take the place of concepts,
and to say that "AU A is a B" means that it is possible to assign the concept B to
each object to which it is possible to assign the concept A (A is the concept "man"
and B the concept "mortal" in the classic example). The interpretation that we
give to it consists in considering the set of objects to which the concepts A and B
respectively can be applied; it is the point of view "of extension" so called, already
known to Aristotle. But he considers mainly the relation "AU A is B" from another
point of view, that "of comprehension" where B is seen as one of the concepts that
constitute in some way the more complex concept A, or, as Aristotle says, "belong"
to it. At first sight, the two points of view seem as natural one as the other, but
the point of view "of comprehension" has been a constant source of problems in
the development of Logic (it seems further removed from intuition than the first,
and leads fairly easily to errors, notably in schemes involving negations; d. [69a],
pp.21-32).
II For a critical discussion of syUogisms and their deficiencies, see for example ([69a],
pp. 432-441) or ([164], pp. 44-50).
due the credit for having distinguished with great precision the role of "uni-
versal" propositions from that of "particular" propositions, the first sketch
of quantifiers. 6 But it is too well known how the influence of his writings
(often interpreted in a narrow and unintelligent way), which remain still very
influential until well into the XIXth century, waS to encourage philosophers
in their neglect of the study of mathematics, and to block the progress of
formal Logic. 7
However this latter continued to make progress in Antiquity, in the sur-
roundings of the Megaric and Stoic schools, rivals of the Peripatetics. Our
information about these tenets are unfortunately all at second hand, often
passed on by adversaries or mediocre commentators. The essential progress
achieved by these logicians consists, it would appear, of the formation of a
"propositional calculus" in the meaning which it has today: instead of being
restricted, like Aristotle, to propositions of the particular form A C B, they
state rules about completely indetenninate propositions. Further, they had
analysed the logical links between these rules in such a deep way that they
knew how to deduce them all from five of them, set down as "unprovable",
by means of procedures very similar to modern methods [23]. Unfortunately
their influence was fairly ephemeral, and their results were to fall into oblivion
until the day when they were rediscovered by th!, logicians of the XIXth cen-
tury. Aristotle remains as the uncontested master in Logic until the XVIIth
century; it is known in particular that the scholastic philosophers are entirely
under his sway, and if their contribution to formal logic is far from negligible
[25], it does not contain any progress at the highest level compared with the
achievements of the philosophers of Antiquity.
It is appropriate, however, to note here that it does not seem that the
works of Aristotle or his successors had a notable influence on mathematics.
The Greek mathematicians conducted their research along the path opened
by the Pythagoreans and their successors of the IVth century (Theodorus,
Theeta, Eudoxus) without apparently bothering with formal logic in the pre-
sentation of their results: a finding that should hardly astonish when one
compares the flexibility and precision acquired already by that time by math-
ematical reasoning, to the very rudimentary state of Aristotelian logic. And
when logic will overtake this stage, it is again the new acquisitions from
mathematics that will guide it in its evolution.
With the development of algebra, it was indeed impossible to avoid be-
ing struck by the analogy between the rules of formal logic and the rules
of algebra, the ones like the others having in common the property of being
applicable to objects (propositions or numbers) which are not precisely deter-
mined. And when in the XVIIth century algebraic notation took its definitive
G The absence of real quantifiers (with the modern meaning) until the end of the
XIXth century, has been one of the reasons for the stagnation of formal Logic.
T The case of an eminent academic is quoted who, at a recent conference at Prince-
ton in the presence of GOdel, would allegedly have said that nothing new had been
done in Logic since Aristotlel
form in the hands of Viete and Descartes, almost immediately one can see
appearing diverse attempts at a symbolic notation intended for the repre-
sentation of logical operations; but before Leibniz, these tentative efforts, for
example like that of Herigone (1644) at writing down the proofs of elemen-
tary Geometry, or that of Pell (1659) at writing down those of Arithmetic,
remain very superficial and do not lead to any progress in the analysis of
mathematical reasoning. .
With Leibniz, we are in the presence of a philosopher who is also a math-
ematician of the first rank, and who will know how to draw out of his mathe-
matical experience the germ of the ideas that will bring formal logic out of the
scholastic dead-end. s A universal spirit if ever there were one, inexhaustible
source of original and fruitful ideas, Leibniz would be interested even more
in Logic as it found itself at the very heart of his grand projects for formalis-
ing language and thought, at which he never ceased working throughout his
life. 'Trained in his childhood in scholastic logic, he was seduced by the idea
(going back to Raymond Lulle) of a method which would reduce all human
concepts to primitive concepts, making up an "Alphabet of human thought" ,
and would rebuild them in a quasi mechanical way to obtain all true proposi-
tions ([198 b], v. VII, p. 185; cf. [69a], chap. II). Still very young, he had also
conceived another much more original idea, that of the usefulness of symbolic
notations as an "Ariadne's string" string of thought:9 "The true methol' , he
said, "must provide us with a filum Ariadnes, that is to say a kind of sensi-
tive and coarse means that guides the mind, in the same way as lines drawn
in geometry and the type of operations that are prescribed to apprentices in
Arithmetic. Without that our mind would not know how to go along a long
path without straying." ([198 b], v. VII, p. 22; cf. [69 a], p. 90). Knowing little
of the mathematics of his time until about his 25th year, it is at first in the
form of a "universal language" that he presents his projects ([69 a], chap. III);
but as soon as he comes in contact with Algebra, he adopts it as model for his
8 Although Descartes and (to a lesser degree) Pascal devoted part of their philo-
sophical work to the foundations of mathematics, their contribution to the progress
offormal Logic is negligible. No doubt this arises from the fundamental tendency of
their thought, the effort to break free of the scholastic tutelage, which caused them
to reject everything that could be linked to it, and most especially formal Logic.
In fact in his Thoughts on the geometric spirit Pascal, as he himself recognises,
restricts himself essentially to moulding in well cast formulae the known princi-
ples from Euclidean proofs (for example, the famous precept: "Always substitute
mentally the definitions in place of the definetl' ([244], v.IX, p.280) was essentially
known to Aristotle ([6], Top., VI, 4; [153 d], p.187». As for Descartes, the rules of
reasoning that he states are above all psychological precepts (fairly vague) and not
logical criteria; as the criticism of Leibniz shows ([69 a], p. 94 and 202-203), they
only have a subjective span as a result.
S Of course, the interest in such a. symbolism had not escaped the predecessors of
Leibniz as far as mathematics was concerned, and Descartes, for example, recom-
mends replacing entire figures "by very short symbols" (XVIth Rule for the direction
of the mind; [85 a), v. X, p. 454). But nobody before Leibniz had insisted with such
vigour on the universal range of this principle.
"universal Characteristic". By that he means a type of symbolic language,

capable of expressing without ambiguity all human thought, of reinforcing
our powers of reasoning, of avoiding errors by means of an efrort of entirely
mechanical concentration, finally constructed so that "the chimera that the
person himself who presents them does not hear, would be impossible to write
down in these characters" ([198 a], v. I, p. 187). In innumerable passages
in his writings where Leibniz alludes to this grandiose project and to the
progress to which its attainment would lead (cf. [69 a], chap. IV and VI), it is
seen with what clarity he had conceived the notion of a formalised language,
a pure combination of symbols of which only the chaining is important,10 in
such a way that a machine would be able to produce all the theorems,l1 and
that all controversies would be resolved by a simple calculation ([198 b], v.
VII, p. 198-203). If these hopes might appear excessive, it is none the less
true that it is to this constant tendency of Leibniz's thought that must be
tied a good part of his mathematical work, beginning with his work on the
symbolism of the infinitesimal Calculus (see p. 190 fr.); he was himself per-
fectly aware of this, and linked explicitly also to his "Characteristic" his ideas
on indicial notation and determinants ([198 a], v. II, p. 204; cf. [69 a], pp.
481-487) and his sketch of "geometrical Calculus" (see pp. 50 and 61 fr.; cf.
[69 a], chap IX). But in his mind the essential part had to be symbolic Logic,
or, as he puts it a "Calculus ratiocinator", and though he does not succeed
in creating this calculus, at least we see him trying to at least three times.
On his first attempt, he has the idea of associating with each "primitive"
term a prime number, each term made up of several primitive terms being
represented by the product of the corresponding prime numbersj12 he seeks
to translate into this system the usual rules of syllogism, but runs up against
major complications caused by negation (that he tries, fairly naturally, to
represent by a change oesign) and abandons rapidly this path ([198 cl, pp.
42-96; cf. [69 a], pp.326-344). In later attempts, he seeks to give Aristotelian
logic a more algebraic form; sometimes he keeps the notation AB for the
conjunction of two concepts; sometimes he uses the notation A + B;1s he
notes (in multiplicative notation) the law of idempotence AA = A, remarks
that one can substitute the proposition "all A is B" by the equality A = AB
and that one can recover starting from there most of the rules of Aristotle
by a purely algebraic calculation ([198 c], pp. 229-237 and 356-399; cf. [69 a],
pp.345-364); he also has the idea of the empty set ("non Ens"), and recognises
10 It is striking to see him quoting here as examples of reasoning "of the right type" ,
"a collector's account" or even a legal text ([198 b], v. IV, p. 295).
11 One knows that this conception of a "logical ma.chine" is used these days in
metamathematics, where it is of great usefullness ([181], chap. XIII).
12 The idea was taken up successfully by GOdel in his work on metamathematics,
in a. slightly different form (d. [130 a] and [181], p. 254).
13 Leibniz only seeks to introduce disjunction into his calculus in a few fragments
(where he denotes it by A + B) and does not seem to have succeeded in handling
simultaneously this operation and conjunction in a satisfactory way ([69 a], p. 363).
for instance the equivalence of the propositions "all A is B" and "A.(not B) is
not" (loc. cit.). Further, he remarks that his logical calculus is applicable not
only to the logic of concepts, but also to that of propositions ([198 cl, p. 377).
He appears to be therefore very near to "Boolean calculus". Unfortunately,
it appears that he was not able to free himself completely from the scholastic
influence; not only does he set himself as almost the only aim of his calculus
the transcription, into his notation, of the rules of syllogism,l4 but he goes as
far as sacrificing his most felicitous ideas to the desire to recover completely
the rules of Aristotle, even those that were incompatible with the idea of an
empty set.lII
The work of Leibniz remained for the most part unpublished until the
beginning of the XXth century, and had only little direct influence. During
the whole of the XVIIIth and the beginning of the XIXth centuries, different
authors (de Segner, J. Lambert, Ploucquet, Holland, De Castillon, Gregonne)
sketched attempts similar to those of Leibniz, without ever progressing sub-
stantially beyond the point at which he had stopped; their work only had a
feeble effect, which means that most of them ignored all results due to their
predecessors. l6 It is in any case under the same conditions that G. Boole,
who must be considered to be the real creator of modern symbolic logic [29],
writes. His key idea consists in putting himself systematically in the position
of considering "extension", so of calculating directly with sets, and writing
Zl1 for the intersection of two sets, and z + 11 for their union when z and 11
have no element in common. He introduces as well a "universe" denoted 1
(the set of all elements) and the empty set denoted 0, and he writes 1 - z
for the complement of z. As Leibniz had done, he interprets the relation
of inclusion by the relation Zl1 = z (from which he extracts without dif-
ficulty the justification of the rules of classical syllogism) and his notation
for union and complements gives his system a'flexibility that was missing
in his forerunners. lT Furthermore, by associating with each proposition the
set of "cases" in which it holds, he interprets the relation of implication as
an inclusion, and his calculus of sets gives him in this way the rules of the
"propositional calculus" .
1. Leibniz knew very well that Aristotelian logic was insufficient to translate for-
mally mathematical texts, but, in spite of some attempts, he never succeeded in
improving it in this respect ([69 a], pp. 435 and 560).
15 These consist of the rules "of conversion" so-called baaed on the postulate that
"All A is a B" entails "Some A is a B", which assumes naturally that A is not
empty.
18 The influence of Kant, from the middle of the XVIIIth century, without doubt
played some part in the lack of interest aroused by formal logic at this time; he
feels that "we have no need oj any new invention in logiC", the shape given to it
by Aristotle being sufficient for all applications that can be made of it ( [118], v.
VIII, p. 340). Concerning the dogmatic concepts of Kant concerning mathematics
and logic, one can consult [69b].
11 Note especially that Boole uses the'distributivity of intersection over union,
which seems to have been noticed for the first time by J. Lambert.
In the second half of the XIXth century, Boole's system formed the basis
for the work of an active school of logicians who improved it and completed
it at several points. It is thus that Jevons (1864) enlarged the meaning of the
operation of union :r: + y by extending it to the case in which :r: and y are
arbitrary; A. de Morgan in 1858 and C. S. Peirce in 1861 proved the duality
laws
=
(CA) n (CB) C(A U B), (CA) U (CB) C(A n B); IS =
De Morgan tackles also, in 1860, the study of relations, defining inversion
and the composition of binary relations (that is to say the operations cor-
-I
responding to the operations G and Gl 0 G2 on graphs).19 All this work is
systematically expounded and developed in the massive and prolific work of
Schroder [217]. But it is fairly interesting to note that the logicians of whom
we have been speak~ng do not seem very interested in the application of their
results to mathematics and that, on the contrary, Boole and Schroder espe-
cially seem to have as their principal aim to develop "Boolean" algebra by
imitating the methods and problems of classical algebra (often in a fairly
artificial way). The reasons for this attitude must doubtless be seen in the
fact that the Boolean calculus still lacked a facility for transcribing most of
!Dathematical reasoning,20 and only supplied in this way a very partial an-
swer to the great dream of Leibniz. The construction of a formalism better
adapted to mathematics - of which the introduction of variables and quan-
tifiers, due independently to Frege [111 a, b, c) and C. S. Peirce [248 b), make
up the major stage - was the work of logicians and mathematicians who,
unlike the above, had above all as their aim applications to the foundations
of mathematics.
Frege's project [111 b and c) was to create a foundation for arithmetic
based on a logic formalised by a "writing of concepts" (Begriffschrift) and
we will come back later (p. 29) to the way in which he defines the natu-
ral numbers. His work is characterised by extreme precision and attention
to detail in the analysis of concepts; it is because of this tendency that he
introduces many a distinction which turns out to be of great importance in
modern logic: for instance it is he who first distinguishes between the state-
ment of a proposition and the assertion that this proposition is true, between
18 It must be noted that statements equivalent to these rules are already to be
found in several scholastic philosophers ([25], p.67 if.).
11 However the notion of "Cartesian" product of two arbitrary sets does not seem
to be explicitly introduced until G. Cantor ([47], p. 286); it is also Cantor who
first defines exponentiation AB (loc. cit., p. 287); the general notion of an infinite
product is due to A. N. Whitehead ([333], p.369). The use of graphs of relations
is fairly recent; if exception is made, naturally, of the classical case of real valued
functions of a real variable, it seems to appear for the first time amongst the Italian
fiometers, notably C. Segre, in their study of algebraic correspondences.
For each relation obtained from one or more given relations by use of our quan-
tifiers, it would be necessary, in this calculus, to introduce an ad hoc notation of
-1
the type of the notation G and G 1 0 G2 (cf for example [248 b]).
the relation of belonging and that of inclusion, between an object x and the
set {:z:} reduced to this single object, etc .. His formalised logic, which con-
tains not only "variables" with the meaning used in mathematics, but also
"propositional variables" representing indeterminate relations, susceptible to
quantification, would later (through the work of Russell and Whitehead) sup-
ply the fundamental tool for metamathematics. Unfortunately, the symbols
which he adopts are hardly inspiring, of a terrifying typographic complexity
and far removed from the practice of mathematicians; which had the result
of turning away these latter and reducing considerably the influence of Frege
on his contemporaries.
Peano's goal was at the same time much vaster and much more down to
earth; it consisted in publishing a "Formulary of mathematics" , written en-
tirely in formal language and containing, not only mathematical logic, but all
the results of the most important branches of mathematics. The speed with
which he managed to complete this ambitious project, helped by a host of
enthusiastic collaborators (Vailati, Pieri, Padoa, Vacca, Vivanti, Fano, Burali-
Forti) is witness to the excellence of the symbolism which he had adopted:
following closely the current practice of mathematicians, and introducing nu-
merous well-chosen abbreviating symbols, his language remains as well fairly
easily legible, thanks notably to an ingenious system for replacing brackets by
full stop separators [246 fl. Much notation due to Peano is today adopted by
the majority of mathematicians: we quote E, :::> (but, contrary to the present
use, with the meaning of "is contained in" or "implies,,21), U, n, A - B (set
of differences a - b where a E A and b E B). On the other hand, it is in the
"Formulary" that is found for the first time a thorough analysis of the general
notion of function, of those of direct image22 and reciprocal image, and the
remark that a sequence is only a function defined on N. But quantification,
with Peano, is subject to hampering restrictions (one can only, in principle,
quantify, in his system, relations of the form A -+ B, A ¢:> B or A = B).
Further the almost fanatical zeal of some of his disciples laid them wide open
to ridicule; criticism, often unjustified, by H. Poincare in particular, was a
heavy blow to the Peano school and became an obstacle to the diffusion of
his doctrines in the mathematical world.
With Frege and Peano the essential elements of the formal languages used
today were acquired. The most widespread is doubtless that hammered out by
Russell and Whitehead in their great work "Principia Mathematica" , which
happily links the precision of Frege and the convenience of Peano [266]. Most
actual formal languages are differentiated from it only by changes of sec-
ondary importance, aimed at simplifying its use. Among the most ingenious,
we quote the "functional" writing of relations (for instance E xy instead of
21 This indicates well to wha.t extent was rooted, even in him, the old ha.bit of
thinking "in comprehension" rather than "in extension".
22 The introduction of this seems due to Dedekind, in his work "Was sind und was
sollen die Zahlen", of which we will speak later ([79], v. III, p.348).
1. FOUNDATIONS OF MATHEMATICS; LOGlC; SET THEORY. 11
:c E V), thought up by Lukasiewicz, thanks to which brackets can be com-

pletely omitted; but the most interesting is without doubt the introduction
by Hilbert of the symbol T, which allows the consideration of the quanti-
fiers 3 and V as abbreviation signs, the avoidance of the introduction of the
"universal" functional symbol, of Peano and Russell (which is only applied
to functional relations), and finally which avoids the need to formulate the
axiom of choice in the theory of sets ([163 a], v.III, p. 183).
THE NOTION OF TRUTH IN MATHEMATICS.
Mathematicians have always been sure that they prove "truths" or "true
propositions"; such a conviction can obviously only be sentimental or meta-
physical, and it is not by getting on to mathematical ground that it can be
justified, nor even given a meaning that does not make it a tautology. The
history of the concept of truth in mathematics is the concern therefore of the
history of philosophy and not of that of mathematics; but the evolution of
this concept has had an undeniable influence on that of mathematics, and
because of this we can not let it go by in silence.
Let us note first that it is as rare to see a mathematician in possession
of a strong philosophical culture as to see a philosopher who has an exten-
sive knowledge of mathemati!=s; the opinions of mathematicians on topics
in philosophy, even when these questions are concerned with their field, are
most often opinions received at second or third hand, coming from doubtful
sources. But, precisely because of this, it is these average opinions which in-
terest the mathematical historian, at least as much as the original views of
thinkers such as Descartes or Leibniz (to mention two who were also mathe-
maticians of the first rank), Plato (who at least kept up with the mathematics
of his time), Aristotle or Kant (of whom the same could not be said).
The traditional notion of mathematical truth is that which goes back to
the Renaissance. In this concept, there is no great difference between those
objects which are the concern of mathematicians and those which are the
concern of natural science; both are knowable and man has obtained a grasp
on them both through intuition and through reason; there are no grounds to
doubt either intuition or reason, which are fallible only if used incorrectly.
"One must have", says Pascal, "altogether a wrong spirit to reason badly about
principles so great that it is almost impossible for them to escape' ([244], v.
XII, p. 9). Descartes, by his fireside, convinced himself that "there have been
only Mathematicians who were able to find some proofs, that is to say some
sure and certain reasontl' ([85 al, v.VI, p. 19) and that (if his tale is to be
believed) well before he had built up a metaphysics in which "that very same
thing" , he says, "that I previously took as a rule, namely that the objects that
we can visualise very clearly and very distinctly are all true, is only ensured
because God is or erists, and that he is a perfect beini' ([85 a], v. VI, p.
38). If Leibniz objects to Descartes that it cannot be seen how to recognise
that an idea is "clear and distinct", 23 he also considers axioms as obvious

and undisputed consequences of the definitions as soon as the expressions are
understood. 24 It must not be forgotten either that, in the language of that
time, mathematics includes many sciences that we do not recognise anymore
as such, and sometimes even as far as the art of the engineer; and in the
confidence that they inspire, the surprising success of their applications to
"natural philosophy", to the "mechanical arts", to navigation, comes in for
a large part.
In this way of looking at things, axioms are no. more susceptible to be-
ing discussed or put into question than the rules of deduction; at most the
choice can be left to each person, according to his preferences, to reason "in
the way of the ancients" or to give free reign to his intuition. The choice
of point of departure is also a matter of individual preference, and one sees
appearing numerous "editions" of Euclid where the solid logical framework
of the Elements becomes a strange travesty; some surveys are given of the
infinitesimal calculus and rational mechanics, supposedly deduced from fun-
damentals which are remarkably badly established; and Spinoza was perhaps
giving in good faith his Ethics as being proved in the manner of geometers
"more geometrico demonstrata". If it is hard to find in the XVIIth century
two mathematicians who agree on any matter whatsoever, if the polemics oc-
cur daily, endless and acrimonious, the notion of truth remains none the less
not in question. "Only having one truth about each objecf', says Descartes,
"whoever finds it knows as much as can be known about it" ([85 a], v. VI, p.
21).
Although no Greek mathematical text of the high period on these ques-
tions has survived, it is probable that the point of view of Greek mathe-
maticians on this subject had many more nuances. It is by experience only
that the rules of deduction were elaborated to the point of inspiring complete
confidence; before they could be considered to be above all discussion, it was
necessary to go through mainly fumblings and paralogisms. It would also be
23 " Tho.e that have given u. method'" he says in this context "give, without doubt,
some beautiful precepts, but not the means to obey them." ([198 b], v. VII, p. 21).
And elsewhere, making fun of the Cartesian rules, he compares them to the recipes
of the alchemists: "Take what IIOU need, act a. lIoU mud, and IIOU will obtain that
Jor which IIOU wish!' ([198 b], v. IV, p. 329).
2. On this point, Leibniz is still under scholastic influence; he still thinks that
propositions establish a link from "subject" to "predicate" among concepts. As
BOon as concepts have been reduced to "primitive" concepts (which, as we have
seen, is one of his fundamental ideas), everything reduces, for Leibniz, to checking
relations of "inclusion" by means of what he calls "identical axioms" (essentially the
propositions A = A and A C A) and the principle of "substitution of equivalents"
(if A = B, A can be replaced everywhere by B ([69 a], pp. 184-206». It is interesting
in this context to note that, in conformity with his desire to reduce everything to
Logic and to "prove everything that is provable", Leibniz proves the symmetry and
transitivity of the relation of equality, starting from the axiom A = A and the
principle of substitution of equivalents ([198 a], v. VII, pp. 77-78).
to misconstrue the critical spirit of the Greeks, their taste for discussion and
sophistry, to imagine that the "axioms" themselves that Pascal judged to be
the most obvious (and that, according to a legend spread by his sister, he
had, with infallible instinct, discovered himself during his childhood) were
not the subject of long discussions. In an area that was not that of geometry
strictly speaking, the paradoxes of the Eleates have preserved for us some
traces of these polemics; and Archimedes when he makes the observation ([5
b], v. II, p. 265) that his predecessors made use in many situations of the
axiom to which we usually ascribe his name, adds that what is proved by
means of this axiom "has been accepted no less than what has been proved
without it", and that it is sufficient that his own results be accepted on the
same basis. Plato, in accordance with his metaphysical views, presents math-
ematics as a means of access to a "truth in itself" and the objects it deals
with as having a real existence in the world of ideas; he characterises none
the less the mathematical method precisely in a famous extract from the
Republic: "Those that are involved with geometry and arithmetic ... assume
even and odd, three kinds of angles; they treat them as known objects: once
assumed, they esteem that they no longer need to give account of them either
to themselves or to others, [considering it] as clear to each one; and starting
there, they proceed in sequence, in order to reach by common agreement the
goal that their research had suggeste(/' ([250], Book VI, 510 c-e). That which
makes up a proof is therefore firstly a point of departure supplying an arbi-
trary start (even though "clear to everyone"), and beyond which, he says a.
bit further on, one does not try to dig; and then, a discussion that follows
in sequence a series of intermediate stages; fina.lly, at each step, the consent
of the interlocutor guaranteeing the correctness of the reasoning. It must be
added that once the axioms are stated, no new appeal to intuition is allowed
on principle: Proclus, quoting Geminus, recalls that "we have learnt from the
pioneers of this science themselves, to take no account of conclusions which
are only plausible when it is a case of reasoning which must be part of our
geometric doctrine" ([153 e], v.I, p. 203).
Thus it is to experience and the cauldron of criticism that is due the
elaboration of the rules of mathematical reasoning; and if it is true, as has
been argued in a plausible way [317 d], that Book VIII of Euclid has kept
for us part of the arithmetic of Archytas, it is not surprising to see there the
rigidity of the rather pedantic reasoning that does not fail to appear in all
mathematical schools where "rigour" is discovered or believed to have been
discovered. But, once having entered into the practice of mathematicians, it
does not seem that these rules of reasoning have ever been doubted until quite
recently: if with Aristotle and the Stoics, some of the rules are deduced from
others by schemes of reasoning, the primitive rules are always assumed to be
evident. In the same way, having gone back to the "hypotheses", "axioms"
and "postulates" that appeared to them to supply a solid foundation for the
science of their time (such as those for example that they put forward in the
first "Elements" that tradition ascribes to Hippocrates of Chio, about 450 B.

C.), the Greek mathematicians from the classical period seem to have bent
all their efforts to the discovery of new results rather than to a critique of
these foundations that, at that time, could not have failed to be sterile; and,
putting aside all metaphysical preoccupations, it is from this general accord
amongst mathematicians on the bases of their science that the text of Plato
quoted above bears testimony.
On the other hand Greek mathematicians do not seem to have believed

it possible to explain the "primary notions" that were their points of depar-
ture, straight line, surface, ratio of quantities; if they give "definitions" of
them, it is obviously a crisis of conscience and without any illusions about
their range. It goes without saying that on the other hand, about definitions
other than those of "primary notions" (definitions often called "nominal"),
the Greek mathematicians and philosophers had perfectly clear ideas. It is
in this context that intervenes explicitly, for the first time no doubt, the
question of "existence" in mathematics. Aristotle does not miss observing
that a definition does not imply the existence of the object defined, and that
there must be over and above that either a postulate or a proof. No doubt
his observation was derived from the practice of mathematicians; in any case
Euclid takes care to postulate the existence of a circle, and to prove that of an
equilateral triangle, of parallels, of a square, etc. as he introduces them into
his arguments ([153 e], Book I); these proofs are "constructions"; in other
words, he exhibits, basing himself on the axioms, mathematical objects that
he proves satisfy the definitions that he needs to justify.
Thus we see Greek mathematics in the classical era reaching a kind of em-
pirical certainty (whatever the metaphysical bases for it from some philoso-
pher or other might be); if it cannot be conceived that the rules of reasoning
can be questioned, the success of Greek science, and the feeling that exists
of the inopportunity of a critical revision, playa great part in the confidence
that the axioms themselves inspire, a confidence that is rather of the order of
that (almost unlimited, as well) that was put during the last century in the
principles of theoretical physics. It is in any case what is suggested by the
motto of the school "nihil est in intellectu quod non prius fuerit in sensu",
which is precisely that against which Descartes stands out, as not giving a
firm enough basis to that which Descartes hoped to extract from the use of
reason.
One must come down to the beginning of the XIXth century to see math-
ematicians recover from the arrogance of a Descartes (not to say that of a
Kant or that of a Hegel, this latter somewhat late, as was fashionable, about
the science of his time 21i ), to a position as well balanced as that ofthe Greeks.
The first blow to the classical concepts is the establishment of non-Euclidean
26 In his inaugural dissertation, he "proves" that there were at most seven planets,
the same year that the eighth was being discovered.
hyperbolic geometry by Gauss, Lobatschevsky and Bolyai at the beginning

of the century. We will not undertake to retrace here in detail the origins
of this discovery, the outcome of numerous unfruitful attempts to prove the
parallel postulate (see [105 a and b)). At the time its effect on the principles
of mathematics was perhaps not so deep as is sometimes said. It simply forces
the abandonment of the pretensions of the previous century to the "absolute
truth" of Euclidean geometry, and all the more, the Leibnizian point of view
that definitions imply axioms; these latter no longer appear as at all "obvi-
ous" , but rather as hypotheses of which it must be determined whether they
are adapted to the mathematical representation of the world of the senses.
Gauss and Lobatschevsky believe that the debate between the different pos-
sible geometries can be determined by experience ([206], p. 76). It is also the
point of view of Riemann, of whom the famous inaugural Lecture "On the
hypotheses which form the foundation of geometry/' had as aim to furnish a
general mathematical framework for the various natural phenomena: "What
remains to be resolved" he says, "is the question of knowing to what eztent and
up to what point these hypotheses are found to be confirmed by ezperience"
([259 al, p. 284). But that is a problem which visibly has nothing anymore
to do with Mathematics; and none of the previous authors seem to put into
question that, even if a "geometry" does not correspond to an experimental
reality, its theorems remain no less "mathematical truths" .26
All the same, if it so, it is certainly no longer to an unlimited confidence in
classical "geometric intuition" that such a conviction is due; the description
that Riemann seeks to give of "multiplicities n times extended" , the object of
his work, only relies on "intuitive" 27 considerations to reach a justification for
the introduction of "local co-ordinates"; from that moment on he apparently
seems to feel himself on solid ground, namely that of Analysis. But this latter
is grounded in the end on the concept of real number, which remained until
then of a very intuitive nature; and progress in the theory of functions was
leading in this respect to some very worrying results: with the research of
Riemann himself on integration, and more so with the examples of curves
without tangents, constructed by Bolzano and Weierstrass, it is the whole
of the pathology of mathematics that was beginning. For a century we have
seen so many monsters of this species that we are a bit blase, and the most
weird teratological characters must be accumulated in order still to astound
us. But the effect produced on the majority of mathematicians of the XIXth
century went from disgust to consternation: "Houl' H. Poincare asks himself,
"can intuition deceive us at this point~" ([251 d], p. 19); and Hermite (not
without a spark of humour which the commentators of this famous sentence
26 Cf. the arguments of Poincare in favour of "simplicity" and of the "convenience"
of Euclidean geometry ([251 c], p. 67), as well as the analysis whereby, a bit later, he
reaches the conclusion that experience does not furnish an absolute criterion for the
choice of one geometry rather than another as a framework for natural phenomena.
27 Again this word is only justified for n ~ 3; for larger values of n, it is a case of
arguing by analogy.
do not all seem to have perceived) declares that he "turns away with fear
and horror from this lamentable plague of continuous functions that do not
have a derivative" ([160], v. II, p. 318). The worst was that these phenomena,
so contrary to common sense, could no longer be laid at the door of ideas
badly elucidated, as at the time of the "indivisibles" (see p. 173), since they
survived after the reform of Bolzano, Abel and Cauchy, who had established
the foundation of the notion of limit in a manner as rigorous as the theory
of ratios (see p. 154). It is thus fully to the gross and incomplete character
of our geometric intuition that the account must be laid, and it is reasonable
that since then it has remained discredited quite justifiably as a means of
proof.
This realisation would inevitably react on classical mathematics, starting
with geometry. In whatever respect the axiomatic construction of Euclid had
been held, more than one imperfection had been noticed, and that already
in antiquity. It was the postulate on parallels that had been the object of
the greatest number of criticisms and attempts at proof; but the followers
and commentators of Euclid had also attempted to prove other postulates
(notably that of the equality of right angles) or recognised the insufficiency
of certain definitions, such as those of the straight line or plane. In the XVIth
century, Clavius, an editor of the Elements, notes the absence of a postulate
guaranteeing the existence of the fourth proportional; for his part, Leibniz
remarks that Euclid uses geometric intuition without mentioning it explic-
itly, for example when he admits (Elements, Book I, prop. 1) that two circles,
each of which goes through the centre of the other have a common point ([198
b], v. VII, p. 166). Gauss (who himself did not deny himself the use of such
topological considerations) draws attention to the role played in Euclidean
constructions by the notion of a point (or a straight line) being "between" two
others, notion that is however not defined ([124 a], v. VIII, p. 222). Finally,
the use of displacements - notably in the "case of equality of triangles"
- long assumed to be obvious,28 was soon to appear to the critics of the
XIXth century as relying also on unstated axioms. One ends up thus, in the
period from 1860 to 1885, with different partial revisions of the beginnings of
geometry (Helmholtz, Meray, HoutH) tending to remedy some of these gaps.
But it is only with M. Pasch [245] that the ab!iJldonment of all appeals to
intuition is a programme properly formulated and followed with -full rigour.
The success of his enterprise soon brought him numerous emulators who,
principally between 1890 and 1910, gave quite varied statements of the ax-
ioms of Euclidean geometry. The most famous of these works were those of
Peano, written in his symbolic language [246 d], and especially the "Grund-
lagen der Geometrie" of Hilbert [163 c], appearing in 1899, a book which,
by its lucidity and the depth of its exposition, was to become immediately,
28It must be noted however that, already in the XVlth century, a commentator on
Euclid, J. Peletier, protested against this means of proof, in terms close to those of
modern critics ([153 e), v. I, p. 249).
with full justification, the charter for modern axiomatics, even to the extent
of leading to forgetting its forerunners. It is indeed that, not content with
giving there a complete system of axioms for Euclidean geometry, Hilbert
classifies these axioms into different groups of different types, and sets him-
self to determine the exact area of influence of each of these groups of axioms,
Dot only in developing the logical consequences of each of them in isolation,
but also in discussing the different "geometries" obtained when one omits
or modifies certain of these axioms (geometries amongst which those of Lo-
batschevsky and of Riemann appear only as particular cases29 )j he thus puts
clearly in the picture, in an area considered until then as one of those nearest
the reality of the senses, the freedom of which the mathematician disposes
in his choice of postulates. In spite of the disarray caused in more than one
philosopher by these "metageometries" with strange properties, the thesis of
the "Grundlagen" was rapidly adopted almost unanimously by mathemati-
cians; H. Poincare, although hardly guilty of favouring formalism, recognised
in 1902 that the axioms of geometry are conventions, for which the notion of
"truth", as it is normally understood, has no more meaning ([251 e], pp. 66-
67). "Mathematical truth" resides thus uniquely in logical deduction starting
from premises arbitrarily set by axioms. As will be seen later (pp. 35 ff.), the
validity of the rules of reasoning used in making these deductions was itself
soon to be put in question, bringing about thus a complete reshaping of the
basic conceptions of mathematics.
OBJECTS, MODELS AND STRUCTURES.
A) Objects and structures of mathematics. - From Antiquity to the XIXth

century, there is a common understanding as to what are the principal objects
of the mathematicians; they are exactly those that are mentioned by Plato
in the passage quoted earlier (p. 13); numbers, quantities and figures. If, at
first, must be added the objects and phenomena which are the subject of
Mechanics, Astronomy, Optics and Music, these "mathematical" disciplines
are always clearly separated, amongst the Greeks, from Arithmetic and Ge-
ometry, and starting with the Renaissance they fairly quickly attain the rank
of independent sciences.
Whatever the philosophical nuances by which the conception of mathe-
matical objects are coloured by such and such a mathematician or philoso-
pher, there is at least one point on which there is unanimity: it is that these
objects are given to us and it is not in our power to assign to them arbi-
trary properties, in the same way as a physicist cannot change a natural
phenomenon. Truth to say, psychological reactions doubtless form one part
211The one which appeus to have struck his contemporaries most deeply is the
"non-Archimedean" geometry, that is to say the geometry having as base field an
ordered non-uchimedean field (commutative or not) which (in the commutative
case) had been introduced a few yeus earlier by Veronese [318].
of these views, reactions which are not for us to follow up, but which each
mathematician knows when he wears himself out in vain efforts to seize upon
a proof which seems to slip away endlessly. From there to assimilate this
resistance to the obstacles that the world of senses sets in our path there is
only a single step; and even today, more than one, who claims an intransi-
gent formalism, would subscribe voluntarily, in his innermost being, to this
admission of Hermite: "I believe that numbers and the functions of Analysis
are not the arbitrary result of our minds; I think that theV exist outside of
us, with the same character of necessity as the things of objective reality, and
we meet them or discover them, and study them, as do the physicists, the
chemists and the zoologisti' ([160], v. II, p. 398).
There is no question in the classical conception of mathematics, of stray-
ing away from the study of numbers and figures; but this official doctrine, to
which every mathematician believes himself bound to bring his verbal adher-
ence, becomes no less bit by bit an intolerable burden, as new ideas accumu-
late. The embarrassment of the algebraists up against negative numbers does
not cease until analytical Geometry gives it a convenient "interpretation";
but, well into the XVIIIth century still, d' Alembert, discussing the question
in the Encyclopedie ([75 a], article NEGATIF), loses his nerve suddenly after
a column of fairly confused explanations, and is content to conclude that "the
rules of algebraic operations on negative quantities are generallv assumed by
everybodv and perceived generally as exact, whatever idea is linked elsewhere
to these quantitiei'. As for imaginary numbers, the scandal is far bigger; for if
they are "impossible" roots and if (until about 1800) no way of "interpreting"
them is seen, how can one, without contradiction, talk of these indefinable
beings, and above all why introduce them? D'Alembert keeps here a prudent
silence and does not even state these questions, no doubt because he realises
that he would not be able to answer other than was done naively by A. Girard
a century earlier ([129], f. 22): "It could be said: what use are these impossible
solutionsf I answer: for three things, for the certainty of the general rule, and
that there is no other solution, and for its usefulness."
In Analysis, the situation, in the XVllth century, was no better. It is a
happy circumstance that analytical Geometry was to appear, as if at a des-
ignated point, to give a "representation" in the shape of a geometric figure,
of the great creation of the XV 11th century, the notion of a function, and
80 assist powerfully (with Fermat, Pascal or Barrow) at the birth of the in-
finitesimal Calculus (cf. p. 193). But it is known on the other hand, to what
phil08ophico-mathematical controversies the notions of the infinitely small
and indivisible were going to give rise. And if d'Alembert is happier here,
and recognises that in the "metaphysics" of the infinitesimal Calculus there
is nothing other than the notion of limit ([75 a], articles DIFFERENTIEL
and LIMITE, and [75 b]), he is no more able than his contemporaries, to
understand the real meaning of expansion in divergent series, and to explain
the paradox of exact results obtained at the end of calculations with expres-
1. FOUNDATIONS OF MATHEMATICSj LOGlCj SET THEORY. 19
sions deprived of any numerical interpretation. Finally, even in the domain

of "geometric certainty", the Euclidean framework bursts: when Stirling, in
1717, does not shrink from saying that a certain curve has a "double imagi-
nary point at infinity" ([299], p. 93 of the new edition), he would certainly be
in trouble trying to link such an "object" to commonly understood notions;
and Poncelet who, at the beginning of the XIXth century, gives considerable
development to such ideas in founding projective geometry (see p. 131), is
content still to invoke as justification a "principle of continuity" which is
altogether metaphysical.
One can conceive that, under these conditions (and at the exact moment
when, paradoxically, the "absolute truth" of mathematics is proclaimed with
the greatest force), the notion of proof seems to become more and more
blurred during the XVlllth century, since it is out of the question to set
down, as did the Greeks, the notions on which reasoning is conducted, and
their fundamental properties. The return towards rigour, which starts at the
beginning of the XIXth century, brings some improvement to this state of
things, but does not stop for all that the stream of new notions: one sees thus
appearing in Algebra the imaginaries of Galois ([123], p. 113-127), the ideal
numbers of Kummer [188 b], which are followed by vectors and quaternions,
n-dimensional spaces, multivectors and tensors (see pp. 61 fr.), not to speak
of Boolean algebra. No doubt great progress (which precisely allows the re-
turn to rigour, without losing any of the conquests of previous times) occurs
with the possibility of giving "models" for these new notions in more classi-
cal terms: the ideal numbers or the imaginaries of Galois are interpreted by
means of the theory of congruences (see pp. 82 fr.), n-dimensional geometry
only appears (if 80 desired) as a pure language for stating results in algebra
"with n variables" i and for the classical imaginary numbers - of which the
geometric representation by the points of a plane (see pp. 161 fr.) marks the
beginning of this flowering of Algebra - there is soon the choice between the
geometric "model" and an interpretation in terms of congruences (cf. p. 82).
But mathematicians begin at last to feel sharply that it is to fight against
a natural slope along which their work is dragging them, and that it must
be allowable, in mathematics, to reason about objects that have no sensible
"interpretation": "It is not of the essence of mathematics", says Boole in
1854, "to be occupied with the ideas of number and quantitll' ([29], v. II, p.
13).30 The same preoccupation leads Grassmann, in his "Ausdehnungslehre"
30 Leibniz, in this respect, appears again as a precursor: "universal Mathematics"

he says, "is, so to speak, the Logic 0/ the imagination", and must deal with "every-
thing in the domain 0/ the imagination which is susceptible to e:ract determination"
([198 c), p. 348j cf. [69 a), pp.290-291)j and for him, the masterpiece of Mathemat-
ics thus understood is what he calls "Combinatorics" or the "Art of formulas", by
which he means essentially the science of abstract relations between mathemati-
cal objects. But just as until then the relations considered in mathematics were
almost exclusively relations of quantities (equality, inequality, ratio), Leibniz con-
ceives many other types of relations which, in his opinion, should have been studied
of 1844, to present his calculus in a form from which the notions of number or
of geometric object are, at first, excluded. s1 And, a bit later, Riemann, in his
inaugural Lecture, takes care at the beginning not to speak of "points", but
rather of "determinations" (Bestimmungsweise), in his description of "mul-
tiplicities n times extended", and underlines that, in such a multiplicity, the
"metric relations" (Massverhi.ltnisse) "can only be studied for abstract 9uan-
tities and can only be represented by formulae; under certain conditions, one
can however decompose them into relations of which each taken in isolation
is susceptible to a geometric representation, and in that way it is possible to
express the results of the calculation in a geometric form" ([259 a], p. 276).
From that moment, the expansion of the axiomatic method is an accom-
plished fact. If, for a while longer, it is believed useful to control, when possi-
ble, the "abstract" results by geometric intuition, at least it is admitted that
the "classical" objects are no longer the only ones that the mathematician
can legitimately study. It is that - precisely because of the multiple "in-
terpretations" or "models" that are possible - it has been recognised that
the "nature" of mathematical objects is in the end secondary, and that it
matters little, for example, that a result is presented as a theorem of "pure"
geometry, or as a theorem of algebra by the means of analytical geometry.
In other words, the essence of mathematics - this elusive notion that could
until then only have been expressed by vague names such as "general rule"
or "metaphysici' - appears as the study of relationships between objects
that are only (voluntarily) known and described by some of their properties,
precisely those that are put as axioms at the foundations of their theory. It is
this that had already been clearly seen by Boole in 1847, when he wrote that
mathematics deals with "operations considered in themselves, independently
of the diverse objects to which they can be applietf' ([29], v. I, p. 3). Hankel,
systematically by mathematicians, such as the relation of inclusion, or what he calls

the relation of univalent or multivalent "determination" (that is to say the notions
of mapping and of correspondence) ([69 a], pp. 307-310). Many other modern ideas
appear in his writing on this subject: he remarks that the different relations of
equivalence of classical geometry have in common the properties of symmetry and
transitivity; he conceives also the notion of a relation which is compatible with
the rela.tion of equivalence, a.nd expressly notes tha.t a.n a.rbitrary rela.tion does not
necessarily have this property ([69 a], pp. 313-315). Of course, he presupposes there
as elsewhere the use of a formalised la.nguage, a.nd even introduces a symbol mea.nt
to denote an arbitra.ry rela.tion ([69 a.], p. 301).
31 It must be recognised that his language, of a very philosophical bent, was hardly
meant to seduce the ma.jority of mathematicia.ns, who would feel uneasy in front of
a. formula. such as the following: "Pure Mathematic, i, the ,cience 0/ the individual
object in as much as it i, born in thought' (Die Wisssenschaft des be,onderen Seins
ala eines durch das Denken gewordenen). But the context shows that Grassmann
mea.nt by that in a fairly precise way axiomatic mathematics in the modern sense
(except that he fairly curiously follows Leibniz in considering that the bases of this
"formal science", as he calls it, are the definitions a.nd not the axioms); in a.ny case,
he insists, like Boole, on the fact that "the name 0/ ,cience 0/ quantitie, doe, not
fit the whole 0/ mathematic'" ([134], v. I, pp.22-23)
in 1867, inaugurating the axiomatisation of algebra, defends a mathematics

that is "purely intellectual, a pure theory of forms, which has as its purpose,
not the combination of quantities, or of their images, the numbers, but ob-
jects of thought ("Gedankendinge") to which may correspond effective objects
or relations, even though such a correspondence is not necessarY' ([146], p.
10). Cantor, in 1883, echoes this claim of a "free mathematics" by proclaim-
ing that "mathematics is entirely free in its development, and its concepts
are only linked by the necessity of being consistent, and are co-ordinated with
concepts introduced previously by means of precise definitioni' ([47], p.182).
Finally, the revision of Euclidean geometry succeeds in spreading and popu-
larising these ideas. Pasch himself, although still attached to a certain "real-
ity" of geometric objects, recognises that geometry is in fact independent of
their significance, and consists purely in the study of their relations ([245],
p. 90); a concept that Hilbert pushes to its logical conclusion in underlining
that even the names of the basic notions of a mathematical theory can be
chosen arbitrarily,32 and that Poincare expresses by saying that the axioms
are "disguised definitions", thus completely reversing the scholastic point of
view.
It would thus be tempting to say that the modern notion of "structure"
is attained in substance around 1900; in fact it will need still another thirty
years of apprenticeship before it appears in all its glory. It is no doubt not
difficult to recognise structures of the same kind when they have a fairly
simple nature; for the group structure, for example, this stage was reached
already by the middle of the XIXth century. But at the same time, Hankel
can be seen fighting - without quite succeeding - to bring out the general
ideas of field and extension, that he does not succeed in expressing except
in the form of a "principle of permanence" which is semi metaphysical [146],
and which will be only formulated in a definitive form by Steinitz [294 a]
40 years later. Above all it has been fairly difficult, in this matter, to free
oneself from the impression that mathematical objects are "given" to us with
their structure; only a fairly long use of functional Analysis has been able to
familiarise modern mathematicians with the idea that, for example, there are
several "natural" topologies on the rational numbers, and several measures on
the number line. With this disassociation the transition to general definition
of structures was finally realised.
B) Models and isomorphisms. - The int.ervention of the notion of "model"
or "interpretation" of one mathematical theory by means of another will
have been noticed on several occasions. That is not a recent idea, and no
32 As in a famous anecdote, Hilbert was keen to express this idea by saying that one
could replace the words "point", "straight line" and "plane" by "table", "chair" and
"beer mug" without changing any of the geometry. It is curious that one can find
already in d' Alembert an anticipation of this pun: "One can give word. whatever
meaning one want... he writes in the Encuclopedie ([75 a), article DEFINITION);
"[one could) strictly speaking create parts 0/ Geometry which are ezact (but ridicu-
lous) by giving the name triangle to what i. normally called a circle".
doubt what can be seen here is a manifestation ceaselessly recurring of a

deep feeling for the unity of the various "mathematical sciences". If one can
take as authentic the traditional maxim "All things are numbers" of the first
Pythagoreans, that can be considered as the trace of a first attempt to bring
back the geometry and algebra of the times to arithmetic. Although the dis-
covery of the irrationals seemed to close for ever that route, the reaction to
which it gave birth in Greek mathematics was a second attempt at synthe-
sis this time taking geometry as the basis, and absorbing among others the
solution methods for algebraic equations inherited from the Babylonians. 33
It is known that this conception was to remain until the fundamental reform
of R. Bombelli and of Descartes, assimilating every measure of quantity to
a measure of length (in other words, to a real number; cf. p. 151). But with
the creation of analytical geometry by Descartes and Fermat, the tendency
is again reversed, and a much tighter fusion of geometry and algebra is ob-
tained, but this time to the benefit of algebra. Further, elsewhere, Descartes
goes further and conceives of the essential unity of "all these sciences that
are commonly called Mathematics ... Even though their subjects are differ-
ent' , he says "they still do not fail to converge, in that they consider nothing
other than the various relations or ratios that are to be found there' ([85
a], v. VI, pp. 19-20).34 However, this point of view only tended to make
Algebra the fundamental mathematical science; a conclusion against which
Leibniz protests vigorously, who also himself, as has been seen, conceived of a
"universal Mathematics", but on a much vaster scale and already quite close
to modern ideas. Making precise the "accord" of which Descartes spoke,
he glimpses, in fact, for the first time, the general notion of isomorphism
(which he calls "similitude"), and the possibility of "identifying" relations or
operations that are isomorphic; he gives as examples addition and multiplica.-
tion ([69 a], pp. 301-303). But these audacious v.iews remained without echo
amongst his contemporaries, and one must await the expansion of Algebra
which takes place around the middle of the XIXth century (see pp. 51 ff.)
to see the beginnings of the realisation of the Leibnizian dreams. We have
already underlined that it is at that moment that the "models" multiply and
that it becomes usual to go from one theory to another by a simple change of
language; the most striking example of this is perhaps duality in projective
geometry (see p. 132), where the practice, frequent at that time, of printing
face to face, in two columns, the theorems "dual" one to the other, doubtless
33 Arithmetic remains however outside this synthesis; and it is known that Euclid,
after having developed the general theory of ratios between arbitrary quantities,
develops independently the theory of rational numbers, instead of considering them
as particular cases of ratios of quantities (see pp. 1(8).
34 It is fairly interesting, on this point, to see Descartes getting closer to arithmetic
and to "combinations oj numbers", the "arts ... where order reigns more fully, as
are those 0/ artisans who make cloth or carpets, or those 0/ women who embroider
or make lace" ([85 al, v. X, p. (03), as if in anticipation of modern studies on
symmetry and its relations with the notion of group (cf. [331 c]).
1. FOUNDATIONS OF MATHEMATICSi LOGICi SET THEORY. 23
plays a great part in the full realisation of the notion of isomorphism. From
a more technical point of view, certainly the notion of isomorphic groups for
abelian groups is known to Gauss, for groups of permutations to Galois (cf.
pp. 51 ft'.); it is acquired in a general way for any group whatsoever around
the middle of the XIXth century.35 Following this, with each new axiomatic
theory, it is a natural development to define a notion of isomorphism; but
it is only with the modern notion of structure that it was finally recognised
that every structure carries within itself a notion of isomorphism, and that
it is not necessary to give a special definition of it for each type of structure.
C) The arithmetisation of classical mathematics. - The use, more and
more widespread, of the notion of "model" was also going to allow the real-
isation in the XIXth century of the unification of mathematics dreamed of
by the Pythagoreans. At the beginning of the century, whole numbers and
continuous quantities seemed as irreconcilable as ever in antiquity; real num-
bers remain linked to the notion of geometric quantity (at least to that of
length), and it is to this latter that appeal had been made for the "models"
of negative numbers and imaginary numbers. Even rational numbers were
traditionally attached to the idea of the splitting of a quantity into equal
parts; only the whole numbers remained apart, as "exclusively the product of
our minds" as is said by Gauss in 1832, putting them in opposition to the
notion of space ([124 al, v. VIII, p. 201). The first efforts to bring together
Arithmetic and Analysis were made at first with rational numbers (positive
and negative) and are due to Martin Ohm (1822); they were taken up again
around 1860 by several authors, notably Grassmann, Hankel and Weierstrass
(in his unpublished lectures); it is to this latter that it appears is due the idea
of obtaining a "model" of the positive rational numbers or of whole negative
numbers by considering classes of pairs of whole numbers. But the most im-
portant step remained to be taken, namely to find a "model" of irrational
numbers in the theory of rational numbers; around 1870, it had become an
urgent problem, in view of the necessity, after the discovery of "pathological"
phenomena in Analysis, to eliminate every trace of geometric intuition in the
vague notion of "quantity" in the definition of real numbers. It is known that
this problem was solved around this time, almost simultaneously by Cantor,
Dedekind, Meray and Weierstrass, and using fairly different methods (see
p. 155).
From this moment, whole numbers becllome the foundation of all classical
mathematics. Further, "models" based on Arithmetic acquired still more im-
portance with the extension of the axiomatic method and the conception of
mathematical objects as free creations of the mind. There remained in fact
one restriction to this freedom cla.imed by Cantor, the question of "existence"
which had already preoccupied the Greeks, and which arose here in a much
36 The word "isomorphism" itself is introduced in group theory at about the same
time; but a.t first, it is used to designate surjective homomorphisms, qualified u
"merihedral isomorphisms", whereu isomorphisms proper are called "holohedral
isomorphisms"; this terminology would remain in use until the work of E. Noether.
more immediate way, precisely since all appeals to an intuitive representation

had now been abandoned. We will see later (pp. 36 ff.) of what a philosophico-
mathematical maelstrom the notion of "existence" was going to be the centre
in the first years of the XXth century. But in the XIXth century that had
not been reached, and to prove the existence of a mathematical object hav-
ing given properties, it was simply, as for Euclid, "constructing" an object
with given properties. That was precisely what arithmetic "models" were for:
once the real numbers were "interpreted" in terms of whole numbers, complex
numbers and Euclidean geometry were also, thanks to analytical Geometry,
and it was the same for all new algebraic objects introduced since the begin-
ning of the century; finally - a discovery that had a great effect - Beltrami
and Klein had even obtained Euclidean "models" of the non-Euclidean ge-
ometries of Lobatschevsky and of Riemann (see p. 134), and in consequence
"arithmetised" (and thereby completely justified) these theories which had
at first sight aroused such distrust.
D) The aziomatisation 0/ arithmetic. - It was in line with this evolution
that a subsequent turn towards the foundations of arithmetic itself was made,
and indeed that is what can be seen around 1880. It appears that before the
XIXth century no attempt had been made to define addition and multipli-
cation of whole numbers except by a direct appeal to intuition; Leibniz is
the only one who, faithful to his principles, warns expressly that "truths" as
"obvious" as 2 + 2 = 4 are no less susceptible to proof if one thinks about
the definitions of the numbers involved ([198 b], v. IV, p. 403; cf. [69 a], p.
203); and he did not consider at all that commutativity of addition and mul-
tiplication were intrinsic. 36 But he does not take his thoughts on this subject
any further, and about the middle of the XIXth century, still no progress
in this direction had been made: Weierstrass himself, whose lectures con-
tributed considerably to extend the "arithmeticising" point of view. does not
seem to have felt the need for a logical clarification of the theory of whole
numbers. The first steps in this direction seem to be due to Grassmann, who.
in 1861 ([134], v. 112 • p. 295) gives a definition of addition and multiplication
for whole numbers. and proves their fundamental properties (commutativity.
associativity, distributativity) using only the operation II: ...... II: + 1 and the
principle of induction. This latter had been clearly conceived and used for the
first time in the XVIIth century by B. Pascal ([244]. v. III. p. 456)37 - even
though one can find in Antiquity some more or less conscious applications of
it - and was currently used by mathematicians since the second half of the
XVIIth century. But it is only in 1888 that Dedekind ([79], v. III. pp.359-361)
stated a complete system of axioms for arithmetic (a system repeated 3 years
later by Peano and usually known by his name [246 c)), which contained in
38 As examples of non-commutative operations, he points to subtraction. division

and exponentiation ([198 b]. v. VII, p. 31); he had at one time even tried to introduce
such operations into his logical calculus ([69 a]. p. 353).
37 See also [45]
particular a precise formulation of the principle of induction (that Grassmann

uses yet without stating it explicitly).
With this axiomatisation. it seemed that the definitive foundations of
mathematics had been reached. In fact. at the very moment when the axioms
of arithmetic were being clearly formulated. these same, for many mathemati-
cians (starting with Dedekind and Peano themselves) were already deprived
of this role of primordial science, in favour of the latest arrival among the
theories of mathematics. the theory of sets; and the controversies that were
going to unravel around the notion of whole number cannot be isolated from
the great "crisis of the foundations" of the years 1900-1930.
THE THEORY OF SETS.
It can be said that at all times, mathematicians and philosophers have used
reasoned arguments from the theory of sets in a more or less conscious way;
but in the history of their conceptions of this· subject, one must separate
sharply all questions linked to the idea of cardinal number (and in particu-
lar to the notion of infinity) from those that only introduce the notions of
belonging and inclusion. These latter are among the most intuitive and seem
never to have raised controversy: it is on them that one can most easily base a
theory of syllogism (as Leibniz.and Euler were to show us), or axioms such as
"the whole is greater than the sum of its parts" • without talking about that
which. in geometry, is concerned with intersections of curves and surfaces.
Until the end of the XIXth century, no problem arises in talking about the
set (or "class" with some authors) of objects possessing such and such a given
propertYj3S and the famous "definition" given by Cantor ("By a set is meant
a gathering into one whole 0/ objects which are quite distinct in our intuition
or our thought' ([47], p. 282» will give rise, at the time of its publication,
to hardly any objections.39 It is altogether different as soon as the notion of
set is mixed with that of number or quantity. The question of the infinite
divisibility of the line (doubtless posed already by the first Pythagoreans)
was, as is known, to lead to considerable philosophical difficulties: from the
Eleates to Bolzano and Cantor. mathematicians and philosophers will throw
themselves without success against the paradox of the finite quantity made
up of an infinity of points without size. It would be of no interest to us to
retrace, even summarily. the interminable and impassioned polemics that are
aroused by this problem, that constituted a ground particularly favourable
to metaphysical or theological digressions; let us note only the point of view
38 We have seen ea.rller that Boole does not even hesitate to introduce in his logical
calculus a "Universe" I, the set of all objects; it does not appear that at the time
this conception was criticised, even though it has been rejected by Aristotle, who
f,ave a proof, fairly obscure, aiming to show its absurdity ([6], Met. B, 3, 998 b).
, Frege seems to be one of the rare contemporary mathematicians who, not without
cause, spoke out against the wave of simila.r "definitions" ([117 c]. v. I, p. 2).
at which, from Antiquity, most mathematicians stop. It consists essentially

in refusing to debate, short of being able to conclude in an irrefutable way -
an attitude that we will find again among the modern formalists; in the same
way as these latter arrange for the elimination of the intervention of "para.-
doxical" sets (see below pp. 31 fr.), the classical mathematicians carefully
avoid introducing into their reasoning the "actual infinity" (that is to say
sets made up of an infinity of objects conceived as existing simultaneously, at
least in their thought), and content themselves with "potential infinity", that
is to say the possibility of increasing every given quantity (or of decreasing it
if it is a case of a "continuous" quantity).4o If this point of view contained a
certain dose of hypocrisy,41 it allowed however the development of the larger
part of classical mathematics (including the theory of ratios and later the in-
finitesimal Calculus)j42 it even seemed an excellent safeguard, above all after
the quarrels caused by the infinitely small, and had become a dogma almost
universally subscribed to until well into the XIXth century.
A first glimmer of the general notion of equipotence appears in a remark
of Galileo ([122 b], v. VIII, pp. 78-80): he observes that the map n I-t n 2
establishes a bijective correspondence between the natural numbers and their
squares and that it follows that the axiom "the whole is greater than the part"
to A typical example of this conception is the statement of Euclid: "For each given
quantity of prime numbers, ther-e is one that is bigger" that we state nowadays by
sa.ying that the set of prime numbers is infinite.
tl Classically, one had obviously the right to say that a point belonged to a straight
line, but to extract from that that a straight line "consists of points" would be to
violate the taboo of the actual infinity, and Aristotle devotes long developments to
justify this interdiction. It is likely that, in order to escape all objections of this kind,
ill the XIXth century many mathematicians avoid talking about sets, and reason
systematically "by comprehension"; for example, Galois does not talk of the field
of numbers, but only of the properties common to all the elements of such a field.
Even Pasch and Hilbert, in their axiomatic presentations of Euclidean geometry,
still abstain from saying that straight lines and planes are sets of points; Peano
is the only one who uses freely the language of the theory of sets in elementary
geometry.
l2 No doubt the reason for this fact must be found in the circumstance that the sets
appearing in classical mathematics belonged to a small number of simple types, and
could for the most part be completely described by a finite number of numerical
"parameters", 80 much so that their study reduces in the end to that of a finite set
of numbers (it is so thus for example for algebraic curves and surfaces, which for a
long time, are about the only "figures" of classical geometry). Before the progress
of Analysis imposes, in the XIXth century, the consideration of arbitrary subsets of
the straight line or R n, one can only rarely find sets that stray from the preceding
types; for example Leibniz, always original, considers as a "geometric locus" the
closed disc deprived of its centre, or (in a curious presentiment of the theory of
ideals) considers that in arithmetic a. whole number is "the type" of the set of its
multiples, and remarks that the set of multiples of 6 is the intersection of the set
of multiples of 2 and the set of multiples of 3 ([198 b], v. VII, p. 292). From the
begi1lning of the XIXth century, one becomes familiar, in algebra and in the theory
of numbers, with sets of this last type, as the classes. of quadratic forms, introduced
by Gauss, or fields a1ld ideals, defined by Dedekind before the Cantorian revolution.
could not be applied to an infinite set. But far from inaugurating a rational
study of infinite sets, this remark seems to have had no other effect than to
reinforce mistrust of actual infinity; it is already the conclusion of Galileo
himself, and Cauchy, in 1833, only quotes him in order to approve of his
attitude.
The necessities of Analysis - and particularly the deep study of functions
of real variables, which was taking place during the whole of the XIXth
century - are at the origins of what was to become the modern theory
of sets. When Bolzano, in 1817, proves the existence of the lower limit of
a set bounded below in R [27 c], he still reasons, like the greater part of
his contemporaries, "by comprehension", speaking not of an arbitrary set
of real numbers, but of an arbitrary property of these latter. But when, 30
years later, he writes his "Paradoxien des Unendlichen" [27 b] (published in
1851, three years after his death), he does not hesitate to claim the right
to the existence of the "actual infinity" and to speak of arbitrary sets. He
defines, in this work, the general notion of the equipotence of two sets, and
proves that two compact intervals in R are equipotent; he notes also that the
characteristic difference between finite sets and infinite sets consists in that
an infinite set E is equipotent to a subset distinct from E, but he does not
give any convincing proof of this assertion. The general tone of this work is in
any case more philosophical than mathematical, and for lack of disassociating
sufficiently clearly the notion of the power of a set from that of size or order
of infinity, Bolzano fails in his attempts to construct infinite sets of greater
and greater power, and lets himself be drawn on this occasion into mixing
his reasoning with considerations on divergent series that are totally devoid
of sense.
It is due to the genius of G. Cantor that the theory of sets as we know it
today was created. He also started with Analysis, and his work on trigono-
metric series, inspired by those of Riemann, bring him naturally, in 1872, to
a first attempt to classify "exceptional" sets which occur in this theory,43 by
means of the notion of successive "derived sets", which he introduces at this
point. It is no doubt in connection with these researches, and also with his
method for defining the real numbers ([47], pp. 92-97), that Cantor begins to
be interested in the problems of equipotence, for in 1873, he remarks that the
set of rational numbers (or the set of algebraic- numbers) is countable; and
in his correspondence with Dedekind, which starts about this time [48], he is
seen posing the question of the equipotence between the set of whole numbers
and the set of real numbers, which he succeeds in solving negatively a few
weeks later. Then, from 1874 on, it is the problem of dimension that preoccu-
pies him, and for three years he seeks in vain to establish the impossibility of
a bijective correspondence between Rand RR(n > I), before succeeding, to
.a It is a case of sets E C R such that, if a trigonometric series E:: Cnenis

converges to 0 except at the points of E, it necessarily follows that en = 0 for all n
([47], p. 99).
his great surprise,44 in defining such a correspondence. Having such results as

new as they were surprising, he devotes himself entirely to the theory of sets.
In a series of 6 memoirs published in the Mathematische Annalen between
1878 and 1884, he tackles both the problems of equipotence, the theory of t~
tally ordered sets, the topological properties of R and of R 11 and the problem
of measure; and it is admirable to see with what clarity these notions appear
in his hands little by little, notions which appear so inextricably tied to the
classical conception of the "continuum" . From 1880, he has the idea of iterat-
ing "transfinitely" the construction of "derived sets"; but this idea takes on
life only two years later, with the introduction of well ordered sets, one of the
most original discoveries of Cantor, thanks to which he can tackle a detailed
study of cardinal numbers and formulate the "problem of the continuum"
[47].
It was impossible that such bold conceptions, reversing a twice millennial
tradition, and leading to results so unexpected and of such a paradoxical ap-
pearance, would be accepted without resistance. In fact, amongst the math-
ematicians who were influential at that time in Germany, Weierstrass was
the only one to follow with some favour the work of Cantor (his erstwhile
pupil); this latter was to run up on the other hand against the irreducible
opposition of Schwarz and especially of Kronecker. 46 It is, it would appear,
as much the constant tension generated by the opposition to his ideas, as his
fruitless efforts to prove the continuum hypothesis, which caused in Cantor
the first symptoms of a nervous illness from which his mathematical produc-
tivity would suffer. 46 He only really took up again his interest in the theory
of sets in 1887, and his last publications date from 1895-1897; he develops
there mostly the theory of totally ordered sets and the calculus of ordinals.
He had also proved in 1890 the inequality m <: 2m; however, not only did
the problem of the continuum remain without answer, but there remained in
the theory of cardinals a more serious gap, for Cantor had been unable to
establish the existence of a well ordering between arbitrary cardinals. This
gap was going to be filled, on the one hand by the theorem of F. Bernstein
(1897) showing that the relations a:$ & and & :$ a imply a = &,47 and above
all by the theorem of Zermelo [342 a] proving the existence of a well order on
every set - a theorem conjectured already in 1883 by Cantor ([47], p. 169).
U "I can see it, but I do not believe it" he writes to Dedekind ([48], p. 34); in French
ill the text).
4:1 The contemporaries of Kronecker have made frequent allusions to his doctrinaire
position on the foundations of matllematics; it must be presumed that he expressed
himself more explicitly in his personal contacts than in his publicatioDs (where,
as far as the role of natural numbers is concerned, he only takes up again some
fairly banal remarks on "arithmetisation" around 1880) {d. [327 b], in particular
pp. 14-15).
'6 For this period of the life of Cantor, see [275 b].
47 This theorem had already been obtained by Dedekind in 1887, but its proof was
not published ([79], v. III, p. 447).
1. FOUNDATIONS OF MATHEMATICSj LOGlCj SET THEORY. 29
However Dedekind, from the beginning, had not ceased to follow with a
sustained interest the researches of Cantorj but while this latter concentrated
his attention on infinite sets and their classification, Dedekind followed his
own thoughts on the notion of number (which had already led him to his
definition of irrationals by "cuts"). In his opuscule WaB Bind und waB Bollen
die Zahlen, published in 1888, but the essentials dating from 1872-78 ([79],
v.III, p. 335), he shows how the notion of natural number (on which, as has
been seen, the whole of classical Mathematics had ended up by relying) could
itself be derived from fundamental notions in the theory of sets. Developing
(no doubt the first explicitly) the elementary properties of arbitrary maps
from one set to another (neglected until Cantor, who was only interested in
bijective correspondences), he introduces, for every map I of a set E into
itself, the notion of "chain" of an element a E E relative to I, namely the
intersection of the sets K C E such that a E K and I(K) c K .48 He then
takes as his definition of an infinite set E the fact that there exists a bijective
map t/J of E into E such that t/J(E) #= Ej 49 if further there exists such a map
t/J and an element a ¢, t/J(E) for which E is the chain of a, Dedekind says
that E is "simply infinite", remarks that the "axioms of Peano" are then
satisfied and shows (before Peano) how starting from there all the theorems
of elementary arithmetic are obtained. The only missing part of his expose is
the axiom of infinity that Dedekind (following Balzano) believes himself able
to prove by considering the "world of thought" of humans ("Gedanken welt")
as a set. 50
On another tack, Dedekind had been led by his work on arithmetic (and
notably the theory of ideals) to consider the notion of ordered set in a more
t8 It is on a very analogous notion that the second proof given by Zermelo for his
theorem relies [342 b].
'9 We have seen that Bolzano had already noted this characterisation of infinite
sets, but his work (hardly disseminated, it would appear, in mathematical circles)
was unknown to Dedekind at the time when he was writing "Was sind und was
sollen die Zahlen".
60 Another method for defining the notion of natural number and for establishing
the fundamental properties was proposed by Frege in 1884 [117 b]. He seeks first
to give to the notion of cardinal of a set a more precise meaning than Cantorj at
that time this latter had only defined the notions of equipotent sets and of sets
having a power at most equal to that of another, and the definition of "cardinal
number" that he was to give later ([47], p. 282) was as obscure and unusable as
the definition of a straight line in Euclid. Frege, always careful about precision,
has the idea of taking as definition of the cardinal of a set A the set of all sets
equipotent to A ([117 b], §68)j then, having defined q,(o) = 0 + 1 for all cardinals
(§76), he puts himself in the set C of all cardinals, and defines the relation "b is
a q,-successor to oJ> as meaning that b belongs to the intersection of all the sets
X C C such that q,(o) e X and q,(X) C X (§79). Finally, he defines a natural
number as a q,-successor of 0 (§83j all these definitions are of course expressed by
Frege in his language of the "logic of concepts"). Unfortunately this construction
was to reveal itself to be defective, the set C or set of sets equipotent with a set A
was "paradoxical" (see below).
general setting than Cantor. While this latter restricts himself exclusively to
totally ordered sets, 51 Dedekind tackles the general case, and makes in par-
ticular a deep study of lattices «79], v. II, pp. 236-271). This work was hardly
noticed at the time; although these results, found again by several authors,
have been the object of numerous publications since 1935, their historical
importance arises much less from the possibilities for applications, fairly thin
no doubt, of this theory, than from the fact that they constituted one of
the first examples of careful axiomatic construction. On the other hand, the
first results of Cantor on sets which were countable or had the power of the
continuum were rapidly to have numerous and important applications right
up to the most classical questions of Analysis 52 (without talking naturally of
those parts of the Cantorian work that inaugurated General Topology and
measure theory; on that see pp. 141 and 221). Moreover, from the last years
of the XIXth century the first uses of the principle of transfinite induction
were appearing, having become, especially after the proof of the theorem of
Zermelo, an indispensable tool in all parts of modern mathematics. Kura-
towski was to give, in 1922, an often more amenable version of this principle,
avoiding the use of well ordered sets ([189 a], p. 89); it is in this form, found
again later by Zorn [344], that it is mainly used at the present time. 53
Towards the end of the XIXth century, the essential concepts of Cantor
had thus gained their cause. 54 We have seen that, at about this time, the
formalisation of mathematics is achieved and the use of the axiomatic method
is almost universally agreed. But, at the same time, a "crisis of foundations"
of a rare violence was opening up, which was to shake the mathematical world
for more than 30 years, and to seem at times to compromise, not only all the
recent acquisitions, but even the most classical parts of Mathematics.
1>1It is interesting to note that, among these latter, Cantor never wanted to admit
the existence of "non archimedean" ordered groups because they introduced the
notion of the "actual infinitely small" ([47], pp. 156 and 172). Such order relations
arose naturally in the researches of Du Bois-Reymond on orders of infinity (cr.
p. 202) and were studied systematically by Veronese [318].
52 From 1874, Weierstrass had given notice, in a letter to Du Bois-Reymond, of an
application to functions of a real variable of the theorem of Cantor on the possibility
of writing the rational numbers as a sequence ([329 b], p. 206).
53 Because of this the interest that was shown in the ordinals of Cantor has greatly
diminished; in general, in any case, many of the results of Cantor and his successors
on the arithmetic of ordinals and non denumerable cardinals have remained until
now fairly isolated.
of The official consecration of the theory of sets is manifested already at the first
international Congress of mathematicians (Zurich, 1897), where Hadamard [141]
and Hurwitz give notice of important applications to Analysis. The growing influ-
ence of Hilbert at this time contributed greatly to the spread of the ideas of Cantor,
especially in Germany.
THE PARADOXES OF THE THEORY OF SETS AND THE CRISIS OF

FOUNDATIONS.
The first "paradoxical" sets appeared in the theory of cardinals and ordinals.
In 1897, Burali-Forti remarked that one cannot consider the existence of a
set consisting of all the ordinals, because this set would be well ordered, and
so isomorphic to one of its segments distinct from the whole, which is absurd
[42].55 In 1899, Cantor observes (in a letter to Dedekind) that it is no longer
possible to speak of the cardinals forming a set, nor to speak of the "set of all
sets" without reaching a contradiction (the set of subsets of this latter "set"
o would be equipotent to a subset of 0, which is contrary to the inequality
m < 2m ) ([47], pp. 444-448). In 1905 finally, Russell analysing the proof of
this inequality, shows that the reasoning that establishes it proves (without
appealing to the theory of cardinals) that the notion of the "set of all sets
which are not elements of themselves" is, it also, contradictory [266].56
It could be believed that such "antinomies" would only be manifested in
the peripheral regions of mathematics, characterised by the consideration of
sets of a "size" inaccessible to intuition. But other "paradoxes" were soon to
threaten the most classical parts of mathematics. Berry and Russell ([266],
v.I, pp.63-64), simplifying an argument of J. Richard [258], observe in effect
that the set of whole numbers of which the definition can be expressed in less
than sixteen words in English is finite, but that it is however contradictory to
define a whole number as "the least whole number which is not definable by
less than sixteen words in English" , because this definition consists of fifteen
words only.
Although such reasoning, so far from that usually used by mathemati-
cians, may have appeared to many of them as a kind of riddle, they pointed
the way none the less to the necessity for a revision of the bases of mathe-
matics, aiming to eliminate "paradoxes" of this nature. But although there
was unanimity concerning the urgency of this revision, radical divergences
were soon to appear concerning the manner of realising it. For a first group
of mathematicians, be they "idealists", be they "formalists", 57 the situation
created by the "paradoxes" of the theory of sets was very analogous to that
which resulted, in geometry, from the discovery of non-Euclidean geometries
66 This remark had already been made by Cantor in 1896 (in a letter to Hilbert,
unpublished).
li6 The reasoning of Russell is getting close to the paradoxes of antiquity of which
the type is the celebrated "Lia.r" , the subject of innumera.ble commentaries in formal
classical Logic: it consists in knowing whether the man who says "I lie" says or does
not say t.he truth in pronouncing these words (d. [267)).
67 The divergence between these two schools is mostly philosophical, and we cannot
here go into more details on this topic; the essence is that they come together on
properly mathematical ground. For example, Hadamard, a typical representative
of the "idealists", adopts, where the validity of reasoning in the theory of sets is
concerned, a point of view very close to the formalists, but without expressing it in
an axiomatic form ([12], p.271).
or of "pathological" curves (such as curves without tangents)j it must lead to

a similar, but more general, conclusion namely that it is hopeless to seek to
base an arbitrary mathematical theory on an appeal (explicit or not) to "in-
tuition" . The position can be summed up by the very words of the principal
adversary of the formalist school :"The formalist' says Brouwer ([39 a], p.
83), "submils lhat human reason does nol have at its disposal ezact pictures
of straight lines or numbers greater than ten, for ezample .. , It is true that
cef'iain relations between mathematical entities, that we take as azioms, we
can deduce from other relations according to jized rules, with the conviction
that in this way we derive truth from other truths by logical reasoning . .. [But]
for the formalist, mathematical ezactitude resides only in the development of
the sequence of relations, and is independent of the meaning that one could
wish to give to lhe relations or entities that they link."
It consists, therefore, for the formalist, in giving to the theory of sets
an axiomatic basis quite analogous to that of elementary geometry, where
one does not concern oneself with what the "objects" are that are called
"sets" , nor what is meant by the relation z E y, but where one enumerates
the conditions to be imposed on this latter relation; of course, this must be
done in such a way as to include, as far as possible, all the results of the
theory of Cantor, all the while making it impossible for "paradoxical" sets
to exist. The first example of such an axiomatisation was given by Zermelo
in 1908 [342 c]j he avoids sets that are "too large" by the introduction of an
"axiom of selection (Aus80nderung)" , a property P(z) only determining a set
made up of the elements which have it if per) already entails a relation of
the form z E A.5s But the elimination of paradoxes analogous to "Richard's
paradox" could only be done by restricting the meaning attached to the
notion of "property"; on that, Zermelo contents himself with describing in
very vague terms a type of property that he calls "define(/', and to indicate
that one must limit oneself to these latter in the application of the axiom of
selection. This point was made precise by Skolem [286 a] and Fraenkel [113 b];
as they observed, its elucidation forces us to place ourselves in a completely
formalised system, where the notions of "property" and of "relation" have
lost all "significance" and have become simple designations for the collections
formed following explicit rules. That necessitates of course that one must put
into the system the rules of Logic that are used, which was not yet the case
ill the system of Zermelo-Fraenkel.
Other axiomatisations of the theory of sets were proposed following on
from this. Let us mention principally that of von Neumann [342 a and c]
which, more than the system of Zermelo-Fraenkel, approached the primitive
conception of Cantor: this latter, to avoid paradoxical sets, had already pro-
posed ([47], pp. 445-448), in his correspondence with Dedekind, to distinguish
58 For example, the paradox of Russell would only become valid in the system of
Zermelo if one could prove there the relation (3%)«z ~ z) => (z E .I»; of
course, such a proof, if it could be obtained, would have as immediate consequence
the necessity of a substantial modification of the system in question.
1. FOUNDATIONS OF MATHEMATICSj LOGICj SET THEORY. 33
between two kinds of sets, the "multiplicities" ("Vielheiten") and the "sets"
("Mengen") proper, the second ones being characterised in that they can be
thought of as a single object. It is this idea that von Neumann makes precise
in distinguishing two types of objects, "sets" and "classes"; in his system
(almost completely formalised), classes are distinguished from sets in that
they cannot be placed on the left of the sign e. One of the advantages of
such a system is that it rehabilitates the notion of "universal class" used by
the logicians of the XIXth century (which naturally is not a set); let us point
out also that the system of von Neumann avoids (for the theory of sets) the
introduction of axiom schemes, replaced by suitable axioms (which makes its
logical study easier). Some variants of the system of von Neumann have been
given by Bernays and G8del [130 b).
The elimination of paradoxes seems to have been well carried out by the
systems above, but at the cost of restrictions which cannot but seem to be
very arbitrary. In favour of the system of Zermelo-Fraenkel, one can say that
it restricts itself to formulating restrictions that only sanction the current
practice in the applications of the notion of set to the various mathematical
theories. The systems of von Neumann and of G8del are further removed
from the usual conceptions; on the other hand, it is not excluded that it is
easier to insert certain mathematical theories still in their beginnings in the
framework provided by such systems rather than in the narrower framework
of the system of Zermelo-Fraenkel.
Certainly one could not affirm that any of these solutions give the impres-
sion of being definitive. If they satisfy the formalists, it is that these latter
refuse to take into consideration the individual psychological reactions of
each mathematician; they assume that a formalised language has completed
its task when it can transcribe ma.thema.tical reasoning into a. form lacking
ambiguity, and so useful as a vehicle for mathematical thought; everyone is
free, they would say, to think what he likes about the "nature" of mathe-
ma.tica.l objects or the "truth" of the theorems that he uses, so long as his
reasoning can be transcribed into the common language. 69
In other words, from a. philosophical point of view, the a.ttitude of the for-
malists consists in being disinterested in the problem set by the "paradoxes",
in a.ba.ndoning the pla.tonic position which aimed to attribute to mathemat-
ical notions an intellectual "content" common to all mathematicians. Many
mathematicians draw back faced with this break with tradition. Russell, for
example, seeks to avoid paradoxes by analysing their structure in a deeper
way. Taking up again an idea first brought forward by J. Richard (in the
article [258] where he displayed his "paradox") and developed later by H.
Poincare [251 c), Russell and Whitehead observe that the definitions of para-
59 Hilbert, however, seems always to have believed in an objective mathematical
"truth" ([163 c], pp. 315 and 323). Even some formalists who, like H. Curry, have
a stance very close to that which we have just outlined, reject with a kind of
indignation the idea that mathematics could be considered a simple game, and
want absolutely to see in it an "objective science" ([73], p. 57).
doxical sets all violate the following principle, called the "principle of the
vicious circle": "An element of which the definition involves the totality of
the elements of a set can not belong to that set" ([266], v. I, p. 40). Also it
is this statement that serves as basis for the Principia, and it is to satisfy
it that the "theory of types" is developed in this work. Like that of Frege
by which it is inspired, the logic of Russell and Whitehead contains "propo-
sitional variables"; the theory of types proceeds to a classification of these
different variables, of which the main lines are the following. Starting from a
"domain of individuals" which are not specified and which can be qualified
as "objects of order 0", the relationships where the variables (free or tied)
are individuals, are said to be "objects of the first order"; and in general,
the relations in which the variables are objects of order ~ n (one at least
being of order n) are said to be "objects of order n + 1" .60 A set of objects
of order n can then only be defined by a relation of order n + 1, a condition
that allows the elimination without trouble of the paradoxical sets. 61 But
the principle of the "hierarchy of types" is so restrictive that by adhering to
it strictly, one ends up with a mathematics of inextricable complexity.62 To
escape this consequence, Russell and Whitehead are constrained to introduce
an "axiom of reducibility" affirming the existence, for every relation between
"individuals" , of a relation of tile first order to which it is equivalent; a con-
dition quite as arbitrary as the axioms of the formalists, and which reduces
considerably interest in the construction of the Principia. So the system of
Russell and Whitehead has had more success with the logicians than with the
mathematicians; it is in any case not entirely formalised,63 and as a result
there are numerous obscure details. Various efforts have been made to sim-
plify and clarify this system (Ramsey, Chwistek, Quine, Rosser); tending to
use languages that are more and more fully formalised, these authors replace
the rules of the Principia (which still had a certain intuitive foundation) with
restt·ictions only taking account of the wording of the aggregations being con-
60 That is only in fact the beginning of the classification of "types", of which a
faithful account could not be given without going into some very long developments;
the reader wishing for more detailed explanations could in particular take note of
the introduction to v. II of Principia Mathematica [266].
61 III the system of Russell and Whitehad, the relation x E x can not therefore be
legally written down, as against the system of Zermelo-Fraenkel, for example.
62 For example, equality is not a primitive notion in the system of Principia: two
objects a, b are equal iffor every property P( x), P( a) and P(b) are equivalent propo-
sitions. But this definition does not make sense in the theory of types: in order to
make sense, one would have to specify at least the "order" of P, and so one would
be led to distinguish amongst an infinity of relations of equality! Zermelo had i~
any case remarked, already in 1908 [342 b], that numerous classical mathematical
definitions (for example that of a lower limit of a set in R) do not obey the "princi-
ple of the vicious circle", and that the adoption of this principle thus risked ruling
out important parts of the most traditional mathematical theories.
63 Russell and Whitehead (as already Frege) keep to the classical position as regards
mathematical formulae, which for them must always have a "meaning" related to
an activity underlying the thought.
sidered; not only do these rules appear to be as gratuitous as the prohibitions

formulated in the systems of Zermelo-Fraenkel or of von Neumann, but, be-
ing further removed from the practice of mathematicians, they have, in many
cases, led to unacceptable consequences, which the author had not foreseen
(such as the paradox of Burali-Forti, or the negation of the axiom of choice).
For mathematicians of the preceding schools, it was above all a case of
not renouncing any part of the heritage of the past: "From the paradise that
Cantor has created for uti', says Hilbert ([163 c], p. 274), "no one should
be able to chase 'Us". To do this, they are willing to accept limitations on
mathematical reasoning, hardly essential because consonant with use, but
which do not seem to be imposed by our mental customs and the intuitive
idea of the notion of set. Anything seems to them preferable to the intrusion
of psychology into the criteria of validity in mathematics; and rather than
"putting into account the characteristics of our brainti', as Hadamard says
([12], p. 270), they are resigned to imposing on the mathematical domain
limits which are for the most part arbitrary, so long as they include classical
Mathematics and do not risk hampering future progress.
It is a very different matter when we see the attitude of mathematicians
belonging to the tendency of which it remains for us to speak. If the formalists
accept the renunciation of the control of the "eyes of the mind" so far as
mathematical reasoning is concerned, the mathematicians that have been
called "empiricists", "realists" or "intuitionists" refuse this abdication; they
must have a kind of internal certainty guaranteeing the "existence" of the
mathematical objects with which they are concerned. As long as it was only
a case of renouncing spatial intuition, there was no serious objection, since
the arithmetical "models" allowed retrenchment behind the intuitive notion
of whole numbers. But irreducible opposition manifests itself when it is a
matter of reducing the notion of whole number to that (much less intuitively
precise) of set, then of imposing on the handling of sets barriers without
intuitive foundation. The first in time of these opponents (and the one who,
by the authority of his genius, was to exercise the most influence) was H.
Poincare; having admitted, not only the axiomatic point of view for geometry
and the arithmetisation of Analysis, but also a good part of the theory of
Cantor (which he was one of the first to apply fruitfully in his work), he
refuses on the other hand to conceive that arithmetic may be able, it also, to
be justified by an axiomatic treatment; the principle of complete induction
seems to him in particular a fundamental intuition of our mind, where it is
impossible to see a pure convention64 [251 c]. Hostile in principle to formalised
languages, of which he contested the usefulness, he confuses constantly the
O' Poincare goes as far as saying in substance that it is impossible to define a
structure satisfying all the axioms of Peano, with the exception of the principle
of complete induction ([251 c], p. 65); the example (due to Padoa) of the whole
numbers with the mapping z ..... z + 2 replacing z ..... z + 1 shows that this assertion
is inaccurate. It is a curious point that it is found already in Frege, almost in the
same words ([117 b], p. 21 e).
notion of whole number in formalised mathematics, and the use of whole

numbers in the theory of proof, which was starting up then, and of which
we will speak later; no doubt it was difficult at that time to make as clearly
as today - after 50 years of study and discussion - this distinction which
however had been clearly felt by a Hilbert or a Russell.
The critics of this kind multiplied after the introduction of the axiom of
choice by Zermelo in 1904 [342 a). Its use in many previous proofs in Analysis
or the theory of sets had until then gone by almost unnoticed;65 it is in follow-
ing an idea suggested by Erhard Schmidt that Zermelo, explicitly formulating
this axiom, deduced from it in an ingenious way a satisfactory proof of the
existence of a well ordering on every set. Coming at the same time as the
"paradoxes" , it appears that this new way of reasoning, by its odd allure, had
thrown many a mathematician into confusion; it is enough to see the strange
misunderstandings which surged up about this topic, in the following volume
of Mathematische Annalen, under the signature of mathematicians who were
as familiar with the Cantorian methods as Schoenflies and F. Bernstein. The
criticisms of E. Borel, published in this same volume, are more substantial
and attach themselves clearly to the point of view expressed by H. Poincare
about whole numbers; they are developed and discussed in an exchange of
letters between E. Borel, Baire, Hadamard and Lebesgue, who had remained
in the classical tradition in French mathematics (12). Borel starts by denying
the validity of the axiom of choice because it contains in general an uncount-
able infinity of choices, which is inconceivable intuitively. But Hadamard and
Lebesgue observe that a countable infinity of arbitrary successive choices is
no more intuitive, since it consists of an infinity of operations, that it is im-
possible to conceive as really taking place. For Lebesgue, who enlarged the
debate, everything reduces to knowing what is meant by saying that a math-
ematical object "exists"; it is necessary, for him, that one "names" explicitly
a property defining it in a unique way (a "functional" property, we would
say); for a function such as the one used by Zermelo in his reasoning, that
is what Lebesgue calls a "law" of choice; if, he continues, this requirement is
not satisfied, and that ones limits oneself to "thinking" about this function
instead of "naming" it, can one be sure that during the reasoning process one
is always thinking of the same thing ([12), p. 267)? In any case, this brings
Lebesgue to new doubts; already the question of the choice of a single element
in a set seems to him to raise difficulties: one must be sure that such an ele-
ment "exists" , that is to say that one can "name" at least one of the elements
611 In 1890, Peano, proving his theorem on the existence of integrals of differential
equations, remarks that he would be led naturally to "apply an infinity of times
an arbitrary law under which to a cla88 an individual of that cla88 ill made to
corresponcf'; but he adds also that such a reasoning is inadmissible in his eyes ([246
cl, p. 210). In 1902, B. Levi had remarked that this same reasoning was implicitly
used by F. Bernstein in a proof in the theory of cardinals [199].
of the set. 66 Can one then speak of the "existence" of a set of which one does
not know how to "name" each element? Already Baire does not hesitate to
deny the "existence" of the set of all subsets of a given infinite set (loc. cit.,
pp. 263-264); in vain does Hadamard observe that these requirements lead
to renouncing even the possibility of speaking of the real numbers: it is to
just that conclusion that E. Borel finally agrees. Putting aside the fact that
countability seems to have acquired freehold, one has returned just about to
the classical position of the adversaries of the "actual infinite".
All these objections were not very systematic; it was down to Brouwer and
his school to undertake a complete remould of mathematics guided by similar,
but even more radical, principles. We would not dare to summarise here a
doctrine as complex as intuitionism, which consists as much of psychology
as mathematics, and we will limit ourselves to indicating some of the most
striking aspects, referring for more details to the work of Brouwer himself [39
a and b] and to the exposition by Heyting [162]. For Brouwer, Mathematics
is identical with the "exact" part of our thought, based on the first intuition
of the sequence of natural numbers, and which it is impossible to translate
without mutilation into a formal system. It is in any case only "exact" in
the thought of mathematicians, and it is a chimera to hope to develop an
instrument of communication between them which is not subject to all the
imperfections and ambiguities of language; at most it is possible to hope to
awaken in the interlocutor a favourable state of mind by descriptions that
are more or less vague ([162], pp. 11-13). Intuitionist mathematics attaches
hardly more importance to logic than to language: a proof is not conclusive
by virtue oflogical rules fixed once and for all, but because ofthe "immediate
evidence" of each of its steps. This "evidence" must moreover be interpreted
in a more restrictive way than by E. Borel and his followers: it is thus that
in intuitionist mathematics, it cannot be said that a relation of the form "R
or (not R)" is true (principle of the excluded middle), unless for all system
of values given to the variables appearing in R, one can prove that one of the
two propositions R, "not R" is true; for example, from the equation ab = 0
=
between two real numbers, it cannot be concluded that "a 0 or b 0" , for =
it is easy to create explicit examples of real numbers a, b for which one has
ab = 0 without knowing, at the actual time, how to prove either of the two
propositions a = 0, b = 0 ([162]' p. 21).
88 The 8upposed "choice" of an element in a set has in fact nothing to do with the
axiom of choice; it consists merely of a figure of speech, and everywhere where one
expresses oneself in this way, one is in reality only using the most elementary logical
rules (where the sign T does not occur). Of course, the application of these rules
to a set A requires that it has been proved that A =/: .; it is on this point that the
argument of Lebesgue bears, for such a proof is only valid for him precisely when
one bas "named" an element of A. For example, Lebesgue does not consider as valid
the reasoning of Cantor ([47], pp. 115-118) proving the existence of transcendental
numbers; this existence is only proved for him because it is possible to "name"
transcendental numbers, such as the Liouville numbers or the numbers e or 'Jr.
It is not astonishing that, starting from such principles, the intuitionist

mathematicians finish up with results that are very different from the classical
theorems. A whole part of these disappear, for example most of the "existen-
tial" theorems in Analysis (such as the theorems of Bolzano and Weierstrass
for real functions); if a function of a real variable "exists" in the intuition-
ist sense, it is ipso facto continuous; a bounded monotone sequence of real
numbers does not necessarily have a limit. On the other hand, many classical
notions become ramified, for the intuitionist, into several distinct fundamen-
tal notions: there are thus two notions of convergence (for a sequence of real
numbers) and eight of countability. It goes without saying that transfinite in-
duction and its applications to modern Analysis are (as for the greater part
of the theory of Cantor) condemned without appeal.
It is only in this way that, according to Brouwer, mathematical proposi-
tions can acquire a "content"; the formalist reasonings that go beyond what
the intuitionists allow are judged to be without value, since one can no longer
give them a "meaning" to which the intuitive notion of "truth" could be ap-
plied. It is clear that such judgements can only rely on a pre-existing notion
of "truth" , of a psychological or metaphysical nature. It is to say in practice
that they escape all discussion.
It is undoubted that the vigorous attacks that came from the intuition-
ist camp have sometimes forced not only the mathematical schools in the
avant-garde, but even the followers of traditional mathematics to go on the
defensive. A famous mathematician has admitted having been impressed by
the attacks to the point of having voluntarily restricted his work to branches
of mathematics judged to be "certain" . But such cases can hardly have been
frequent. The intuitionist school, of which the memory is no doubt destined
to remain only as an historical curiosity, would at least have been of service
by having forced its adversaries, that is to say definitely the immense major-
ity of mathematicians, to make their position precise and to take more clearly
notice of the reasons (the ones of a logical kind, the others of a sentimental
kind) for their confidence in mathematics.
METAMATHEMATICS
The absence of contradiction has at all times been considered as a sine qua
non condition for all mathematics, and from the time of Aristotle, logic was
sufficiently developed so that it was perfectly well known that from an in-
consistent theory anything could be deduced. The proofs of "existence" , con-
sidered as indispensable since Antiquity, visibly had no other aim than to
guarantee that the introduction of a new concept did not risk entailing a
contradiction, particularly when this concept was too complicated to fall
immediately under "intuition". We have seen how this requirement became
more pressing with the arrival of the axiomatic point of view in the XIXth
century and how the construction of arithmetical "models" responded to
1. FOUNDATIONS OF MATHEMATICSj LOGICj SET THEORY. 39
it. But arithmetic itself, could it be inconsistent? A question that without

doubt would not have been thought of before the end of the XIXth century,
so much did the whole numbers appear to belong to what was most certain
in our intuition; but after the "paradoxes" everything seemed to have been
questioned, and one can understand that the feeling of insecurity that they
created had brought mathematicians, around 1900, to bear with more care
on the problem of the non-contradiction of arithmetic, so as to save at least
classical mathematics from shipwreck. So this problem is the second of those
that Hilbert enumerated in his famous lecture at the international Congress
of 1900 ([163 a], v. III, pp. 229-301). In doing this, he laid down a new prin-
ciple that was to have great repercussions: whereas in traditional logic the
non-contradiction of a concept only made it "possible", it was equivalent for
Hilbert (at least for mathematical concepts defined axiomatically) to the ex-
istence of the concept. This implied apparently the necessity of proving a
priori the non-contradiction of a mathematical theory before even being able
to develop it legitimately; it is just in this way that H. Poincare understands
it when, to make a breach in formalism, he takes to his account the idea of
Hilbert, underlining with a mischievous pleasure the extent to which the for-
malists were far, at that stage, from being able to achieve it ([251 c], p. 163).
We will see later how Hilbert was to pick up the gauntlet; but before that,
it must be noted here that, under the influence of his authority and that of
Poincare, the requirements set down by this latter were to be for a long time
accepted without reservation as well by the formalists as by their adversaries.
One consequence was the belief, very widespread among the formalists, that
the theory of proof of Hilbert was an integral part of mathematics, of which
it constituted the indispensable prolegomena. This dogma does not seem jus-
tified to US,61 and we consider that the intervention of metamathematics in
the exposition of logic and mathematics ca.n and should be reduced to the
very elementary part that is concerned with the handling of abbreviating
symbols and criteria of deduction. It is thus not a case, contrary to what
Poincare thinks, of "claiming the freedom from contradiction" , but rather to
consider, with Hadamard, that the absence of contradiction, even when it is
not proven, is noted ([12], p. 270).
It remains for us to give a brief historical sketch of the efforts of Hilbert
and his school, and to retrace summarily, not only the evolution that was
finally to lead to the negative result of Gadel and justify a posteriori the
scepticism of Hadama.rd, but also all the progress that followed on from
this, concerning the knowledge of the mechanism of mathematical reason-
ing, and which makes modern metamathematics an autonomous science of
incontestable interest.
61 III a pure formalist doctrine, the words "there exists" in a formalised text have
no more "significance" than any others, and there is no need to consider other types
of "existence" in formalised proofs.
40 1. FOUNDATIONS OF MATHEMATICSj LOGICj SET THEORY.
Already in 1904, in a lecture at the international Congress ([163 c], pp.

247-261), Hilbert attacks the problem of consistency in arithmetic. He ob-
serves first that there is no question of proving it by making use of a model ,68
and outlines the principles of another method: he proposes considering the
true propositions of formalised arithmetic as collections of signs without
meaning, and to prove that in using the rules governing the formation and
linkage of these collections, it is impossible to obtain a collection which is a
true proposition and whose negation is also a true proposition. He sketches
even a proof of this nature for a formalism less extensive than that of arith-
metic; but, as was observed by H. Poincare soon after ([251 c], p. 185), this
proof uses essentially the principle of recurrence, and so appears to rely on a
vicious circle. Hilbert did not answer this criticism immediately, and about
fifteen years passed by without anyone attempting to develop his ideas; it is
in 1917 only that (motivated by the wish to answer the attacks of the in-
tuitionists) he harnesses himself again to the problem of the foundations of
mathematics, which he will not cease from now on to consider until the end
of his scientific career. In his work on this subject, which is spread out from
1920 to 1930 approximately, and in which a whole school of young mathe-
maticians take part (Ackermann, Bernays, Herbrand, von Neumann), Hilbert
brings out little by little the principles of his "theory of proof' in a more pre-
cise way: acknowledging implicitly the validity of the criticism of Poincare, he
admits that in metamathematics, the arithmetical reasoning that is used can
only be based on our intuition of the whole numbers (and not on formalised
arithmetic); to do this it appears to be essential to restrict this reasoning to
"finite procedures" ("finite Prozesse") of a type allowed by the intuitionists:
for example, a proof by contradiction cannot prove the metamathematical
existence of a collection or sequence of collections, there must be an explicit
law of construction. 69 On the other hand Hilbert enlarges in two directions
his initial programme: not only does he tackle the consistency of arithmetic,
but he aspires also to prove the consistency of the theory of real numbers
and even that of the theory of sets; 70 further, to the problems of consistency
come to be added those of independence of axioms, of completeness and of
decision. We will pass quickly in review these various questions and point out
the principal research to which they have given rise.
68 The "models" supplied by the definitions of Dedekind or Frege will only shift the
question, by reducing it to the consistency of the Theory of sets, a problem which is
without doubt more difficult than the consistency of Arithmetic, and which was to
appear even more so at a time when no serious attempt to avoid the "paradoxes"
had been proposed.
69 For a more detailed and precise description of finite procedures allowed in meta-
mathematics, one can consult, for instance, the thesis of J. Herbrand [158].
70 When one is speaking of the consistency of the theory of real numbers, one
assumes that this theory is defined axiomatically, without using the theory of sets
(or at least abstaining from using certain axioms of this latter, such as the axiom
of choice or the axiom of the set of subsets).
The proof of the independence of a system of propositions Al , A 2 , ••• , An

consists in showing that, for each index i, Ai is not a theorem in the theory
T; obtained by taking as axioms the Aj with index j :/: i. This point will
be established if one knows a consistent theory 'Ii' in which the Aj (j :/: i)
are theorems, as well as "not Ai"; thus one can consider the problem in two
ways depending on whether or not one allows that certain theories (such as
arithmetic or the theory of sets) are consistent. In the second case, one has to
deal with a problem of "absolute" consistency. On the contrary, the first type
of problem reduces to a problem of "relative" consistency, by means of a con-
struction of appropriate "models", and many proofs of this kind have been
thought up, well before mathematics had taken up a completely formalised
aspect: it is enough to remember the models of non-Euclidean geometry (see
p. 133), the questions of the independence of the axioms of elementary ge-
ometry dealt with ·by Hilbert in the "Grundlagen der Geometrie" [163 c] as
well as the work of Steinitz on the axiomatisation of Algebra and those of
Hausdorff and his successors on that of Topology.
A theory 'I is said to be complete if, for every proposition A ofT (not
containing any letter other that the constants ofT), one of the propositions
A, (not A), is a theorem of T.71 If one puts on one side certain very rudi-
mentary formalisms, of which the completeness is easily proved ([164], p. 35),
the results obtained in this area are essentially negative; the first in time, is
due to K. Godel [130 a] who. showed that, if 'I is consistent and if the ax-
ioms of formalised arithmetic are theorems ofT, then 'I is not complete. The
fundamental idea of his ingenious method consists in establishing a bijective
correspondence (of course, by means of "finite processes") between the meta-
mathematical statements and certain propositions in formalised arithmetic;
we will restrict ourselves to a broad sketch. 72 For each collection A which is
a term or a relation ofT, one begins by associating (by a procedure which is
an explicit construction, which can be applied quasi mechanically) a whole
number g(A), in a bijective way. In the same way, to each proof D ofT
(considered as a succession of collections) one can associate a whole number
h(D) in a bijective way. Finally, one can give a procedure for constructing
explicitly a relation P(z,y,z) ofT, 73 such that, in 'I, P(z,y,z) requires
that z, y, z are whole numbers, and satisfies the following two conditions:
1° if D is a proof of A(~), where A(z) is a relation ofT, and ~ is an
explicit whole number (that is to say a term ofT which is a whole number),
then P(~,g(A(z»,h(D» is a theorem ofT;
71 This is often expressed by saying that if A is not a theorem ofT, the theory 'I'
obtained by adding A to the axioms of 'I is inconsistent.
72 For more details see [130 a] or ([181], pp. 181-258).
73 The detailed description of g(A), h(D) and P(x, 'Y, z) is very long and meticulous,
and the writing out of P(x, 'Y, z) would require a number of symbols so great that it
is impossible in practice, but no mathematician thinks that diminishes in any way
the value of these constructions.
2° if the explicit whole number J.l is not of the form h(D), or if J.l h(D)=
and if D is not a proof of A(A), then (not P(A,g(A(x»,J.l» is a theorem of
T.
Then let 8(x) be the relation (not (3z)P(x, y, z», and let 'Y = g(8(x»,
which is a term of T. If T is consistent, there is no proof of the proposition
8('Y) in T. In fact, if D were such a proof, P('Y,g(8(x»,h(D» would be
a theorem of T; but this relation is none other than P('Y,'Y,h(D», and it
follows that (3z)( P("(, 'Y, z) would also be a theorem of T; as this last relation
is equivalent to (not S("(», T would be inconsistent. On the other hand
what has just been said shows that for every explicit whole number J.l, (not
P('Y, 'Y, 1-'» is a theorem of T. The result is that there is no proof, in T,
of (not 8('Y», for this last relation is equivalent to (3z)P(,,(,'Y,z) and the
existence of a whole number I-' such that P( 'Y, 'Y, 1-') would require that T
were inconsistent, by virtue of what comes before. 74 This metamathematical
theorem of Godel has been subsequently generalised in various directions
([181], chap. XI).75
The relation 8(')') of T of which it is shown thus that there is no proof in
T either of this relation, or of its negation, is obviously made up for the needs
7t In fact, this latter part of the reasoning supposes a bit more than the consistency
of T, namely what is called the "w-consistency" of T: this means that there is no
relation R(x) in T such that R(x) requires x E N and that, for each explicit whole
number p, R(p) be a theorem of T even though (3:c)(x E N and (not R(x))) is
also a theorem of T. Rosser has shown besides that one can modify the reasoning
of Godel in such a way as only to assume the consistency of T ([181], p. 208).
75 The analogy of the reasoning of Godel with the sophistry of the liar should
be noted: the proposition S(-y) affirms its own falsity, when one interprets it in
metamathematical terms! One remarks also that the proposition
(Vz)«z E N) * (not P(-y, "Y, z)))
is intuitively true, since one has a proof in T of (not P(-y, "Y, ,,» for each explicit
whole number p; and yet this proposition is not provable in T. This situation is
to be compared with a result obtained previously by Lowenheim and Skolem (see
[286 aD: this latter defines metamathematically a relation between two natural
whole numbers x, y which, if one writes :c E y, satisfies the axioms of von Neumann
for the theory of sets. From which, at first sight, a new "paradox", since in this
"model" all the infinite sets would be countable, contrary to the inequality of Cantor
m < 2n'. But in fact, the "relation" defined by Skolem can not be written in the
formalised theory of sets, any more than the "theorem" stating that the set of
subsets of an infinite set has only a countable infinity of "elements". At bottom,
this "paradox" is only a more subtle form of the banal remark that one will never be
able to write down more than a finite number of collections in a formalised theory,
and that it is therefore absurd to conceive of an uncountable set of terms of the
theory; remark close to that which had already led to "Richard's paradox". Similar
reasoning proves that the formalisation of the theory of sets is indispensable if
one wants to preserve the essentials of the Cantorian construction. Mathematicians
seem to agree to conclude also that there is only just a superficial concordance
between our "intuitive" conceptions of the notion of set or whole number, and the
formalisms which are supposed to account for them; the disagreement begins when
it is a question of choosing between the one and the other.
of the cause and does not tie up in any natural way with any mathematical
problem. Much more interesting is the fact that ifT denotes the theory of sets
(with the system of axioms of von Neumann-Bernays), neither the continuum
hypothesis nor its negation are provable in T. This remarkable result was
established in two stages: in 1940, Godel proved that the theory obtained by
adjoining to T the continuum hypothesis 21010 = Nl was not inconsistent [130
b); then, in 1963, P. Cohen proved the same when one acijoins to 'T the
relation 2No = N2 (or 21010 = Nn for an arbitrary whole number n > 1) [67].
The decision problem ("Entscheidungsproblem") is without doubt the
most ambitious of all those which are stated in metamathematics: it consists
in knowing whether, for a given formal language, one can imagine a "universal
procedure" which is quasi mechanical which, when applied to any relation of
the formalism in question, indicates in a finite number of operations whether
that relation is true or not. 76 The solution of this problem was already part
of the grand design of Leibniz, and it appears that at one time the school
of Hilbert believed its realisation was quite close. It is a fact that one can
describe such procedures for formalisms containing few primitive symbols and
axioms ([181], pp. 136-141). But the efforts made to make precise the decision
problem, by outlining exactly what is meant by "universal procedure" have
until now resulted only in negative results ([181]' pp.432-439). Besides, the
solution of the decision problem for a theory T entrains immediately the
knowledge of whether T is c~nsistent or not, since it suffices to apply the
"universal procedure" to a relation of T and its negation; and we will see that
it is impossible to solve the question in this way for the usual mathematical
theories. 77
It is indeed in the question of the consistency of mathematical theories
- the origin and very heart of Metamathematics - that the results have
l'evealed themselves to be the most deceiving. During the years 1920-1930,
Hilbert and his school had developed new methods for attacking these prob-
lems; after having proved the consistency of partial formalisms, covering part
of arithmetic (cf. [158], [324 d]). they believed they had reached the goal and
proved, not only the consistency of arithmetic, but also that of the theory
of sets, when Godel. relying on the incompleteness of arithmetic, deduced
from it the impossibility of proving, by the "finite procedures" of Hilbert, the
consistency of every theory T containing this latter. 78
78 A neighbouring question is tha.t of the existence of "algorithms" for the solution

of certain problems, a question which we are unable to examine here (Turing, Post.,
P. Novikov).
77 One must distinguish carefully the decision problem from the belief, shared by
numerous mathematicians, and oCten expressed vigorously by Hilbert in particu-
1&1, that Cor every mathematical proposition, one will end up one day by knowing
whether it is true, Calse or undecidable. That is a pure act oC faith, the critique of
which escapes our discussion.
78 With the notation introduced above, the precise result of GOdel is the following.
To say that 'I is consistent means that there is no proof, in 'I, oC the relation
44 1. FOUNDATIONS OF MATHEMATICSi LOGICi SET THEORY.
The theorem of Godel does not however shut the door completely on at-
tempts to prove consistency, so long as one abandons (at least partially) the
l'estrictions of Hilbert concerning "finite procedures". It is thus that Gentzen
in 1936 [127], succeeds in proving the consistency of formalised arithmetic,
by using "intuitively" transfinite induction up to the countable ordinal eo. 79
The value of the "certainty" that one can attach to such reasoning is without
doubt less convincing than for that which satisfies the initial requirements
of Hilbert, and is essentially a matter of personal psychology for each math-
ematician; it remains no less true that similar "proofs" using "intuitive"
transfinite induction up to a given ordinal, would be considered important
progress if they could be applied, for example, to the theory of real numbers
or to a substantial part of the theory of sets.
o # 0; this requires as a consequence, that for every explicit whole number 1', (not
P(O,g(x # x),p» is a. theorem of T. Let us consider therefore the proposition
(Vz )«z E N) ~ not P(O, g(z # z), z», which we will denote by 0; in "tra.nslat-
ing" into formal a.rithmetic the reasoning (reproduced above) by which it is shown
metama.thematically that "if T is consistent, there is no proof that Sb) is in T",
one ca.n establish tha.t 0 ~ (not (3z)(Pb, r, z») is a. theorem ofT, in other words,
that 0 ~ Sb) is a theorem of T. It follows that, if T is consistent, 0 is not a
theorem 0/ T, since under these conditions Sb) is not a theorem of T. That is the
exact statement of the theorem of GOdel.
79 Gentzen associates with each proof D offormalised a.rithmetic an ordinal a(D) <
EO; 011 the other hand, he describes a procedure which, starting from each proof D
which ends with a contradiction, supplies a proof D' also ending at a contradiction
and such that a(D') < a(D); the theory of well ordered sets allows us to conclude
tha.t such a proof D cannot exist (a type of reasoning which extends the classical
"infinite descent" of the theory of numbers).
2. NOTATION; COMBINATORIAL
ANALYSIS.
History and archaeology make us conscious of a large number of "systems of

notation"; their initial goal was to attach to each individual whole number
(up to a limit which depends on the needs of the application) a name and
a written representation, made up of a combination of a restricted number
of symbols, accomplished by following more or less regular laws. By far the
most frequent procedure consists in splitting up the whole numbers into sums
of "successive units" b1 , b2, ... , bn , •.. , of which each is a multiple by a whole
number ofthe preceding one; and if in general bn /b n -1 is taken to be equal to
the same number b (the "base" ofthe system, most often 10), many exceptions
to this rule are noticed, as with the Babylonians, where bn /b n - 1 is sometimes
equal to 10, sometimes to 6 [232], and in the chronological system of the
Mayas, where bn /b n -1 is equal to 20 except for n = 2, and where b2/b1 = 18
[228]. As for the corresponding written representation, it must indicate the
number of "units" bi of each order i; in many systems (such as with the
Egyptians, the Greeks and the Romans), successive multiples k.bi, (where Ie
varies from 1 to (biH/bi) - 1) are represented by symbols which depend at
the same time on Ie and on i. A first and important improvement consisted
in representing all the numbers Ie.bi (for the same value of Ie) by the same
symbol: it is the principle of the "notation of position", where the index i
is indicated by the fact that the symbol representing Ie .bi appears in the ith
position in the sequence of "slices" making up the number being represented.
The first system of this kind is found among the Babylonians, who, without
doubt already 2000 years before Christ, denote by the same sign all the
multiples 1e.60±i corresponding to arbitrary values of the exponent i ([232],
pp. 93-109). The inconvenience of such a system resides of course in the
ambiguity of the symbols used, so long as nothing indicates that the units of
a certain order may be absent, in other words, so long as the system is not
completed by the introduction of a "zero" . One sees however the Babylonians
making do without such a symbol for the greater part of their history; in fact
they only use such a "zero" in the last two centuries before Christ, and
still only in the interior of a number; until then, the context alone had to
specify the significance of the number under consideration. Only two other
systems use a "zero" systematically: that of the Mayas (in use, it would
appear, already from the beginning of the Christian era [228]), and our actual
46 2. NOTATIONj COMBINATORIAL ANALYSIS.
decimal system, which (by the agency of the Arabs) is derived from Hindu
mathematics, where its use is attested already from the first centuries of our
era. It must be noted moreover that the conception of zero as a number (and
not as a simple symbol of separation) and its introduction into calculations,
also count amongst the original contributions of the Hindus ([78], v. I). Of
course, once the principle of the notation of position has been acquired, it
was easy to extend it to any base whatever; the discussion concerning the
merits of different "bases" proposed since the XVIIth century is a matter of
the techniques of numerical Calculation and should not he tackled here. We
limit ourselves to remarking that the operation that serves as foundation to
these systems, the so-called "Euclidean" division, does not appear before the
Greeks, and no doubt goes back to the first Pythagoreans, who made it the
essential tool of their theoretical Arithmetic (see p. 85).
The general problems of enumeration, grouped under the name of "combi-
natorial Analysis" , do not seem to have been tackled before the last centuries
of classical Antiquity: only the formula ( ~ ).= n(n - 1)/2 is attested to
in the IIIrd century of our era. The Hindu mathematician Bhaskara (XIIth
century) knows the general formula for ( ; ). A more systematic study is
to be found in a manuscript of Levi ben Gerson, at the beginning of the XII-
Ith century: he obtains the recurrence formula allowing the calculation of the
number V,f of arrangements of n objects p at a time, and in particular the
number of permutations of n objects; he states also rules equivalent to the
relations ( ; ) = V,f /p! and ( n: p ) =( ; ) ([311], v. VI, pp. 64-65).
But this manuscript seems to have been ignored by his contemporaries, and
its results have only been rediscovered little by little by the mathematicians
of the following centuries. Among the later advances, let us pick out that
Card an proves that the number of non-empty subsets of a set of n elements
is 211 -1; Pascal and Fermat, setting up the calculus of probability, rediscover
the expression for ( ; ), and Pascal is the first to observe the relationship
between these numbers and the binomial formula: this latter seems to have
been already known to the Arabs from the XIIIth century, the Chinese in
the XIVth century, and it was rediscovered in the West at the beginning of
the XVlth century, as well as the method of calculation by recurrence known
as the "arithmetical triangle", that is normally attributed to Pascal ([311],
v. VI, pp. 35-38). Finally Leibniz, around 1676, obtains (without publishing
it) the general formula for "multinomial coefficients" , rediscovered indepen-
dently and published 20 years later by de Moivre.
3. THE EVOLUTION OF ALGEBRA.
There are few notions, in Mathematics, that are more primitive than that
of a law of composition: it seems inseparable from the first rudiments of cal-
culation with whole numbers and measurable quantities. The most ancient
documents that remain from the Mathematics of the Egyptians and Baby-
lonians show us that they are already in possession of a complete system of
rules of calculation for whole numbers> 0, rational numbers> 0, lengths
and areas; even though the Babylonian texts that have reached us only deal
with problems in which the data have explicit numerical values, l they leave
no doubt as to the generality attributed to the rules that are used, and denote
a quite remarkable technical facility in the handling of equations of the first
and second degrees ([232], pp. 179 and following). No hint of a justification
of the rules used is found in any case, nor even a precise definition of the
operations that occur: these like those remain in the domain of empiricism.
A similar concern, on the other hand, shows itself already very clearly
among the Greeks of the classical era; one does not meet yet, it is true, an
axiomatic treatment of the theory of whole numbers (such an axiomatisation
will not appear until the end of the XIXth century; see p. 24); but, already
in the Elements of Euclid, many are the passages giving formal proofs of
rules of calculation quite as intuitively "obvious" as those of calculation with
whole numbers (for example, the commutativity of the product of two ra-
tional numbers). The most remarkable proofs of this kind are those that are
connected with the theory of quantities, the most original creation of Greek
Mathematics (equivalent, as we know, to our theory of real numbers> 0;
see pp. 148 fr.): Euclid considers there, amongst others, the product of two
ratios of quantities, shows that it is independent of the form in which the
two ratios are given (first example of a "quotient" of a law of composition
1 It must not be forgotten that it is only with Viete [319] that the habit is intro-
duced of denoting by letters all the elements (given or unknown) that occur in an
Algebra problem. Until then, the only equations which are solved in the treatises
on Algebra have numerical coefficients; when the author states a general rule for
dealing with analogous equations, he does it (to the best of his ability) in ordinary
language; in the absence of an explicit statement of this kind, the carrying out of
calculations in the numerical cases treated makes the possession of such a rule more
or less likely.
48 3. THE EVOLUTION OF ALGEBRA.
by an equivalence relation), and that it is commutative ([107], Book V, prop.

22-23).2
We must not hide, though, the fact that this progress towards rigour
is accompanied, in Euclid, with a stagnation, and even some points of re-
gression, where the techniques of algebraic calculations are concerned. The
crushing preponderance of Geometry (in the context of which the theory of
quantities is manifestly conceived) paralyses all autonomous development of
an algebraic notation: the elements occurring in the calculations must, at ev-
ery moment, be "represented" geometrically: over and above, the two laws of
composition which occur are not defined on the same set (addition of ratios
is not defined in a general way, and the product of two lengths is not a length
but an area); there is, as a result, a lack of flexibility which makes it almost
impractical to handle algebraic relations of degree greater than the second.
It is only with the decline of classical Greek Mathematics that one sees
Diophantus return to the traditions of the "logistitians" or professional cal-
culators, who had continued to apply as they stood the rules inherited from
the Egyptians and Babylonians: not burdening themselves any more with
geometrical representations for those "numbers" that he considers, he is nat-
urally led to develop rules for abstract algebraic calculation; for example,
he gives rules which (in modern language) are equivalent to the formula
:c m+n = :cm:c n for small values (positive or negative) of m and n ([91 a], v.
I, pp. 8-13); a bit further on (pp.12-13) is found the statement of the "rule
of signs" , first hint of calculations with negative numbers;3 finally Diophan-
tus uses, for the first time, a literal symbol to represent an unknown in an
equation. On the other hand, he seems barely bothered to connect to gen-
eral ideas the methods which he applies to the solving of his problems; as to
the axiomatic conception of laws of composition, such as was beginning to
dawn with Euclid, it appears foreign to the thought of Diophantus as well as
to his immediate followers; it will not be found again in Algebra before the
beginning of the XIXth century.
It was necessary first, during the intermediary centuries, that on the one
hand a system of algebraic notation was developed, adequate for the expres-
sion of abstract laws, and that, on the other hand, the notion of "number"
received a broadening that allowed, by the observation of sufficiently diversi-
fied special cases, an ascent to general concepts. On that point, the axiomatic
theory of ratios of quantities, created by the Greeks, was insufficient, because
it only made precise the intuitive notion of a real number> 0 and the opera-
tions on these numbers, already known to the Babylonians in a more confused
2 Euclid does not give at this point, it is true, a formal definition of the product
of two ratios, and the one which is found a bit later in the Elements (Book VI, def.
5) is considered to be interpolated: he has none the less, of course, a perfectly clear
conception of this operation and its properties.
3 Diophantus does not know negative numbers; this rule can therefore only be in-
terpreted as relating to calculations with polynomials, and allowing the "expansion"
of products such as (a - b)(c - d).
3. THE EVOLUTION OF ALGEBRA. 49
form; it will be a case on the contrary, now, of "numbers" of which the Greeks
had not conceived, and of which, at first, no sensible "repre$entation" pre-
sented itself: on the one hand, zero and negative numbers, which appeared
from the high Middle Ages in Hindu Mathematics; on the other, imaginary
numbers, creation of the Italian algebraists in the XVIth century.
If one puts aside the zero, introduced first of all as a symbol of notation
before being considered as a number (see p. 45), the common character of
these extensions is to be (at least at first) purely "formal". By that it must
be understood that the new "numbers" appear first of all as the results of
operations applied in situations where they do not have, according to their
strict definition, any meaning (for example, the difference a - b of two whole
numbers when a < b): whence the name of "false", "fictitious", "absurd",
"impossible" , "imaginary", etc. numbers, that have been attributed to them.
For the Greeks of the classical era, taken up above all with clear thinking, such
extensions were inconceivable; they could only come from calculators more
disposed than were the Greeks to have faith even though somewhat mystical
in the power of their methods ("the generality of Analysis", as would say
the XVIIIth century), and to allow themselves to be dragged along by the
mechanics of their calculations without checking at each step its soundness;
a faith justified besides most often a posteriori, by the exact results to which
the extensions, to these new mathematical objects, of rules of calculation
valid only, in all rigour, for numbers known previously, led. That explains
how there is a gradually increasing boldness in considering for themselves
(independently of all applications to concrete calculations), these generalisa.-
tions of the notion of number, which, at first, only arose as intermediaries in a
sequence of operations of which the point of departure and the goal were true
"numbers"; once this step was taken, more or less tangible interpretations of
these new entities began to be sought, which acquired thus the right to be
quoted in Mathematics. 4
On this point, the Hindus are already conscious of the interpretation that
negative numbers must have in certain cases (a debt in a commercial problem,
for instance). In the following centuries, as there is a diffusion into the West
(by the intermediary of the Arabs) of the methods and results of Greek
and Hindu mathematics, one becomes more used to the handling of these
numbers, and one begins to have other "representations" for them which
are geometric or dynamic. There in any case, together with a progressive
improvement in algebraic notation, is the only notable progress in Algebra
during the end of the Middle Ages.
• Besides this resea.rch only constituted a transitory stage in the evolution of the
notions under consideration; from the middle of the XIXth century, there has been
a return, in a fully conscious way this time, to a formal conception of various
extensions of the notion of number, a conception which endeQ up being integrated in
the "formalist" and axiomatic point of view, which dominates the whole of modern
mathematics.
At the beginning of the XVIth century, Algebra took new flight, thanks
to the discovery, by the mathematicians of the Italian school, of the solution
"by radicals" of the equation of the 3rd, then of that of the 4th degree (see
pp. 72 ff.); it is on this occasion that, in spite of their repugnance, they
found themselves so to speak constrained to introduce into their calculations
imaginary numbers; little by little, however, confidence in calculation with
these "impossible" numbers is born, as with negative numbers, and that
although no "representation" of them was thought up for more than two
centuries.
On the other hand, algebraic notation received its decisive improvements
from Viete and from Descartes; starting with this latter, algebraic notation
is already, with a few exceptions, that which we use today.
From the middle of the XVIIth century to the end of the XVIIIth century,
it appears that the vast horizons opened up by the creation of the infinitesi-
mal Calculus made to some extent for a neglect of Algebra in general, and in
particular mathematical thouiht on the laws of composition or on the nature
of real and complex numbers. It is thus that the composition of forces and
the composition of velocities, well known in Mechanics already from the end
of the XVIIth century, did not exert any repercussion on Algebra, although
they contained already in embryo vector calculus. Indeed we must await the
movement of ideas which, around 1800, leads to the geometrical representa.-
tion of complex numbers (see p. 161), to see, in pure Mathematics, the use
of vector addition. 6
It is at about the same time that, for the first time in Algebra, the notion
of a law of composition extends. in two different directions, to elements that
no longer come associated with "numbers" (in the widest meaning given up
to that point to this word) except by distant analogies. The first of these ex-
tensions is due to C. F. Gauss, at the time of his arithmetical researches on
quadratic forms az 2 + bzy + cy2 with integral coefficients. Lagrange had de-
fined, in the set of forms with the same discriminant, an equivalence relation,1
and had, on the other hand, proved an identity which supplied, in this set,
a commutative law of composition (not defined everywhere); starting from
these results, Gauss shows that this law is compatible with a slightly different
equivalence relation ([124 a], v. I, p. 272): "One sees by that', he then says,
5 We must put on one side the efforts of Leibniz, on the one hand to put in an
algebraic form the reasoning of formal logic (see p. 7), on the other hand to set up
a "geomet.ric calculus" operating on geometric elements, without the intermediary
of co-ordinates ([198 al, v. V, p. 1(1). But these efforts remained in the nature of
outlines, and did not resonate with his contemporaries; they were not to be taken
uf again until during the XIXth century (see below).
This operation is in any case introduced without any reference to Mechanics; the
link between the two theories is only recognised explicitly by the founders of vector
Calculus, in the second third of the XIXth century (see p. 61).
7 Two forms are equivalent when one of them can be deduced from the other by a
"cha.nge of variables" z' = OIZ + (3y,y' = "'(z + 6y, where 01,(3,,,,(,6 a.re integers such
that 016 - Ih = 1.
"what should be understood by a class composed from two or more classeS' . He

proceeds afterwards to the study of the "quotient" law that he has thus just
defined, establishes in substance that it is (in modern language) an abelian
group law, and this by arguments of which the generality surpasses by far,
in the majority of cases, the special case that Gauss considers (for example,
the argument by which he proves the uniqueness of the symmetric element
can be applied to any law of composition whatever (ibid., p. 273». But he
does not stop there: returning a little later to the question, he recognises the
analogy between the composition of classes and the multiplication of inte-
gers modulo a prime number8 (ibid. p. 371), but notes also that the group of
classes of quadratic forms of given discriminant is not always a cyclic group;
the indications that he gives on this matter make us think that he might
perhaps have realised, at least in this particular case, the general structure
of finite abelian groups ([124 a], v. I, p. 374 and v. II, p. 266).
The other series of researches of which we wish to speak ends, it also,
with the notion of group, thus introducing it in a definitive way into Math-
ematics: it is the "theory of substitutions", a development of the ideas of
Lagrange, Vandermonde and Gauss on the solution of algebraic equations.
We will not give here a detailed history of this question (see pp. 75 fr.); we
must remember the definition by Ruffini [265], then Cauchy ~[56 a], (2), v.
I, p. 64), of the "product" of two permutations of a finite set, and the first
notions about finite groups of permutations: transitivity, primitivity, neutral
element, commuting elements, etc .. But these first researches remain, on the
whole, fairly superficial, and it is Evariste Galois who must be considered the
real initiator of the theory: having, in his memorable work [123], reduced the
study of algebraic equations to that of the groups of permutations that he
associates with them, he deepens considerably this latter, as much in its con-
cern with general properties of groups (it is Galois who first defines the notion
of normal subgroup and recognises its importance), as in the determination
of groups possessing particular properties (where the results that he obtains
are classed still today amongst the most subtle of the theory). It is also to
8 It is quite remarkable that Gauss denotes the composition of classes of quadratic

forms additivel", in spite of the analogy that he points out himself, and in spite of
the fact that the identity of Lagrange, who defines the composition of two forms,
suggests much more naturally multiplicative notation (to which in any case all
the successors of Gauss returned). One must see in this indifference to matters of
notation a further witness to the generality to which Gauss had certainly arrived
in his conceptions relating to laws of composition. He did not limit in any case his
views to commutative laws, as is shown by a fragment not published during his
lifetime, but dating from the years 1819-1820, where he gives, more than twenty
years before Hamilton, the formulae for the multiplication of quaternions ([124 a],
v. VIII, p. 357).
8 The notion of composite function was naturally known well before, at least for
functions of real or complex variables; but the algebraic aspect of this law of com-
position, and the link with the product of two permutations, do not come to light
until the work of Abel ([I], v. I, p. 478) and of Galois.
Galois that the first idea of the "linear representation of groups" is due,10
and this fact proves clearly that he was in possession of the notion of the
isomorphism of two group structures, independently of their "realisations".
However, if it appears incontestable that the brilliant methods of Gauss
and Galois had led them to a very wide conception of the law of composition,
they did not have the opportunity to develop particularly their ideas on this
point, and their work did not have any immediate action on the evolution
of abstract Algebra. ll It is in a third direction that the clearest progress
towards abstraction is made: following reflections on the nature of imaginaries
(of which the geometrical representation had caused, at the beginning of
the XIXth century, fairly substantial work), the algebraists of the English
school bring out first, from 1830 to 1850, the abstract notion of a law of
composition, and enlarge immediately the field of Algebra by applying this
notion to a host of new mathematical objects: the algebra of Logic with
Boole (see p. 8), vectors, quaternions and general hypercomplex systems with
Hamilton [145 a], matrices and non-associative laws with Cayley ([58], v. I,
pp. 127 and 301, and v. II, pp. 185 and 475). A parallel evolution takes place
independently on the continent, notably as far as vector Calculus is concerned
(Mobius, Bellavitis), linear Algebra and hypercomplex systems (Grassmann)
(see pp. 61).12
From all this bubbling up of original and fruitful ideas that come to revive
Algebra in the first half of the XIXth century, this latter emerges renewed
even in its trends. Before, methods and results gravitated around the central
problem of the solution of algebraic equations (or diophantine equations in
Number Theory): "Algebra", says Serret in the Introduction to his Higher Al-
gebra Course [284], "is, properly speaking, the Analysis of equations". After
1850, even if the treatises on Algebra still leave for a long time the preemi-
nence to the theory of equations, new research is no longer dominated by the
concern for immediate applications to the solution of numerical equations,
and is more and more oriented towards what we would now consider as the
essential problem of Algebra, the study of algebraic structures as such.
This work is divided fairly neatly into three streams, which extend re-
spectively the three movements of ideas that we have analysed above, and
which are pursued in parallel without mutual measurable influence until the
last years of the XIXth century.13
10 It is in this instance that Galois, by a bold extension of the "formalism" that

had led to complex numbers, considers "imaginary roots" of a congruence modulo
a prime number, and discovers thus finite field, (see p. 82).
11 That of Galois remained in any case ignored until 1846, and that of Gauss only
exerted a direct influence on Number Theory.
12 The main theories developed during this time are remarkably displayed in the
contemporary work of H. Hankel [146], where the abstract notion of a law of com-
position is conceived and presented with perfect clarity.
13 We leave voluntarily on one side here all that concerns, during this period, the
evolution of algebraic geometry, and the theory of invariants, which is tightly linked
It is first the building up, by the German school of the XIXth century
(Dirichlet, Kummer, Kronecker, Dedekind, Hilbert) of the theory of algebraic
numbers, coming out of the work of GaU8S, to whom is due the first study of
this kind, that of numbers 0 + hi (0 and h rational). We will not follow here
the evolution of this theory: we must simply pick up, for our purposes, the
abstract algebraic notions that emerge there. Already from the first succes-
sors of Gauss, the idea of a field (of algebraic numbers) is at the base of all
the work in question (as are also the researches of Abel and Galois on alge-
braic equations); its field of application grows when Dede.kind and Weber [80]
copy the theory of algebraic functions of one variable onto that of algebraic
numbers. Also due to Dedekind ([79], v. III, p. 251) is the introduction of
the notion of ideal, which provides a new example of a law of composition
between sets of elements; it is to him and Kronecker that the ever greater
role played by abelian groups and modules in the theory of algebraic fields
goes back; we will return to this later on (see pp. 63 ff. and 93 ff.).
We leave also till later the history of the development of linear Algebra
(p. 57) and hypercomplex systems (p. 117), which take place without intro-
ducing any new algebraic notion during the end of the XIXth century and the
beginning of the XXth century, in England (Sylvester, W. Clifford) and in
America (B. and C. S. Peirce, Dickson, Wedderburn) following the route laid
out by Hamilton and Cayley, in Germany (Weierstrass, Dedekind, Frobenius,
Molien) and in France (Laguerre, E. Cartan) in a manner independent of the
Anglo-Saxons and following fairly different methods.
As for the theory of groups, it is mainly under the form of the theory of
finite permutation groups that it is developed at first, following the publica-
tion of the works of Galois and their diffusion by the works of Serret [284],
and above all the great "Treatise on Substitutions" ofC. Jordan [174 a]. This
latter summarises there, perfecting them greatly, the work Of his predecessors
on the particular properties of permutation groups (transitivity, primitivity,
etc.), obtaining results of which the greater part have hardly been surpassed
since; he studies as well, in a deep way, very important particular groups, the
linear groups and their subgroups (see p. 138); as well, it is he who introduces
the fundamental notion of the representation of one group by another, as well
as (a little later) that of quotient group, and who proves part of the theorem
known by the name of "Jordan-Holder Theorem".1 4 It is finally to Jordan
that the first study of infinite groups goes back [174 b], that S. Lie on the one
hand, F. Klein and H. Poincare on the other, were to develop considerably,
in two different directions, a few years later.
to it; these two theories develop following their own particular methods, oriented
towards Analysis as much as toward. Algebra, and it is only in recent times that
they have found their place in the vast edifice of modern Algebra.
Ii Jordan had only established the invanance (up to order) of the order. of the
quotient groups of a "Jordan-Holder aeries" for a finite group; it is O. Holder who
showed that the quotient groups themselves were (up to order) independent of the
aeries under consideration [165].
In the meantime, it had gradually become obvious that what is essential

in a group is its law of composition and not the nature of the objects making
up the group (see for example [58], v. II, pp. 123 and 131 and [79], v. III,
p. 439). However, even the researches on finite abstract groups are still for a
long time conceived as studies about groups of permutations, and it is only
around 1880 that there is a conscious development of the autonomous theory
of finite groups. We cannot follow further the history of this theory; we limit
ourselves to mentioning two of the tools which still today are amongst the
most used in the study of finite froups, and which both go back to the XIXth
century: the theorems of Sylow! on p-groups, which date from 1872 [303] and
the theory of characters, created in the last years of the century by Frobenius
([119], v. III, pp.I-37). We send the reader wishing to deepen his knowledge
of the theory of finite groups and the numerous and difficult problems it gives
rise to, to the monographs [44 b], [131]' [291] and [341].
It is towards 1880 also that presentations of groups begin to be studied
systematically; before that, only presentations of particular groups had been
studied, for example of the alternating group 2(" in the work of Hamilton [145
b], or of the monodromy groups of differential equations and Riemann sur-
faces (Schwarz, Klein, Schlafli). W. Dyck was the first [97] to define (without
giving it a name) the free group generated by a finite number of generators,
but he is less interested in it for itself than as a "universal" object allow-
ing the precise definition of what is meant by a: group given "by generators
and relations". Developing an idea first put out by Cayley, and visibly in-
fluenced elsewhere by the work of the school of Riemann mentioned above,
Dyck describes an interpretation of a group with a given presentation, where
each generator is represented by a product of two inversions with respect to
tangent circles or secants (see also [44 b], chap. XVIII). A little later, after
the development of the theory of automorphic functions by Poincare and his
successors, then the introduction by Poincare of the tools of algebraic Topol-
ogy, the first studies of fundamental groups will go hand in hand with that of
group presentations (Dehn, Tietze), the two theories providing mutual sup-
port. It is in any case a topologist, J. Nielsen who, in 1924 introduced the
terminology free group in the first deep study of its properties [234]; almost
immediately afterwards E. Artin (still in connection with topological ques-
tions) introduces the notion of free product of groups, and O. Schreier defines
more generally the free product with amalgamated subgroup. Here again, we
cannot tackle the history of subsequent developments in this direction, refer-
ring to the work [216] for more details.
It is not either the place to speak of the extraordinary prosperty that has
been known, since the end of the XIXth century, by the idea of group (and
that of invariant, to which it is intimately linked) in Analysis, in Geometry,
in Mechanics and in theoretical Physics. It is by an analogous invasion of
15 The existence of a subgroup of order p" in a finite group whose order is divisible
by p" is mentioned without proof in the papers of Galois ([123], p. 72).
this notion, and of the algebraic notions that are related to it (groups with
operators, rings, ideals, modules) in those parts of Algebra which until then
appeared fairly remote from their proper domain, that the last period of
the evolution that we are retracing here is marked, and which ends with the
synthesis of the three tendencies that we have followed above. This unification
is above all the work of the modern German school: begun with Dedekind
and Hilbert in the last years of the XIXth century, the work of axiomitisat ion
of Algebra was vigorously pursued by E. Steinitz [294 a], then, from 1920,
under the impulsion of E. Artin, E. Noether and the algebraists of their
schools (Hasse, Krull, O. Schreier, van der Waerden). The treatise of van der
Waerden [317 al, published in 1930, gathered together for the first time these
works in a complete exposition, opening the way and serving as guide to the
multiple subsequent researches into abstract Algebra.
4. LINEAR ALGEBRA AND MULTILINEAR
ALGEBRA.
Linear algebra is at the same time one of the oldest branches of mathematics
and one of the newest. On the one hand, problems are found in the origins
of mathematics which are solved by a single multiplication or division, that
is to say by the calculation of a value of a function I( z) = az, or by the
solution of an equation az = b: those are typical problems of linear algebra,
and it is not possible to deal with them, nor even to state them correctly,
without "thinking linearly" .
On the other hand, not only these questions, but almost everything that
touches on equations of the first degree, had for a long time been relegated to
elementary teaching, when the modern development of the notions of field,
ring, topological vector space, etc. . .. , came to free and give importance to
the essential notions of linear. algebra (for example duality); it is then that
the essentially linear character of almost all modem algebra was realised, of
which this "linearisation" is even one of the distinguishing traits, and that
the place that is its due was given back to linear algebra. To give its history,
from the point of view where we put ourselves, will thus be a task that is as
important as it is difficult; and we will have to be content here with fairly
summary indications.
From what comes earlier, it follows that linear algebra has without doubt
been born in order to supply the needs of practising calculators; it is thus
that we see the rule of three ([311], v. I, pp. 150-155) and the rule of false
position, more or less clearly stated, playing an important role in all the
manuals of practical arithmetic, from the Rhind papyrus of the Egyptians up
to those which are in use in our primary schools, passing through Aryabhata,
the Arabs, Leonardo of Pisa and the innumerable "books of calculation" of
the Middle Ages and of the Renaissance; but they have perhaps never been
anything other than an extract, for the use of practicians, of more advanced
scientific theories.
As for actual mathematicians, the nature of their research on linear al-
gebra is a function of the general structure of their science. Ancient Greek
mathematics, as it is set out in the Elements of Euclid, has developed two
abstract theories of a linear character, on the one hand that of quantities
([107], book V, cf. p. 152), on the other hand that of whole numbers ([107],
book VII). With the Babylonians, we find methods that are much closer to
58 4. LINEAR ALGEBRA AND MULTILINEAR ALGEBRA.
our elementary algebra; they know how to solve, and in a very elegant way
([232], pp. 181-183) systems of equations of the first degree. For a very long
time, however, progress in linear algebra was mainly tied to that of algebraic
calculation, and it is under this aspect, foreign to the present Note, that it is
reasonable to consider it; to reduce, indeed, a linear system to an equation of
the type ax = b, it is enough, if only one unknown is involved, to know the
rules (already substantially stated by Diophantus) by which one can move
terms from one member to another, and combine similar terms; and, if many
unknowns are involved, it is enough to know as well how to eliminate them
successively until only one remains. So the treatises on algebra, until the
XVIIIth century, were thought to have done everything as far as the first
degree is concerned, once they had laid out these rules; as for a system with
as many unknowns as equations (they do not consider any others) where the
first members would not be linearly independent forms, they content them-
selves invariably with noting in passing that that indicates a badly posed
problem. In the treatises of the XIXth century, and even certain more recent
works, this point of view has only been changed by the progress of notation,
which allows the writing of systems of n equations in n unknowns, and by
the introduction of determinants, which allow the statement of formulae for
the explicit solution in the "general case"; this progress, for which the credit
would be due to Leibniz ([198 a], v. I, p. 239) if he had published his ideas
on the subject, is due principally to mathematicians of the XVIIIth and the
beginning of the XIXth century.
But we must first consider several streams of ideas which, much more than
the study of systems of linear equations, have contributed to the development
of linear algebra in the sense in which we understand it. Inspired by the
study of Apollonius, Fermat ([109], v. I, pp. 91-110; French translation, v. III,
pp. 85-101), conceives, even before Descartes ([85 a], v. VI), the principles
of analytic geometry, has the idea of the classification of plane curves by
means of their degree (which, having become more and more familiar to all
mathematicians, can be considered as definitely acquired towards the end of
the XVIIth century), and states the fundamental principle of an equation of
the first degree, in the plane, representing a straight line, and an equation
of the second degree a conic: a principle from which he deduces straightaway
some "very pretty" consequences concerning geometric loci. At the same time,
he announces ([109], v. I, pp. 184-188; French translation, v. III, pp. 159-163)
the classification of problems as problems solved, problems which reduce to
an equation in two unknowns, to an equation in three unknowns, etc.; and
he adds: the first consist in determining a point, the second a line or plane
locus, those following a surface; etc. (" ... such a problem does not seek only
a point or a line, but a whole surface proper to the question; it is from that
that are born the superficial loci, and so on for those following', loco cit. p.
186; there can be found already the embryo of geometry in n dimensions).
This piece of writing, stating the principle of dimension in algebra and in
4. LINEAR ALGEBRA AND MULTILINEAR ALGEBRA. 59
geometric algebra, indicates a fusion of algebra and geometry, absolutely in

line with modern ideas, but which, as has been seen already, took more than
two centuries to penetrate minds.
At least these ideas ended up soon in the flowering of analytic geometry,
which acquires its whole range in the XVIIIth century with Clairault, Euler,
Cramer, Lagrange and many others. The linear character of the formulae for
the transformation of co-ordinates in the plane and in space, which cannot fail
to have been noticed already by Fermat, is put into prominence for example
by Euler ([108 a], (1), v. IX, chap. II-III, and Append. chap. IV), who builds
on this the classification of planar lines, and that of surfaces, according to
their degree (invariant precisely because of the linearity of these formulae);
it is also he (loc. cit., chap. XVIII) who introduces the word "affinity" to
indicate the relation between curves that can be deduced from one another
by a transformation z' = =
az, y' by (but without noticing anything of a
geometric invariant in this definition which remains attached to a particular
choice of axes). A bit later we see Lagrange ([191], v. III, pp. 661-692) devoting
a whole memoir, which will remain justly famous for a long time, to typically
linear and multilinear problems of analytical geometry in three dimensions. It
is at about the same time, in connection with the linear problem consisting of
the search for a plane curve passing through given points, that the notion of
determinant takes shape, first in a somewhat empirical manner, with Cramer
[72] and Bezout [21]; develop.ed afterwards by several authors, this notion
and its essential properties are definitively brought out by Cauchy ([56 a],
(2), v. I, pp. 91-169) and Jacobi ([171], v. III, pp. 355-392).
On the other hand, while mathematicians had some slight tendency to
hold first degree equations in some disdain, the solution of differential equa-
tions constituted on the contrary a major problem; it was natural that,
amongst these equations, one picked out at an early stage the linear equa-
tions, with constant coefficients or not, and that their study contributed to
enhance the value of linearity and that which goes with it. That is just what
is seen with d'Alembert [75 c], Lagrange ([191], v. I, pp. 471-668) and Euler
([108 a], (1), v. XII); but only the first of these judges it useful to say that
the general solution of a non homogeneous equation is the sum of a partic-
ular solution and of the general solution of the corresponding homogeneous
equation; moreover, when these authors state thllot the general solution of the
linear homogeneous equation of order n is a linear combination of n particular
solutions, they do not add that these must be linearly independent, and make
no effort to render explicit this latter notion; on this point as on so many oth-
ers, it is only, it appears, the teaching of Cauchy at the Ecole Poly technique
that will throw some light ([56 b], pp. 573-574). But already Lagrange (loc.
cit.) introduces also (solely for calculations, it is true, and without giving
it a name) the adjoint equation L * (y) = 0 of a linear differential equation
=
L(y) 0, a typical example of duality by virtue of the relation
J zL(y)dz = J L*(z)ydz
valid when y and z are zero at the ends of the interval of integration; more
precisely, and 30 years before Gauss had explicitly defined the transpose of a
linear substitution in 3 variables, we see there without doubt the first example
of a "functional operator" L * the transpose or "adjoint" of an operator L
given by means of a bilinear function (here the integral J 1/zdz).
At the same time, and with Lagrange also ([191], v. III, pp. 695-795),
linear substitutions, in 2 or 3 variables at first, were on the way to conquer
arithmetic. It is clear that the set of values of a function F(z, y), when z and y
take all integer values, does not change when an arbitrary linear substitution,
with integer coefficients, of determinant 1, is performed on Z,1/; it is on this
fundamental observation that Lagrange bases the theory of the representation
of numbers by forms, and that of the reduction of forms; and Gauss, by
means of a step of which it has become difficult for us to appreciate all the
boldness, gets out of it the notion of equivalence and that of a class of forms
(cf. p. 50); on this point, he recognises the necessity of some elementary
principles relative to linear substitutions, and introduces in particular the
notion of transpose or adjoint ([124 a], v. I, p. 304). From that moment on,
the arithmetic study and the algebraic study of quadratic forms in 2, 3 and
later n variables, that of bilinear forms that are closely linked to them, and
more recently the generalisation of these notions to an infinity of variables,
was, up to our time, to form one of the most fruitful sources of progress for
linear algebra (cf. pp. 136 fr.).
But, a still more decisive progress perhaps, Gauss, in these same Disqui-
sitiones, created (cf. p. 51) the theory of finite abelian groups, which arises in
four different ways, by means of the additive group of whole numbers modulo
m (for m an integer), by means of the multiplicative group of numbers prime
to m modulo m, by means of the group of classes of binary quadratic forms,
and finally by means of the multiplicative group of mth roots of unity; and,
as we have already noted, it is clearly as abelian groups, or to put it better as
modules over Z, that Gauss treats all these groups, studies their structure,
their isomorphism relations, etc .. In the module of "complex integers" a + hi,
he is seen later studying an infinite module over Z, of which he has no doubt
not missed seeing the isomorphism with the module of periods (discovered
by him in the complex domain) of elliptic functions; in any case this idea
appears already clearly with Jacobi, for example in the famous proof of the
impossibility of a function with 3 periods and In his views on the problem
of inversion of abelian integrals ([171], v. II, pp. 25-50), to end up soon with
the theorems of Kronecker ([186 a], v. 1111, pp. 49-109).
Here, in streams of which we have sought to follow the thread and some-
times the meanderings, another comes to join in, which for a long time had
remained underground. As it will be brought out elsewhere in more detail
(see p. 130), "pure" geometry in the sense in which it had been understood
in the previous century, that is to say essentially the projective geometry of

the plane and of space without the use of co-ordinates, had been created in
the XVIIth century by Desargues [84], whose ideas, appreciated at their true
worth by a Fermat, put into use by a Pascal, had subsequently fallen into
disuse, eclipsed by the brilliant progress of analytical geometry; it is brought
back to pride of place towards the end of the XVIIIth century, by Monge,
then Poncelet and his emulators, Brianchon, Chasles, sometimes completely
and voluntarily separated from analytical methods, sometimes (especially in
Germany) mixed intimately with them. Yet projective transformatioDS, from
whatever point of view they are considered (synthetic or analytical), are none
other of course than linear substitutioDS on the projective or "barycentric"
co-ordinates; conics (in the XVlIth century), and later quadrics, of which the
projective theory has for a long time been the principal object of study of this
school, are none other than quadratic forms, of which we have already brought
out above the close connection with linear algebra. To these notions is joined
that of polarity: created, it also, by Desargues, the theory of poles and polars
becomes in the hands of Monge and his successors, and soon under the name
of principle of duality, a powerful instrument of transformation for geometric
theorems; if one does not dare affirm that its links with adjoint differential
equations were noticed only belatedly (they are indicated by Pincherle at the
end of the century), what has none the less not been missed, Chasles bears
testimony to it ([60 b], p. 55), is to notice its kinship with the notion of re-
ciprocal spherical triangle, introduced into spherical trigonometry by Viete
([319], p. 418) and Snellius already in the XVIth century. But duality in
projective geometry is only one aspect of the duality of vector spaces, taking
account of the modifications that are imposed by passing from an affine space
to a projective space (which is a quotient space of it, by the relation "scalar
multiplication" ).
The XIXth century, more than any period in our history, was rich in
mathematicians of the first rank; and it is difficult in a few pages, even limiting
oneself to the most outstanding aspects, to describe all that the fusion of these
movements of ideas produces in their hands. Between the purely synthetic
methods on the one hand, a kind of Procrustean bed where their orthodox
adepts torture themselves, and the analytic methods linked to a system of
co-ordinates arbitrarily inflicted on space, one feels soon the need for a kind
of geometrical calculus, dreamed of but not created by Leibniz, imperfectly
outlined by Carnot [51]: it is first the addition ofvectors that appears, implicit
in Gauss in his geometrical representation of imaginary numbers and the
application that he makes of it to elementary geometry (cf. p. 162), developed
by Bellavitis under the name of "method of equipollence" , and that takes its
definitive shape in Grassmann, Mobius, Hamilton; at the same time, under
the name of "barycentric calculus", Mobius gives a version of it adapted to
the needs of projective geometry ([223], v. I).
At the same time, and amongst the same men, the passage takes place,
so natural (as soon as this path has been entered) that we have seen it al-
ready announced by Fermat, from the plane and "ordinary" space to space of
n dimensions; a passage that is even inevitable, since algebraic phenomena,
which are interpreted for 2 or 3 variables as themselves in geometric terms,
subsist without change for any number of variables; to impose therefore, in
the use of geometric language, a limitation to 2 or 3 dimensions, would be
for the modern mathematician a yoke as inconvenient as that which contin-
ually prevented the Greeks from extending the notion of number to ratios of
incommensurable quantities. Also the language and ideas relating to space of
n dimensions appear almost simultaneously on all sides, obscurely in Gauss,
clearly among the mathematicians of the subsequent generation; and their
more or less great measure of boldness in using it took less account of their
mathematical leanings than of their philosophical views or even just practical
considerations. In any case, Cayley and Grassmann, in about 1846, manipu-
late these concepts with the greatest of ease (and that, says Cayley differing
from Grassmann ([58], v. I, p. 321), "without recourse to any metaphysical
notion"); in Cayley, one remains constantly very near to the analytic inter-
pretation and co-ordinates, whereas in Grassmann it is from the first, with
the addition of vectors in space of n dimensions, the geometric aspect that
takes the lead, to end up with developments of which we shall speak in a
moment.
However, the impulsion that came from Gauss was pushing mathemati-
cians, in two different ways, towards the study of algebras or hypercomplex
systems. On the one hand, one could not avoid trying to extend the do-
main of real numbers other than by the introduction of the "imaginary unit"
i = A, and to open up thus perhaps domains vaster and more fruitful
than that of the complex numbers. Gauss convinced himself ([124 a], v. II,
p. 178) of the impossibility of such an extension, at least if one seeks to
keep the principal properties of the complex numbers, that is to say in mod-
ern language, those that make it a commutative field; and, either because of
his influence, or independently, his contemporaries seem to have shared this
conviction, which will only be justified much later by Weierstrass ([329 a],
v. II, pp. 311-332) in a precise theorem. But, as soon as one interprets the
multiplication of complex numbers as rotations in the plane, one is led, if
intending to extend this idea to space, to envisage (since rotations in space
form a non abelian group) non commutative multiplications; it is that which
is one of the ideas that guides Hamilton 1 in his discovery of quaternions [145
a], the first example of a non commutative field. The singularity of this ex-
ample (the only one, as F'robenius was to prove later, that can be constructed
on the field of reals) restricted somewhat its scope, in spite or perhaps even
because of the formation of a school of fanatical "quaternionists": a strange
1 Cf. the interesting preface to his Lectures on quaternions [145 a] where he retraces
the history of his discovery.
phenomenon, which repeats itself later around the work of Grassmann, then
the popularisers who draw out of Hamilton and Grassmann what has been
called the "vector calculus" . The abandonment a little later of associativity,
by Graves and Cayley who construct the "Cayley numbers" , does not open up
an interesting vein. But, after Sylvester had introduced matrices, and (with-
out giving it a name) had clearly defined rank ([304], v. I, pp. 145-151), it is
again Cayley ([58], v. II, pp. 475-496) who creates its calculus, not without
noting (an essential fact, often lost sight of later on) that a matrix is only an
abbreviated notation for a linear substitution, just as in fact Gauss denoted
by (a, h, c) the form aX2 + 2hXY + cy2. What is there is besides only one of
the aspects, the most interesting for us no doubt, of the abundant production
by Sylvester and Cayley on determinants and all that is linked with them, a
production bristling with ingenious identities and impressive calculations.
It is also (among other things) an algebra over the reals that Grassmann
discovers, the exterior algebra to which his name remains linked. His work,
prior even to that of Hamilton ([134], v 11 ), created in a moral solitude which
was almost complete, remained for a long time badly known, because no
doubt of its originality, because also of the philosophical fog by which it
begins to be shrouded, and which for example turns Mobius away at first.
Furnished with concerns analogous to those of Hamilton but with a wider
range (and which, as he realises soon, were those themselves of Leibniz),
Grassmann constructs a vast algebraico-geometric edifice, resting on a ge-
ometric or "intrinsic" conception (already just about axiomatised) of the
vector space of n dimensions; amongst the most elementary of the results
which he ends up with, let us quote for example the definition of linear
independence of vectors, that of dimension and the fundamental relation
dim V + dim W = dim (V + W) + dim (V n W) (loc. cit., p. 209; cf. [134],
v. h, p. 21). But it is above all the exterior multiplication, then the interior
multiplication, of multivectors, that provide him with the tools by means of
which he deals easily with, first the problems of linear algebra proper, then
those which are concerned with the Euclidean structure, that is to say with
the orthogonality of vectors (where he finds the equivalent of the duality
which he is missing).
The other path opened up by Gauss, in the study of hypercomplex sys-
tems, is that which starts with the complex integers a + hi; from these, one
carries on quite naturally to more general algebras or hypercomplex systems,
over the ring Z of integers or over the field Q of rationals, and first of all to
those foreseen already by Gauss which are generated by the roots of unity,
then to the fields of algebraic numbers and to modules of algebraic integers:
those are the principal objects of the work of Kummer, the study of the for-
mer is tackled by Dirichlet, Hermite, Kronecker, Dedekind. Here, contrary
to what happens with algebras over the reals, it is not necessary to give
up any of the characteristic properties of commutative fields, and it is to
these that, during the whole of the XIXth century, work is limited. But the
linear properties, and for example the search for a basis for the integers of
the field (indispensable for a general definition of the discriminant) play in
many respects an essential role; and, in Dedekind in any case, the methods
are destined to become typically "hypercomplex"; besides Dedekind himself,
without addressing in a general way the problem of algebras, is aware of this
aspect of his work, and of that which ties it for example to the results of
Weierstrass on hypercomplex systems over the reals ([79], in particular vol.
II, pp. 1-19). At the same time the determination of the structure of the
multiplicative group of units in a field of algebraic numbers, carried out by
Dirichlet in his famous notes ([92], v. I, pp. 619-644) and almost at the same
time by Hermite ([159], v. I, pp. 159-160), was eminently suitable to clarify
the ideas about modules over Z, their systems of generators, and, when they
have them, their bases. Then the notion of ideal, that Dedekind defines in
algebraic number fields (as a module over the ring of integers of the field)
([79], v. III, p. 251), whereas Kronecker introduces in polynomial rings (under
the name of "system of modules") an equivalent notion ([186 a], v. II, pp.
334-342), gives the first examples of modules over rings more general than Zj
and in the same authors, then in Hilbert, is released little by little in partic-
ular cases the notion of a group with operators, and the possibility of always
constructing, starting with such a group, a module over a suitably defined
ring.
At the same time, the arithmetico-algebraic study of quadratic and bi-
linear forms, and their "reduction" (or, what amounts to the same, that of
matrices and their "invariants") leads to the discovery of general principles
concerning the solution of systems of linear equations, principles that, for lack
of the notion of rank, had escaped Jacobi. 2 The problem of the solution in
integers of systems of linear equations with integral coefficients is tackled and
solved, at first in a special case by Hermite, then in all its generality by H.
J. Smith ([287], v. I, pp. 367-409); the results ofthis latter are found again,
only in 1878, by Frobenius, within the framework of a vast programme of
research instituted by Kronecker, and in which Weierstrass also participatesj
it is incidentally Kronecker, in the course of his work, who gives the definitive
form to the theorems on linear systems with real (or complex) coefficients,
which is also elucidated in an obscure manual, with the scrupulous care which
characterises him, by the famous author of Alice in Wonderland; as for Kro-
necker, he disdains publishing his results, and leaves it to his colleagues and
disciples; even the word rank is only introduced by Frobenius. It is also in
their teaching at the university of Berlin that Kronecker [186 b] and Weier-
strass introduce the "axiomatic" definition of determinants (as a multilinear
alternating function of n vectors in space of n dimensions, normalised so as to
take the value 1 for the identity matrix), a definition equivalent to that which
2 On the classification of systems of n equations in n unknowns when the deter-

minant is zero, he says ([171], v. III, p. 370): "paullo prolixum videtur negotium"
(it will not be possible to elucidate it briefly).
can be deduced from the calculations of Grassmann; it is in his lectures that

Kronecker still, without feeling the need to give it a name, and in a still not
intrinsic form, introduces the tensor product of spaces and the "Kronecke-
rien" product of matrices (a linear substitution induced, on a tensor product,
by given linear substitutions applied to the factors).
These researches should not be separated either from invariant theory,
created by Cayley, Hermite and Sylvester (the "invariant trinity" of whom
later Hermite speaks in his letters) and which, from a modem point of view,
is above all a representation theory of linear groups. There emerges, as an
algebraic equivalent of the duality of projective geometry, the distinction be-
tween series of cogredient and contragredient variables, that is to say vectors
in a space and vectors in the dual space; and after attention had been drawn
first to forms of low degree, then of arbitrary degree, in 2 or 3 variables, little
time is lost in examining bilinear, then multilinear forms, in several series of
"cogredient" or "contragredient" variables, which is equivalent to the intro-
duction of tensors; this becomes conscious and is popularised when, under
the inspiration of invariant theory, Ricci and Levi-Civita, in 1900, introduce
the "tensor calculus" into differential geometry [257], which later was very
much in fashion following its use by "relativist" physicists. It is still the pro-
gressive interpenetration of invariant theory, of differential geometry, and of
the theory of partial differential equations (especially the problem of Pfaff so
called, and its generalisations) which brings little by little geometers to con-
sider, first of all bilinear alternating forms of differentials, in particular the
"bilinear covariant" of a form of degree 1 (introduced in 1870 by Lipschitz,
then studied by Frobenius), to finish with the c~eation, by E. Cartan ([52 a],
v. Ill, pp. 303-396) and Poincare ([251 b), v. III, chap. XXII) of the calcu-
lus of exterior differential forms. Poincare introduces these, in the context of
the formation of his integral invariants, as being expressions which appear in
multiple integrals, whereas Cartan, guided no doubt by his researches on al-
gebras, introduces them in a less formal way, but not without observing also
that the algebraic part of their calculus is identical to the exterior multiplica-
tion of Grassmann (hence the name he adopts), thereby putting definitively
into its true place the latter's work. The translation into the notation of ten-
sor calculus, of exterior differential forms, shows besides immediately their
link with asymmetric tensors, which will, as soon as one returns to a purely
algebraic point of view, make it to be seen that they are to alternating mul-
tilinear forms what covariant tensors are to arbitrary multilinear forms; this
aspect becomes clearer still with the modern theory of representations of lin-
ear groups; and by that is recognised, for example, the substantial identity
between the definition of determinants given by Weierstrass and Kronecker,
and that which results from the calculus of Grassmann.
We reach thus the modern era, where the axiomatic method and the no-
tion of structure (felt at first, defined only recently), allow us to separate
concepts that up till then had been inextricably mixed, to formulate that
which was vague or subconscious, to prove in the generality which is appro-

priate the theorems which had only been known in particular cases. Peano,
one of the creators of the axiomatic method, and one of the first mathe-
maticians also to appreciate at its true worth the work of Grassmann, gives
already in 1888 ([246 b], chap. IX) the axiomatic definition of vector spaces
(whether of finite dimension or not) over the field of reals, and, with a fully
modern notation, linear maps from such a space to another; a little later,
Pincherle seeks to develop applications of linear algebra, thus conceived, to
the theory of functions, in a direction, it is true, which has hardly shown
itself to be fruitful; at least his point of view will allow him to recognise in
the "Lagrange adjoint" a particular case of the transposition of linear maps:
which appears soon, still more clearly, and for partial differential equations
as well as for differential equations, in the course of the memorable work of
Hilbert and his school on Hilbert space and its applications to analysis. It
is in connection with these latter researches that Toeplitz [309 al, also intro-
duc~ng (but by means of co-ordinates) the most general vector space over the
reals, makes the fundamental observation that the theory of determinants is
useless for the proof of the main theorems of linear algebra, which allows the
extension of these without difficulty to infinite dimensional spaces; and he
indicates also that the linear algebra thus understood is applicable of course
to any commutative base field.
On the other hand, with the introduction by Banach, in 1922, of the
spaces which carry his name,3 one meets, it is true in a problem which is
topological as much as algebraic, spaces which are not isomorphic to their
dual (see pp. 214 ff.). Already between a vector space and its dual, there is no
"canonical" isomorphism, that is to say determined by the structure, which
had been reflected for a long time by the distinction between cogredient
and contragredient. It seems nonetheless that there is no doubt that the
distinction between a space and its dual was only definitively established
following the work of Banach and his school; it is this work too which raised
an interest in the notion of codimension. As for the duality or "orthogonality"
between vector subspaces of a space and those of its dual, the way in which
it is formulated today demonstrates an analogy which is not just coincidental
with the modern formulation of the main theorem of Galois theory, and with
the duality of Pontrjagin so called in locally compact abelian groups; this
goes back to Weber, who, in the course of arithmetic researches, stated the
bases of it in 1866 for finite groups [327 d]; in Galois theory, the "duality"
between subgroups and subfields takes shape with Dedekind and Hilbert; and
the orthogonality between vector subspaces is visibly derived, first of all from
the duality between linear varieties in projective geometry, and also from the
notion and properties of completely orthogonal varieties in a Euclidean space
or a Hilbert space (whence its name). All these threads gather together in the
3 They are normed complete vector spaces, over the field of real numbers or that
of complex numbers.
contemporary era, in the hands of algebraists such as E. Noether, Artin and

Hasse, of topologists such as Pontrjagin and Whitney, not without mutual
influence being exerted between one group and the other.
At the same time a critical examination is being undertaken, which is
meant to eliminate, at each point, the hypotheses which are not truly in-
dispensable, and especially those which would prevent certain applications.
Thus is realised the possibility of substituting rings for fields in the notion
of vector space, and, creating the general notion of module, treating at one
and the same time these spaces, abelian groups, particular modules already
studied by Kronecker, Weierstrass, Dedekind, Steinitz, and even groups with
operators, and for example to apply to them the Jordan-Holder theorem; at
the same time the transition to non commutativity is made, by means of the
distinction between right modules and left modules, to whicb the modern
development of the theory of algebras by tbe American scbool (Wedderburn,
Dickson) and especially the German school (E. Noether, Artin) was leading.
Finally there has emerged, quite recently, the last of the tendencies of
which we must speak here: contained in embryo in the theorem of Dedekind
([79], vol. III, p. 29) according to whicb arbitrary automorpbisms of a com-
mutative field are always linearly independent, the linearisation of Galois
theory is carried out with Artin [7 a], then it is soon generalised to arbitrary
extensions of commutative fields, and even to extensions of non commutative
fields ([172 d], chap. VII).
5. POLYNOMIALS AND COMMUTATIVE
FIELDS.
The theory of commutative fields - and the theory of polynomials, which

is closely linked to it - derive directly from what constituted, until the
middle of the XIXth century the principal object of classical Algebra: the
solution of algebraic equations, and geometric construction problems which
are equivalent to that.
As soon as the solution of an algebraic equation of degree > 1 is sought,
one finds oneself up against calculation difficulties of a totally new kind, the
determination of an unknown being impossible to accomplish by means of
"rational" calculations starting from given qU8,l1tities. This difficulty must
have been seen at a very early stage: and it must be counted as one of the
most important contributions of the Babylonians that they knew how to
reduce the solution of quadratic and biqUadratic equations to a single new
algebraic operation, the extraction of square roots (as is proved by the nu-
merous numerical equations that are found solved in this way in the texts
that have reached us ([232], pp. 183-193». As far as formal calculation is
concerned, Antiquity will never reach further than this point in the problem
of solving algebraic equations; the Greeks of the classical era limit themselves
indeed to finding again the Babylonian formulae in geometrical terms, and
their use in an algebraic form is not attested to before Hero (100 after J. C.)
and Diophantus.
It is in a totally different direction that the Greeks make decisive progress.
We have poor information on the way in which the Babylonians conceived
of and calculated the square roots of non square integers;1 in the rare texts
which have reached us on this question, they seem to be satisfied with fairly
crude approximation methods ([232], pp. 33-38). The Pythagorean school
which had determined with rigour the concept of commensurable quantities,
and attached to it a quasi religious character, could not hold this point of
view; and it is possible that it was the failure of repeated attempts to express
v'2 as a rational that led them finally to prove that this number is irrational. 2
1 In all the examples of quadratic and biquadratic equations in hI Babylonian texts,
the given quantities are always chosen 80 that the radicals always apply to squares.
2 A recent author has made the ingenious remark that the construction of the
regular starred pentagon, known to the Pythagoreans (of whom it was one of the
mystic symbols) led immediately to a proof of the irrationality of v'5, and has put
70 5. POLYNOMIALS AND COMMUTATIVE FIELDS.
We will say elsewhere (d. p. 148) how this discovery, which marks a ma-
jor turning point in the history of Mathematics, reacted profoundly on the
concept of "number" among the Greeks, and led them to create an algebra
of exclusively geometric character, so as to find in it a way of representing
(or perhaps a proof of "existence" for) the incommensurable ratios, that they
refused to consider as numbers. Most often, an algebraic problem is reduced
by them to the intersection of two auxiliary plane curves, suitably chosen,
or to several successive determinations of such intersections. Late traditions
with little authority make the introduction of a first classification of these
constructions, destined for a long and brilliant career, go back to Plato: for
reasons that are more philosophical than mathematical, it appears, he would
have put aside the constructions "by ruler and compass" so called, that is to
say those where there are no auxiliary curves except for straight lines and
circles. 3 In any case, Euclid, in his Elements [107], limits himself exclusively to
treating problems soluble in this way (without however characterising them
by a particular name); a circumstance which doubtless would contribute not
a little to fastening the attention of mathematicians of the following centuries
on these problems. But we know today4 that algebraic equations that can be
solved "by ruler and compass" are of a very special type; in particular, an
irreducible equation of the 3rd degree (over the field of rationals) can not be
solved in this way, and the Greeks had met very early on problems of the 3rd
degree which have remained famous, such as the duplication of the cube (s0-
lution of x 3 = 2) and the trisection of an angle; the quadrature of the circle
put them on the other hand in presence of a transcendental problem. We see
forth the hypothesis (which unfortunately is not supported by any text) that it is
in this way that the Pythagoreans were to discover irrational numbers [323].
3 Linked to this principle, the classification of plane curves in "plane localities"
(straight line and circle), "solid localities" (the conics, obtained by a plane section
of a solid body, the cone) is also attributed to Plato, all the other curves being
grouped under the name of "roll'o& 'YPOt/J/J'X0f'. It is odd to see the influence of
this classification exerting itself on Descartes, who, in his Geometry, ranks in the
same "genre" the equations of degree 2ft - 1 and of degree 2ft, no doubt because
those of degree 1 or 2 are solved by the intersection of "plane localities" and those
of degree 3 or 4 by intersections of "solid localities" ([85 a], v. VI, pp. 392-393).
4 The determination of the points of intersection of a straight line and a circle (or
of two circles) is equivalent to the solution of an equation of the second degree of
which the coefficients are rational functions of the coefficients of the equations of the
straight line and the circle (or of the two circles) under consideration. It is easily
concluded that the co-ordinates of a point constructed "by ruler and compass"
starting from given points lies in an extension L of the field Q of rational numbers,
obtained as follows: if K is the field obtained by adjoining to Q the co-ordinates
of the given points, there exists an increasing sequence (Li)OSi<" of intermediate
fields between K and L, satisfying the conditions K = La, L = '1", [Li : Li-l] = 2
for 1 :::;; i :::;; R. By induction on 71, it is deduced that the degree over K of the Galois
extension N generated by L is a power 0/2; conversely, one can prove that, if this
condition is fulfilled, there exists a sequence (Li) of fields intermediate between K
and L having the previous properties, and it follows that the problem as stated is
soluble by ruler and compass (d. [312], pp. 351-366).
5. POLYNOMIALS AND COMMUTATIVE FIELDS. 71
them, in order to solve these problems, introducing numerous algebraic (con-

ics, cissoid of Diocles, conchoid of Nicomedes) or transcendental (quadratic
of Dinostratus, spiral of Archimedes) curves; which could not have failed to
lead them to an autonomous study of these various curves, thus preparing
the way for future developments in analytic Geometry, in algebraic Geometry
and in infinitesimal Calculus. But these methods do not help to make any
progress in the solution of algebraic equations, Ii and the only work of Antiq-
uity which made a worthy contribution to this question and exerted a lasting
influence on the algebraists of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance is Book
X of the Elements of Euclid [107); in this Book (to which some historians
would make the principal results of Theetetus go back), he considers the ex-
J
pressions obtained by the combination of several radicals, such as Va ± v'h
(a and b rational), gives conditions under which these expressions are irra-
tional, classes them into numerous categories (which he shows are distinct),
and studies the algebraic relations between these various irrationals, such as
those which we would write today as
the whole expressed in the usual geometric language of the Elements, which
makes the exposition particularly heavy and awkward.
After the decline of classical Greek mathematics, the concepts concerning
algebraic equations are modified. There is no doubt that, during the whole
of the classical period, the Greeks were in possession of methods of indef-
inite approximation for square roots, about which we are unhappily badly
informed. 6 With the Hindus, then the Arabs and their western emulators in
the Middle Ages, the extraction of roots of all orders becomes an operation
that tends to be considered as fundamental on the same basis as the rational
operations of algebra, and to be denoted, like these latter, by symbols which
S Because of the lack of a manageable algebraic calculus, no trace is found among

the Greeks of an attempt to classify those problems that they did not know how
to solve by ruler and compaaa: the Arabs are the first to reduce many problema of
this type (for example the construction of regular polygons with 7 and 9 aides) to
equations of the 3rd degree.
6 For example, the method of Archimedes for the approximate calculation of the
number 71" requires the knowledge of several square roots, to a fairly good approxi-
mation, but we are ignorant of the procedure used by Archimedes to obtain these
values. The method of approximation for .../2 which supplies the expansion of this
number as a "continued fraction" is known (in a geometric form) from a text of
Theon of Smyrna (lInd century after J. C.), but goes back perhaps to the first
Pythagoreans. As for the method of indefinite approximation of square roots still
in use in our day in elementary teaching, it is not attested to before Theon of
Alexandria (IVth century after J. C.), even though it was no doubt known already
to Ptolemy. Note finally that one finds in Hero (about 100 after J. C.) an approxi-
mate calculation for a cube root [103].
are more and more manageable in calculations. 7 The theory of the equa-
tion of the second degree, which is perfected during the whole of the Middle
Ages (number of roots, negative roots, cases of impossibility, double roots),
and that of biquadratic equatioDS, give models for formulae for the solution of
equations "by radicals" , from which algebraists are going to try for centuries
to copy analogous formulae for the solution of equations of higher degree,
and in the first instance for equations of the 3rd degree. Leonardo of Pisa,
the principal introducer of Arab science to the West in the XIIIth century,
recognises in any case that the irrationals classified by Euclid in his Xth book
can not be of use to this end (a new proof of impossibility, in a theory that
cont~ins so many), and we see him already trying to do similar calculations
with cube roots, obtaining relations such as
~ + {154 = ~250,
analogous to Euclid's formulae for square roots (and of which besides previous
examples are found among the Arabs). But three centuries of unfruitful efforts
will still go by before Scipio del Ferro, at the beginning of the XVIth century,
finally succeeds, for the equation Z3 + az = 6, in obtaining the solution
formulas
z=
a 6
-+
2
('6)2 (0)3 6
2 + 3 + '2-
a
(5.1)
We cannot describe here the picturesque side of this sensational discovery

- the quarrels that it provoked between Tartaglia on the one hand, Cardan
and his school on the other - nor the figures, often appealing, of the schol-
ars who were the protagonists. But we must note the decisive progress that
ensued for the theory of equations, in the hands of Cardan and his pupils.
Cardan, who had less repugnance than most of his contemporaries at using
negative numbers, observes thus that equations of the third degree may have
three roots, and the biquadratic equations four ([50], v. IV, p. 259), and he
remarks that the sum of the three roots of Z3 + 6z = OZ2 + c (an equation in
which he knows how to eliminate the term in z2) is always equal to 0 (ibid.).
No doubt guided by this relation and the intuition of his general character,
he has the initial idea of the notion of multiplicity of a root; above all he is
emboldened (not without oratorical preparation) to calculate formally with
expressions containing square roots of negative numbers. It is likely that he
was brought to this by the fact that such expressions arise naturally in the
7 The irrationality of vtii, when a is an integer which is not an exact nth power,
is not mentioned or proved before Stifel (XVlth century); the proof of this latter
([298], p. 103) is in any case copied from that of Euclid for n = 2, and it is fairly
unlikely that this easy generalisation had not been noticed before.
S If we put x = +'I z with the condition yz =-a/3 we obtain 1/ + Z3 = b and
=
'lZ3 -(a/3)3, from which we get '13 and Z3.
use of the formula (1) when (~) 2 + (t) 3 < 0 (a case - called "irreducible" -
where Cardan had recognised the existence of three real roots); it is what ap-
pears in any case with clarity in his disciple R. Bombelli, who, in his Algebra
([28 a], p. 293) proves the relation
\/2 + "'-121 =2 + yCI

and takes care to give explicitly the rules for the calculation of complex
numbers in a form which is very close to modern expositions. 9 Finally, already
in 1545, another pupil of Cardan, L. Ferrari, succeeds in solving the general
equation of the 4th degree, with the help of an auxiliary equation of the 3rd
degree. 10
After such a rapid advance, the following period, until the middle of the
XVI 11th century, does little more than develop the new ideas introduced by
the Italian school. Thanks to the essential progress that it brings to algebraic
notation, Viete can express in a general manner the relations between the
coefficients and roots of an algebraic equation, at least when the roots are
all positivel l ([319], p. 158). Bolder, A. Girard [129] does not hesitate to
affirm (of course without proof) that an equation of degree n has exactly n
roots, on condition that "impossible roots" are counted, each with its degree
of multiplicity, and that these roots satisfy the relations given by Viete; he
obtains also, for the first time, an expression for the sums of powers of roots
up to exponent 4.
But the spirit of the XVIIth century is turned towards other directions
and it is only as an indirect consequence that Algebra profits somewhat from
the new discoveries of analytic Geometry and the infinitesimal Calculus. So,
to the method of Descartes for obtaining the tangents to algebraic curves (cf.
p. 178) is linked the criterion for the multiplicity of a root of an algebraic
equation, which is stated by his disciple Budde ([85 b], v. I, pp. 433 and 507-
509). It is no doubt also to the influence of Descartes that one must go back
9 Bombelli ([28 a], pp. 169 and 190) considers complex numbers as "linear combi-
nations" with positive coefficients, offour basis elements: "piu" (+1), "meno" (-1),
"piu de meno" (+i) and "meno de meno" (-i); he states notably as an axiom that
"piu" and "piu de meno" can not be added, first appearance of the notion of linear
independence.
10 The equation being reduced to the form z4 = az 2 + bz + c, a number z is
determined such that the second member of the equation
(Z2 + %)2 = (a + 2%)Z2 + bz + (c+ %2)
should be a perfect square, which gives an equation of the 3rd degree for z.
11 Viete, a passionate admirer of the Ancients, abstains systematically from in-
troducing negative numbers into his arguments; he is none the less capable, on
occasions, of expressing in his language relations between coefficients and roots
when some of these latter are negative; for example, if the equation Z3 + b = ax
has two positive roots Zl, z2(a > 0, b > 0), Viete shows that z~ + z~ + ZlX2 = a
and Z1X2(Zl + Z2) = b ([319], p. 106).
for the distinction between algebraic functions and transcendental functions,

parallel to that which he introduces in his Geometrie between "geometric"
and "mechanical" curves (cf. pp. 176 and 193.)-ln any case, this distinction
is perfectly clear in J. Gregory who, in 1667, tries even to prove that the
area of a circular sector can not be an algebraic function of the chord and
radius ([136 a); cf. [155]). The expression "transcendental" is from Leibniz,
who does not cease to be interested in these questions of classification for
the whole of his career, and who, in about 1682, discovers a simple proof of
the result sought by Gregory, by proving that sin z can not be an algebraic
function of z ([198 al, v. V, pp. 97-98).12 With his friend Tschirnhaus, he is
besides one of the only mathematicians of his time who is still interested in
the problem of the solution "by radicals" of algebraic equations. In his early
stages, we see him studying the "irreducible case" of the equation of the 3rd
degree, and convincing himself (in fact without sufficient proof) that it is
impossible in this case to get rid of imaginary quantities from the formulae of
the solution ([198 d], pp. 547-564). At about the same time, he attacks also
without success the solution by radicals of the equation of the 5th degree;
and when later, Tschirnhaus pretends to have solved the problem by making
all the terms of the equation disappear except for the two extremes by means
of a transformation of the form y = P(z), where P is a polynomial of the
4th degree, suitably chosen, Leibniz realises straightaway that the equations
which determine the coefficients of P(z) are of degree> 5, and judges that
the method is destined for failure ([198 d], pp. 402-403).
It appears that it is the needs of the new Analysis that had little by
little revived interest in algebra. The integration of rational functions, ac-
complished by Leibniz and Johann Bernoulli, and the question of imaginary
logarithms which is closely linked to it, are the occasion for deepening the
calculus of imaginary numbers, and for answering the question of the de-
composition of a polynomial into factors of the first degree (''fundamental
theorem of algebra"). 13 From the beginning of the XVIIIth century, the solu-
tion of the binomial equation zn -1 = 0 is reduced by Cotes and de Moivre to
12 The definition that Leibniz gives of "transcendental quantities" ([198 a], v. V, p.

228; see also ibid., p. 120) seems to apply more to functions than to numbers (in
modern language, what he does reduces to defining transcendental elements over the
field obtained by adjoining to the field of rational numbers the given numbers from
the problem); it is however likely that he had a fairly clear notion of transcendental
numbers (even though these latter do not appear to have been defined in a precise
way before the end of the XVI lIth century); in any case, he observes explicitly that
a transcendental function can take rational values for rational values of the variable,
and it follows that his proof of the transcendence of sin x is not sufficient to prove
that 7r is irrational ([198 a] v. V, pp. 97 and 124- 126).
13 One can take full cognisance of the rudimentary state in which the calculus of
complex numbers was still to be found at this time when Leibniz (nevertheless one
of the most proficient at these techniques, amongst the mathematicians of his time)
is seen expressing himself as if it were not possible to decompose x· + 1 into two
real factors of the second degree ([198 a], v. V, pp. 359-360).
5. POl.YNOMIALS AND COMMUTATIVE FIELDS. 75
the division of the circle into n equal parts; in order to obtain the expression
of its roots "by radicals" , it is sufficient therefore to know how to do it when
n is an odd prime, and de Moivre remarks that the substitution y = % + ~
reduces the problem then to the solution "by radicals" of an equation of
degree (n - 1)/2. As far as the ''fundamental theorem" is concerned, after
the repeated setbacks in the general solution "by radicals" (including several
attempts by Euler ([108 a], (1), v. VI, pp. 1-19 and 170-196», proofs begin
to be sought a priori, not using explicit formulae for the solution. Without
going into the detail of the proposed methods (which would end up with the
proofs of Lagrange and Gauss; cf. p. 91 and 161), it is fitting to note here the
point of view from which the problem is seen in the middle of the XVIIIth
century: it is assumed (without any justification other than a vague feeling
of generality, coming no doubt, as with A. Girard, from the existence of rela..-
tions between the coefficients and roots) that an equation of degree n always
has n "ideal" roots, with which one can calculate as with numbers, without
knowing if they are numbers (real or complex); and what it is necessary to
prove is (by using if necessary calculations on ideal roots) that at least one
of these roots is an ordinary complex number .14 In this defective form, it
is recognised that here is the first embryo of the general idea of a ''formal
adjunction" which, in spite of the objections of Gauss ([124 a], v. III, p. 1),
would become the basis of the modern theory of commutative fields.
With the fundamental me.moirs of Lagrange ([191], v. III, pp. 205-421)
and of Vandermonde [315], the year 1770 sees a new and decisive period in the
history of the theory of algebraic equations opening up. To the empiricism
of the more or less fortunate attempts at solution formulae, which until then
had reigned without dispute, a systematic analysis of the problems as stated
and of the methods susceptible to solve them is going to follow, an analysis
which in sixty years will lead to the definitive results of Galois. Lagrange and
Vandermonde both start from the ambiguity which multiple determinations
of radicals introduce in the formulae for the solution of equations of degree
:$ 4; this fact had attracted the attention of Euler ([108 a], (1), v. VI, pp. 1-
19) who had showed among other things how, in the formula of del Ferro, one
must associate the determinations of the radicals which appear there so as to
obtain 3 roots and not 9. 15 Lagrange remarks that each of the cubic radicals
in the formula of del Ferro can be written in the form l(Z1 + WZ2 + W 2 Zg),
where W is a cube root of one, Zb Z2, %g are the three roots of the equation in
question, taken in a certain order, and he makes the fundamental observation
that the function (Zl +W%2+W2 zg) of the three roots can only take two distinct
values for all permutations of the three roots, which explains a priori the
success of the methods for the solution of this equation. A similar analysis
14 It must be noted that what the mathematicians of the XVIIIth century call
"imaginary roots" are often only the "ideal" roots above, and they seek to prove
that these roots are of the form a + bA (see for example [191], v. III, p. 479).
1~ See footnote of p. 72: one must have yz = -a/3.
of the solution methods for the equation of the 4th degree leads him to
the function :1:1:1:2 + :1:3:1:4 of the four roots, which only takes three distinct
values for all permutations of the roots, and is as a consequence a root of an
equation of the third degree with coefficients that are rational functions of
those of the given equation;16 these facts constitute, says Lagrange, "the true
principles, and, so to say, the metaphysic17 of the solution of equations of the
3rd and of the 4th degree" ([191], v. III, p. 357). Relying on these examples,
he proposes studying in general, for an equation of degree n, the number II
of values 18 that a rational function V of the n roots can take when they are
arbitrarily permuted; in reality he inaugurates thus (with this terminology
still tightly adapted to the theory of equations) the theory of groups and that
of fields, of which he obtains already several fundamental results by use of the
same principles as those that are used today. For example, he shows that the
number II is a divisor of n! by means of the argument that is used today for
proving that the order of a subgroup of a finite group divides the order of the
group. More remarkable still is the theorem where he shows that, if V1 and
Va are two rational functions of the roots such that V1 and Va are invariant
under the same permutations, then each of them is a rational function of the
other and the coefficients of the equation (a particular case of the theorem
of Galois characterising a sub extension of a Galois extension as the field of
invariants of its Galois group): "This problem", he says, "appears to me one
of the most important in the theory of equations, and the general solution
that we will give for it will be the means of throwing new light on this part of
Algebra" ([191], v. III, p. 374).
All these researches are naturally, in the mind of Lagrange, preliminaries
to the analysis of possible methods for the solution of algebraic equations
by a successive reduction to equations of lesser degree, such a method being
linked, as he shows, to the formation of rational functions of the roots taking
less than n values under permutations of the roots. Guided no doubt by
his results on the equation of the 3rd degree, he introduces in general the
"Lagrange resolvents" YI< = E~=l W:Zh' where WI< is an nth root of unity
(1 ~ k ~ n), shows clearly how the knowledge of these n numbers results in
that of the roots :1:1<, and looks in general for the degree of the equation which
is satisfied by the YI<; he shows for example that, if n is prime, the YI< are
16 Waring also makes this observation in his Meditationes algebraicae, appearing
in that same year 1770, but he is far from drawing out the same consequences as
Lagrange.
17 With this word, which comes back 80 often from the pen of authors of the XVIlIth
century, it is permissible to see a first intuition (still quite vague) of the modern
conception of dructure.
18 Lagrange already makes a distinction between the various rational fractions that
are obtained starting from V by permutations of the indeterminates x;(1 ~ i ~ n),
and the various values that these fractions take when the x; are the roots of an
algebraic equation with given numerical coefficients; but there still remains in his
exposition a certain vagueness about this subject, and it is only with Galois that
the distinction becomes much clearer.
roots of an equation of degree n -1, whose coefficients are rational functions

of a root of an equation of degree (n - 2)! with coefficients that are expressed
rationally in terIn8 ofthe coefficients ofthe given equation. "Here are, ij I am
not mistaken" , he concludes, "the real principles jor the solution oj equations,
and the most correct analysis lor getting there; everything reduces, as can be
seen, to a kind 01 calculation 01 combinations, by which one finds a priori the
results which should be expectet/' ([191], v. III, p. 403).
As for the memoir of Vandermonde, independent of that of Lagrange, it
meets this latter at many points, particularly so far as the idea of seeking
rational functions of the roots taking as few distinct values as possible under
permutations of the roots is concerned,19 and the study of the "Lagrange
resolvents" that he also introduces for this purpose. His work is far from
having the clarity and generality of that of Lagrange; on one point however
it goes clearly further, in applying the same ideas to the equation for the
division of the circle zn - 1 = 0 for n an odd prime. While Lagrange is
content to remind readers that this equation reduces to an equation of degree
m = (n - 1)/2, with rational coefficients, without seeking to solve it when
n ~ 11, Vandermonde states that the mth powers ofthe Lagrange resolvents
of this equation are rational, because of the relations between the various
roots of zn - 1 = 0; but he limits himself to checking the soundness of this
assertion in the case n = 11, without justifying it in a general way.
It is only 30 years later that the result announced by Vandermonde was
fully proved by C. F. Gauss. 20 His decisive results on the equation zn - 1 = 0
(n an odd prime) fit into the general programme of his memorable research
on arithmetic ([124 a], v. I, pp. 413 fr.), and illustrate in a very special way
his mastery in the handling of what we would now call the theory of cyclic
groups. After having proved that the polynomial ~n(Z) = (zn - 1)/(z - 1)
is irreducible for n an odd prime,21 he has the idea of writing its n - 1 roots
in the form <9" = <.(0 ~ k ~ n - 2), where 9 is a primitive root of the
congruence zn-l == 1 (mod n» (which amounts, in modern language, to
bringing into the open the fact that the group r of the equation ~n(z) 0 is =
cyclic). To every divisor e of n-l, he puts in correspondence the I = (n-l)/e
"periods" '1" = ell e,,+! e,,+2/
+ + + ... + e,,+(e-l)/(1 ~ v ~ f) and shows
19 In this research (that he only develops indeed for the equation of the 5th de-
gree) appears for the first time the notion of imprimitivit" ([315], pp. 390-391).
It is besides naturally tempting to bring together the methods of Lagrange and
Vandermonde and their contemporaneous work on determinants, which must have
made the idea of permutation and all that goes with it familiar to them
20 Gauss does not quote Vandermonde in his Di8qui8itione8, but it is likely that he
would have read the memoir of this latter (d. [124 a], v. X2, Abh. 4., p. 58).
21 The notion of irreducible polynomial (with rational coefficients) goes back to the
XVIIth century, and Newton and Leibniz had already set out procedures allowing
(at least theoretically) the determination of the irreducible factors of a polynomial
with explicit rational coefficients ([198 a], v. IV, pp. 329 and 355); but the proof
of Gauss is the first proof of irreducibility which is applicable to a whole 8et of
polynomials of arbitrarily high degree.
substantially that the linear combinations with rational coefficients of the '1"
make up a field, generated by anyone of the f periods '1" and of degree f over
the field of rational numbers (this field corresponds naturally to the subgroup
of r of order e). We cannot go into the details of his analysis here, and of
the important arithmetical consequences that follow from it; let us notice
only that it gives him in particular the famous theorem on the possibility of
constructing "by ruler and compass" the polygons having a number of sides
equal to a prime number of the form 22• + 1.22 As for the solution by radicals
of the equation <P,,(x} = 0, it follows easily from the theory of periods, applied
to the fth power of a Lagrange resolvant E~:~ W"'1" (where wI = 1}.23
It is directly to Lagrange that the research of his compatriot Ruffini [265]
is linked, contemporaneous with the Disquisitiones; taking up again the ques-
tion at the point at which Lagrange had left it, he proposes as goal the proof
of the impossibility of the solution "by radicals" of the "general" equation 24
of the 5th degree. The proof of Ruffini, prolix and obscure, remains incom-
plete although reworked several times; but it is already very close to the
proof (correct in principle) that Abel would obtain later. 25 His main interest
resides especially in the introduction of calculations with substitutions and
the first notions of the theory of groups, that Ruffini develops to show that
there does not exist a function of the 5 roots of the equation taking more
than 2 and less than 5 values when the roots are arbitrarily permuted.
We have already said (see p. 51) how this first sketch of the theory of
groups of permutations was developed and systematised by Cauchy a few
years later. But, if the notions necessary for the development of the ideas of
Lagrange are thus clarified little by little as far as substitutions are concerned,
it was still necessary to state in as clear a way the first principles of the theory
of fields. That was what was missing for Ruffini, and it is that which Abel
22 Gauss affirms explicitly having a proof of the fact that this case is the only one
where it is possible to construct by ruler and compass a polygon having an odd
prime number of sides ([124 a], v. I, p. 462); but this proof was never published and
has not been found in his papers.
23 In actual fact, if we only wish to prove that the equation is soluble by radicals,
=
we can limit ourselves to taking e 1, and arguing by induction on n.
24 The mathematicians of the XIXth century understood by that, in substance, an
equation of which the coefficients are indeterminate, over the field of rationals. But
the modern notion of indeterminate does not emerge much before the last years
of the XIXth century; until then, by "polynomial" or "rational function" what is
meant is a junction of complex variables. A "general'" algebraic equation is conceived
as an equation of which the coefficients are independent complex variables, and of
which the roots are "algebraic functions" of these variables - notion truth to tell
completely devoid of a precise meaning if one gives to the word "function" its actual
meaning. Of course, the arguments about these "algebraic functions" are in general
intrinsically correct, as can be verified by translating them into modern algebraic
language.
25 The papers of Ruffini have been very carefully analysed in [43].
and Galois are going to do, in the last phase of the problem of the solution
of algebraic equations.
During the whole of his short life, Abel does not fail to be concerned with
this problem. While almost still a child, he believed that he had obtained a
formula for the solution by radicals of the general equation of the 5th degree.
Having realised later his mistake, he did not rest until he had succeeded in
proving that such a formula did not exist ([1], v. I, p. 66). But he does not stop
there. While his emulator Jacobi develops the theory of elliptic functions as
an analyst, it is the algebraic point of view that dominates the work of Abel
on this question, centred on the theory of the equations of division of elliptic
functions ([I], v. I, pp. 265,377 and passim). He obtains thus new types of
equation soluble by radicals by a method copied from that of Gauss for the
solution of equations of division of the circle ([I], v. I, pp. 310 and 358);26 a
result from which he rises to the conception of "abelian" equations, for which
he proves, in a famous memoir, the solubility by radicals ([I], v. I, p. 478); it
is on this occasion that he defines in a precise way the notion of a polynomial
irreducible over a given field ~the field generated by the coefficients of the
equation that he is studying). 7 Finally death laid him low in 1829, just as
he attacks the general problem of the characterisation of all the equations
soluble by radicals, and having just communicated to Crelle and Legendre
results already very near to those of Galois ([I], v. II, pp. 219-243, 269-270
and 279).
It was to him that was reserved, three years later, the crowning of the
structure [123]. Like Abel, but in a still clearer way, he starts by defining (up
to terminology) the membership by a number of a field generated by given
numbers, the notion of adjunction, and irreducible polynomials over a given
field. Given an equation F(:r:) =0, without multiple roots, with coefficients
in a given field ](, he shows successively that "one can always construct a
function V of the roots, such that none of the values that are obtained by
permuting in this function the roots in all possible ways, are equar, that this
function "enjoys the property that all the roots of the proposed equation can
be expressed rationally as a function of V" , and that, V, Vi, V", ... being the
roots of the irreducible equation which V satisfies, "if a = f(V) is a root of
26 Gauss had already indicated, in the Disquisitiones, the possibility of generalising
his methods to the equations of division of the lemniscate ([124 a], v. I, p. 413),
and developed, in notes only published in our day, the particular case of division
by 5 ([124 al, v. X, pp. 161-162 and 511). As with so many other brief and enig-
matic indications that Gauss enjoyed sowing in his writings, the sentence of the
Disquisitiones struck vividly at the mind of his contemporaries; and we know that
it contributed not a little to inciting Abel and Jacobi in their researches on this
question.
21 Even the notion of a field (118, more generally, that of set) is more or less a
stranger to mathema.tical thinking before Cantor and Dedekind. Abel and Galois
define the elements of their "base field" 118 being all those that can be expressed
rationally 118 a function of the given quantities, without thinking of considering
explicitly the set that these elements form.
the proposed equation, I(V') as well will be a root 01 the proposed equation"
([123], pp. 47-51); in modern language, he thus proves that V, as well as
anyone of its conjugates over K, generates the field N of the roots of F.
He then defines the group r of F as the set of permutations of the roots Zi
that are obtained by substituting for V, in the rational expression for each
of the Zi as a function of V, anyone of the conjugates of V; and he obtains
straightaway the fundamental characterisation of the elements of K by the
property of being invariant under every permutation of r ([123], p. 51). He
proves next that, if N contains the field of roots L of another polynomial, the
group of N over L is a normal subgroup of r (a notion that he introduces
at this point) ([123], p. 175). From there he deduces finally the criterion of
solubility of an equation by radicals, by means of an argument of which this
is the essential part: assuming that the base field K contains all the roots
of unity, there must exist by hypothesis an increasing sequence (Ki)o<i<m
of fields intermediate between K and N, with Ko = K, Km =
N, the-field
K'+1 being obtained by adjoining to Ki all the roots of a binomial equation
:/:n,-a, = 0 (with ai E Ki). There exists therefore in r a decreasing sequence
(r,) of subgroups such that ro = r, rm = e (neutral element), ri+1 being
normal in r, and the quotient group rif rHl being cyclic (a case in which
one says that the group r is soluble). Conversely, if this is so, the use of a
Lagrange resolvant shows that KHl is obtained by adjoining to Ki all the
roots of a binomial equation, and hence the equation F(z) = 0 is soluble
by radicals. 28 The impossibility of the solution by radicals of the "general"
equation of degree n > 4 is then a consequence of the fact that the group r
of this equation, isomorphic to the symmetric group en is not soluble.
Starting with the middle of the XIXth century, the algebraists, as we have
already remarked (cf. p. 53), enlarge considerably the field of their investi-
gations, until then almost entirely confined to the study of equations. In the
light of the discoveries of Galois, it appears that the problem of the solution
"by radicals" is only a particular case, fairly artificial, of the general problem
of the classification of irrationals. It is this latter that, during the whole of
the end of the XIXth century, is going to be attacked on several sides, and
many disparate results will accumulate little by little, preparing the way for
the synthesis of Steinitz.
28 If K does not contain all the roots of unity, and if E is the field obtained by
adjoining to K all these roots, En N is an abelian extension of K; from which one
deduces easily (by using the structure of finite abelian groups) that, in order for
the group of N over K to be soluble, it is necessary and sufficient that the group
of E( N) over E should be so. Taking into account the fact that the roots of unity
are expressible "by radicals", one sees that the criterion of Galois is independent
of all hypotheses about the field of numbers K (and is valid more generally for all
fields of characteristic 0). In fact, Galois does not make any simplifying hypothesis
about K, and argues by induction on the order of the radicals which are successively
adjoined to K ([123], pp. 60-61).
First as far as algebraic irrationals are concerned, a fundamental principle

of the classification was supplied by Galois theory, reducing the study of
an algebraic equation to that of its group. In fact, it is mainly the theory
of permutation groups, of which we do not have to talk here (cf. p. 53),
that, in pure Algebra, is the principal object of research at that time. Other
progress in the theory of algebraic fields comes from the development, at the
same time, of Number Theory and of Algebraic Geometry. This progress is
concerned mainly with the way of expounding the theory, and is, for the most
part, due to Dedekind [79], who introduces the notions of field and ring,29
and (linked to his research on hypercomplex systems) develops systematically
the linear aspect of extension theory ([79], v. III; pp. 33 fr.). It is also he who
considers the Galois group as made up of the automorphisms of the extension
under consideration, and not any longer only as a group of permutations
of the roots of an equationj and he proves (for the field of numbers) the
fundamental theorem on the linear independence of automorphisms ([79], v.
III, p. 29) as well as the existence of normal bases for a Galois extension
([79], v. II, p. 433). Finally, he tackles the problem of algebraic extensions of
infinite degree, and notices that Galois theory can not be applied to it as it
stands (an arbitrary subgroup of a Galois group not being always identical
with the group of an extension with respect to a subextension)j and by a
bold intuition, he already begins to think of the Galois group as a topological
group30- an idea that will come to fruition only with the theory of Galois
extensions of infinite degree, developed by Krull in 1928 [187 d].
Parallel to this evolution the notion of an element transcendental over
a field becomes precise. The existence of transcendental numbers is proved
for the first time by Liouville in 1844, by means of an explicit construction,
based on the theory of diophantine approximations [204 c]j Cantor, in 1874,
gives another "non constructive" proof using simple considerations about the
power of sets [47]j finally, Hermite proves in 1873 the transcendence of e, and
Lindemann in 1882 that of 7r by a method which is analogous to that of
Hermite, putting thus a final seal on the ancient problem of the squaring of
the circle. 31
As for the role of transcendental numbers in algebraic calculations, Kro-
necker observes in 1882 that, if z is transcendental over a field K, the field
K(z) is isomorphic to the field ofrational fractions K(X) ([186 a], v. II, p.
253). He makes besides the adjunction of indeterminates to a field the key-
stone of his exposition of the theory of algebraic numbers ([186 al, v. II, pp.
245- 387). On the other hand, Dedekind and Weber show in the same year [80]
how arithmetical methods can help to set up the theory of algebraic curves.
One sees thus appearing in several directions analogies between Arithmetic
29 The word "field" is from Dedekind himself; that of "ring" was introduced by
Hilbert (Dedekind called rings "orders").
30 " ••• The set 0/ these permutations makes up in a certain sense a continuous
multiplicity, a matter that we will not go into more deeply here" ([79], v. II, p. 288).
31 Simple proofs of these theorems will be found for example in [163 a], v. I, p. 1.
and Algebraic Geometry, which will turn out to be extremely fruitful for the
one and the other.
In all this research, the fields that arise consist of "concrete" elements
in the sense of classical mathematics - (complex) numbers or functions of
complex variables. 32 But already Kronecker, in 1882, takes full account of
the fact (obscurely sensed by GaUBB and Galois) that "indeterminates" only
play the role in his theory of the basis elements of an algebra, and not that
of variables in the sense of Analysis ([186 a], v. II, pp. 339-340); and, in 1887,
he develops this idea, linked to a vast programme that aims at nothing less
than recasting all mathematics by rejecting all that cannot be reduced to
algebraic operations on the integers. It is on this occasion that, taking up an
idea of Cauchy ([56 a], (1), v. X, pp. 312 and 351) who had defined the field
C of complex numbers as the field of remainders R[X]/(X 2 + I), Kronecker
shows how the theory of algebraic numbers is completely independent of the
"fundamental theorem of algebra" and even of the theory of real numbers,
all fields of algebraic numbers (of finite degree) being isomorphic to a field of
remainders Q[X]/(f) (f an irreducible polynomial over Q)([186 a], v. 1111,
pp. 211-240). As is remarked a few years later by H. Weber [327 a], developing
a first sketch of the axiomatic theory of fields, this method of Kronecker is
applicable in fact to all base fields K. Weber indicates in particular that one
can take as K a field Z/(P) (p a prime number), thus making the calculus
of congruences "modulo rI' return to field theory; this latter had been born
in the second half of the XVllIth century, with Euler, Lagrange, Legendre
and Gauss, and the analogy that it showed up with the theory of algebraic
equations was not missed by observers; developing this analogy, Galois (with
his research on group theory in mind) had not hesitated to introduce "ideal
roots" of an irreducible congruence modulo p,ss and had indicated its princi-
ple properties ([123], pp. 113-127).34 When Kronecker's method is applied to
Z/(p), what is found again however (up to terminology) is the presentation
32 No more than their predecessors, neither Kronecker nor Dedekind and Weber
really define the notion of an "algebraic function" of one or more complex variables.
One cannot indeed define correctly an "algebraic function" of a complex variable
(in the sense of Analysis) until the corresponding Riemann surface is defined, and it
is precisely the definition of the Riemann surface (by purely algebraic means) that
is the goal pursued by Dedekind and Weber. This apparent vicious circle disappears
of course when one defines a field of "algebraic functions" as an abstract algebraic
extension of a field of rational functions: indeed it is only this definition that is used
by Dedekind and Weber, which makes their results completely legitimate.
33 In a manuscript dating in all likelihood from 1799, but published only after his
death, Gauss, still without introducing "ideal roots" , obtains, in an equivalent form,
a good part of the results of Galois ([124 a), Y. II, pp. 212-240, in particular p. 217).
3' Galois was fully aware of the formal character of algebraic calculations, not
hesitating, for example, to take the derivative of the first member of a congruence
to show that this latter does not have multiple "imaginary" roots ([123), p. 117).
He underlines in particular that the theorem of the primitive element is valid as
much for a finite field as for a field of numbers ([\23), p. 117), without however
giving a proof.
that had already been given by Serret and Dedekind ([79], v. I, p. 40) of the
theory of these "Galois imaginaries".
To all these examples of "abstract fields" there come to be added, at the
turn of the century, some fields of a new very different type, the fields of formal
power series introduced by Veronese [318], and above all the Jradic fields of
Hensel [157 f). It is the discovery of these latter that led Steinitz (as he says
explicitly) to bring out the abstract notions common to all these theories, in
a fundamental work [294 a] which can be considered as having given birth to
the actual concept of Algebra. Developing systematically the consequences
of the axioms of commutative fields, he introduces thus the notion of prime
field, of separable (algebraic) elements, of perfect fields, defines the degree of
transcendence of an extension, and proves finally the existence of algebraically
closed extensions of arbitrary fields.
In recent times, the theory of Steinitz has been completed in several im-
portant areas. On the one hand, the work of Artin has brought into promi-
nence the linear character of Galois theory [7 a]. On the other hand, the
general notion of derivation (copied from the formal properties of classical
differential Calculus) sensed by Dedekind ([79], v. II, p. 412), introduced by
Steinitz in the special case of a field of rational fractions ([294 a], pp. 209-
212), has been used with success in the study (essential for modern Algebraic
Geometry) of transcendental extensions, and notably in the generalisation to
these latter of the notion of separability [330 d].
6. DIVISIBILITY; ORDERED FIELDS.
The elementary arithmetical operations, and especially the calculus of frac-

tions, could not but lead to numerous empirical verifications of the divis-
ibility of whole numbers. But neither the Babylonians (however 80 expert
at Algebra), nor the Egyptians (in spite of their acrobatic calculations with
fractions) seem to have known any general rules governing these properties,
and it is to the Greeks that the initiative returns here. Their arithmetic work,
of which a masterly exposition is found in Books VII and IX of Euclid [107],
does not yield pride of place to any of their most beautiful discoveries in the
other branches of mathematics. The existence of the H.C.D. of two integers is
proved already at the beginning of Book VII by the procedure known under
the name of "Euclid's algorithm";l it serves as a foundation for all ulterior
developments (properties of prime numbers, existence and calculation of the
L.C.M., etc.); and the crowning ofthe structure is formed by the two remark-
able theorems proving the existence of an infinity of prime numbers (Book
IX, prop. 20) and giving a procedure for constructing perfect even numbers
starting with certain prime numbers (this procedure gives in fact all the even
perfect numbers, as Euler was to prove). Only the existence and uniqueness
of the decomposition into prime factors are not proved in a general form; all
the same Euclid proves explicitly that every integer is divisible by a prime
number (Book VII, prop. 31), as well as the two following propositions (Book
IX, props. 13 and 14):
"If, starting from a unit, as many numbers as desired are in a progression
of constant ratio [i. e. geometric], and that the one after the unit is prime, the
largest will not be divisible by any ezcept those that occur in the progression"
(in other words, a power prJ of a prime number can not be divided except by
the powers of p with exponent ~ n).
"If a number is the smallest that is divisible by (given] prime numbers, it
will not be divisible by any other prime number witla the ezception of those
1 If al and a2 are two integers, such that 41 ~ a2, a" is defined by induction (for
n ~ 3) as being the remainder of the Euclidean division of 4,,-2 by 11,,-1 i if m is the
least index such that 11m = 0, IIm -l is the H.C.D. of III and a2. What we have there
is the transposition to the domain of the integers of the method of successive sub-
tractions (sometimes a.Iao called &IISt,,;alpetT&C) for seeking the common measure
of two quantities. This goes back without doubt to the Pythagoreans, and seems
to have been the basis of a pre-Eudoxian theory of irrational numbers.
86 6. DIVISIBILITY; ORDERED FIELDS.
initially [given as] dividing if' (in other words, a product of distinct prime
numbers Pl .. ·Pk has no other prime factors than Pi," "Pk)'
It seems therefore that if Euclid does not state the general theorem it is
only due to a terminology and notation adequate only for arbitrary powers
of an ·mteger. 2
Although a careful study makes it likely that there exists, in the text of
Euclid, several successive layers, each corresponding to a stage in the devel-
opment of Arithmetic,3 it seems that this evolution was entirely completed
between the beginning of the Vth century and the middle of the IVth, and
one can only admire the shrewdness and the sure footed ness of the logic that
are manifested there: we must wait two millennia to take part in comparable
progress in Arithmetic.
It is so-called "indeterminate" or "diophantine" problems which are at the
source of the ulterior developments of Number Theory. The term "diophan-
tine equations" , as it is used today, is not, historically, completely justified;
one means in general by that algebraic equations (or systems of equations)
with integral coefficients, for which one is looking only for the solutions in
integers: a problem that is normally impossible if the equations are "deter-
mined", that is to say have only a finite number of solutions (in real or
complex numbers), but that, on the contrary, often allows solutions when
there are more unknowns than equations. Yet, if Diophantus seems clearly
to have been the first to have considered "indeterminate" problems, he only
exceptionally looks for integral solutions, and is content most of the time
with obtaining a single solution in rational numbers [91 a]. This is a type of
problem that he can solve most of the time by algebraic calculations where
the arithmetic nature of the unknowns does not arisej4 also divisibility theory
2 In support of this hypothesis, one can still remark that the proof of the theorem
on perfect numbers is basically just another particular case of the theorem on the
unique decomposition into prime factors. Besides, all the testimonies concur to show
that from this period the decomposition of a number explicitly into prime factors
was known and currently used; but a complete proof is not found for the decom-
position theorem before that given by Gauss at the beginning of the Disquisitionea
([124 a], v. I, p. 15).
3 Cf. [317 d). An example of the residue of an earlier version is furnished by props.
21 to 34 of Book IX, which deal with the most elementary properties of divisibility
by 2, and go back no doubt to a period when the general theory of prime numbers
was not yet developed. It is known besides that the categories of Even and Odd
played a big role in the philosophico-mythical speculations of the first Pythagoreans,
to whom it is natural to try to make this fragment go back (d. [17 b]).
• If Diophantus, in indeterminate problems, always returns to problems in a single
unknown, by means of a numerical choice for the other unknowns which makes
his final equation possible, it appears fully that this method is due mostly to his
notation which did not allow him to calculate with several unknowns at once; in any
case, he does not lose sight, during the calculations, of the numerical substitutions
that he has made, and modifies them, if need be, if they are not suitable, by
writing down a compatibility condition for the substituted variables, and in solving
this auxiliary problem first. In other words, he handles these substituted numerical
6. DIVISIBILITY; ORDERED FIELDS. 87
only plays a very retiring role (the word prime number is only pronounced
a single time ([91 a], Book V, problem 9, v. I, pp. 334-335), and the notion
of relatively prime numbers is only brought up in connection with the theo-
rem affirming that the quotient of two relatively prime numbers can not be
a square unless each of them is a square).5
The study of integral solutions of indeterminate equations does not really
start until the Chinese and Hindu mathematicians of the high Middle Ages.
The first of these seem to have been led to speculations of this kind by
practical problems in the making of calendars (where the determination of
periods common to several cycles of astronomical phenomena constituted
precisely a "diophantine" problem of the first degree); to them is owed in any
case (no doubt between the IVth and the VIIth century of our era) a rule for
the solution of simultaneous linear congruences. As for the Hindus, of whom
the mathematics knew its full flowering from the Vth to the XIIIth century,
not only did they know how to treat methodically (by the application of
Euclid's algorithm) systems oflinear diophantine equations with an arbitrary
number of unknowns,6 but they are the first to tackle and solve problems of
the second degree, including certain particular cases of "Fermat's equation"
N z2 + 1 = y2 ([78], vol. II, pp. 87-307).
We do not need to pursue here the history of the theory of diophantine
equations of degree> 1, which, following on from the work of Fermat, Euler,
Lagrange and Gauss, was to end up in the XIXth century with the theory of
algebraic integers (cf. pp. 93 fr.). As we have already noted (cf. p. 58), the
study of linear systems, which seems no longer to present problems worthy
of interest, is somewhat neglected during this period: in particular, general
necessary conditions for solutions of an arbitrary system are not sought, nor
is the description of the set of solutions. However, towards the middle of the
XIXth century, Hermite is led to use, in connection with his research in Num-
ber Theory, several lemmas about linear Diophantine equations, and notably
a "reduced form" for a linear substitution with integral coefficients ([159],
v. I, pp. 164 and 265); finally, after Heger had given in 1858 the necessary
condition for a system whose rank is equal to the number of equations, H. J.
Smith, in 1861, defines the invariant factors of a matrix with integral entries
in a "canonical form" {[287], v. I, pp. 367-409).
But in the interval the notion of an abelian group was gradually becoming
more precise, following its introduction by Gauss (cf. p. 60), and so was
values as we would parameters, so much so that what he does finally do reduces

to finding a rational parametric representation of a given algebraic variety, or a sub
variety of it (d. [153 f]).
5 Different indices testify however to a more advanced knowledge of arithmetic
with Diophantus: he knows for example that the equation :/:2 + 1i = n has no
rational solutions if n is an integer of the form 41: + 3 (Book V, problem 9 and Book
VI, problem 14 ([91 a], v. I, pp. 332-335 and p. 425; cf. also [153 f], pp. 105-110».
o Astronomical problems were also among those that led the Hindus to concern
themselves with this type of equation (d. [78], v. II, pp. 100, 117 and 135).
the importance taken by this notion in the ulterior development of Number

Theory. In the particularly deep study, expounded in the Dis'luisitiones, of
the finite abelian group of cl888e8 of quadratic forms of a given discriminant,
Gauss rapidly realised that certain of these groups were not cyclic: "in tAis
case", he says, "a basis [that is to say a generator] is not sufficient, two, or
a greater number, must be taleen, wAich, b, multiplication and composition, 7
will be able to produce all the classei' ([124 a], v. I, pp. 374-375). It is not
certain that, with these words, Gauss wished to describe the decomposition
of a group as a direct product of cyclic groups; however, in the same page in
the Disquisitiones, he proves that there exists an element in the group whose
order is the L.C.M. of the orders of all the elements - in other words, he
obtains the existence of the largest invariant fattor of the group ([124 a], v.
I, p. 373) - j and on the other hand, the notion of direct product was known
to him, for in a manuscript dating from 1801 but not published during his
lifetime, he sketches a general proof of the decomposition of a finite abelian
group as a direct product of ~groupss ([124 a], v. II, p. 266). In any case,
in 1868, Schering, the editor of Gauss's work, inspired by these results (and
notably by this manuscript that he had just found again) proves (still for
the group of classes of quadratic forms) the general decomposition theorem
([272], v. I, pp. 135-148) by a method which, taken up again two years later
in abstract terms by Kronecker ([186 a], v. I, pp. 273-282), is essentially that
which is still used today. As for torsion-free abelian groups, we have already
said (cf. pp. 64 ff.) how the theory of elliptic functions and abelian integrals,
developed by Gauss, Abel and Jacobi, led little by little to take note of
their structure; the first and most famous example of the decomposition of
an infinite group as a direct sum of monogenic groups is given by Dirichlet
in 1846 in his memoir on the units of an algebraic number field ([92], v.
I, pp. 619-644). But it is only in 1879 that the link between the theory of
abelian groups of finite type and the theorem of Smith is recognised and used
explicitly by Frobenius and Stickelberger ([120], §l0).
At about the same time the theory of similarity for matrices (with real
or complex coefficients) was being completed. The notion of eigenvalue of
a linear substitution appears explicitly in the theory of systems of linear
differential equations with constant coefficients, applied by Lagrange ([191],
v. I, p. 520) to the theory of small movements, by Lagrange ([191], v. VI, pp.
655-666) and Laplace ([193], v. VIII, pp. 325-366) to the "secular" inequalities
of the planets. It is implicit in many other problems tackled about the middle
of the XVIIIth century, such as the determination of the axes of a conic or a
quadric (accomplished first by Euler ([108 a], (1), v. IX, p. 384», or the study
(developed also by Euler ([108 a], (2), v. III, pp. 200-201» of the principal
7 Gauss denotes the law of composition of classes additively, by "multiplication"

he means thus the product of a class with an integer.
8 Abel also proves in passing this property in his memoir OD abelian equatioDs ([1],
v. I, pp. 494-497).
axes of inertia of a solid body (discovered by De Segner in 1755); we know

today that it is she also who (in a much more hidden form) took part in the
beginnings of the theory of partial differential equations, and in particular in
the equation of vibrating strings. But (without talking of this latter case) the
common ancestry between these various problems is hardly recognised before
Cauchy ([56 a], (2), v. V, p. 248 and v. IX, p. 174). Further, as the majority
bring in symmetric matrices, it is the eigenvalues of these latter which are
mostly studied at first; let us note here that from 1826, Cauchy proves the
invariance under similarity of the eigenvalues of these matrices, and proves
that they are real for a symmetric matrix of order 3 ([56 a], (2), v. V, p. 248),
a result that he generalises to arbitrary real symmetric matrices three years
later ([56 a], (2), v. IX, p. 174).9 The general notion ofprojectivity, introduced
by Mobius in 1827 ([223], v. I, p. 217), arrives quickly at the problem of
classification of these transformations (in 2 and 3 dimensions first of all),
which is none other than the problem of the similarity of the corresponding
matrices; but for a long time this question is only treated by the "synthetic"
methods which are in vogue in the middle of the XIXth century, and its
progress (in any case fairly slow) does not seem to have had any influence
on the theory of eigenvalues. It is not the same with another problem from
geometry, the classification of pencils of conics or quadrics, which from the
modern point of view, reduces to the study of elementary divisors of the
matrix U + AV where U and V are two symmetric matrices; it is exactly in
this vein that Sylvester, in 1851, tackles this problem, examining with care
(with the aim of finding "canonical forms" for the pencil under consideration)
what becomes of the minors of the matrix U + AV when a value is substituted
for A which annihilates its determinant ([304], v. I, pp. 219-240). The purely
algebraic aspect of the theory of eigenvalues progresses simultaneously; it
is thus that several authors (among whom Sylvester himself) prove around
1850 that the eigenvalues of Un are the nth powers of the eigenvalues of U,
whereas in 1858 Cayley, in the memoir in which he sets up the calculus of
matrices ([58], v. II, pp. 475-496), states the "Cayley-Hamilton theorem" for
a square matrix of arbitrary order, 10 contenting himself with proving it by
direct calculation for matrices of order 2 and 3. Finally, in 1868, Weierstrass,
taking up again the method of Sylvester, obtains "canonical forms" for a
"pencil" U + AV, where, this time, U and V are square matrices which are
not necessarily symmetric, subject only to the condition that det(U + 'YV)
8 An attempt at a proof of this result, for the particular case of the "secular"
inequalities of the planets, had already been made in 1784 by Laplace ([193], v.
IX, pp. 49-92). As far as the equation of degree 3 is concerned giving t.he axes of a
real quadric, Euler had st.ated without proof the real character of its roots, and an
attempt to prove it by Lagrange, in 1773 ([191], v. III, pp. 579-616) is insufficient;
this point was proved rigorously for t.he first time by Hachette and Poisson in 1801
(140].
o Hamilton had incidentally proved this theorem for matrices of order 3 a few years
earlier ([145 a], pp. 566-567).
is not identically null; he deduces from this the definition of the elementary
divisors of an arbitrary square matrix (with complex entries), and proves that
they characterise this latter up to similarity ([329 a], v. II, pp. 19-44); these
results are besides found again partially (and apparently independently) by
Jordan two years laterll ([174 a], pp. 114-125). Here again, it is Frobenius
who, in 1879, shows that the theorem of Weierstrass can be easily deduced
from the theory of Smith, extended to polynomials ([119], v. I, pp. 482-544,
§13).
We have just alluded to the theory of divisibility of polynomials in one
variable; the question of the division of polynomials was naturally to be stated
from the beginning of algebra, as the inverse of the operation of multiplication
(this latter being already known to Diophantus, at least for polynomials of
small degree); but it can be conceived that it is hardly possible to tackle the
problem in a general way before a coherent notation for the various powers
of the variable was imposed. In fact, examples of the process of "Euclidean"
division of polynomials, such as we know it, are hard to find before the
middle of the XVIth century;12 and S. Stevin (who essentially uses exponent
notation) seems to be the first to have the idea of deducing from it the
extension of "Euclid's algorithm" for the determination of the G.C.D. of two
polynomials ([295], v. I, pp. 54-56). Taking that into account, the notion
of divisibility remained peculiar to rational integers until the middle of the
XVUIth century. It is Euler who, in 1770, opens a new chapter of Arithmetic
by extending, not without temerity, the notion of divisibility to integers in a
quadratic extension: seeking to determine the divisors of a number of the form
:c 2+cy2 (z, y, c rational integers), he writes z+yy'-C = (p+qFc)(r+BFc)
(p, q, r, B rational integers) and taking the norms of both members, he does
not hesitate to affirm that he obtains in this way all the divisors of Z2 +cy2 in
the form p2 + cq2 ([108 a], (1), v. I, p. 422). In other words, Euler argues as if
the ring Z[v=cr were principal; a little later, he uses an analogous argument
to apply the method of "infinite descent" to the equation z3 + 71 = z3
(it reduces to writing that p2 + 3q2 is a cube, which he does by stating
p+qH = (r+BH)3). But from 1773, Lagr~ge proves ([191], v. III, pp.
695-795) that the divisors of numbers of the form z2 + cy2 are not always
of this form, the first example of the fundamental difficulty which was to
occur with much greater clarity in the studies, taken up by Gauss and his
successors, on divisibility in the fields of roots of unity; 13 it is not possible in
11 Jordan does not mention the invariance of the canonical form that he obtains. It
is interesting to observe elsewhere that he deals with this question, not for matrices
with complex entries, but for matrices over a finite field. Let us note on the other
hand that, from 1862, Grassmann had given a method for reducing a matrix (with
complex entries) to triangular form, and mentioned explicitly t.he link bet.ween t.his
reduction and the classification of projectivities ([134], v. 12, pp. 249-254).
12 Cf. for example [33].
13 Gauss seems for a moment to have hoped that the ring of integers in the field of
nth roots of unity was a principal ideal ring; in a manuscript unpublished during his
general to extend directly to these fields the essential divisibility properties

of rational integers, the existence of the G.C.D. and the uniqueness of the
decomposition into prime factors. It is not the place here to describe in detail
how Kummer for the field of roots of unity [188 b]!4 then Dedekind and
Kronecker for arbitrary fields of algebraic numbers, succeed in surmounting
this formidable obstacle by the creation of the theory of ideals, one of the most
decisive advances of modern algebra (cf. pp. 93 fr.). But Dedekind, always
curious about the foundations of the various mathematical theories, is not
content with this success; and, analysing the mechanism of the relations of
divisibility, he sets up the basis of the modern theory of ordered groups, in
a memoir (without stirring his contemporaries, and forgotten for 30 years)
which is without doubt one of the first by date of the works on axiomatic
a.lgebra ([79, v. II, pp. 103-147).
From the middle of XVIIIth century, the search for a proof of the ''fun-
damental theorem of algebra" is the order of the day (cf. p. 74). We do not
need to remember here the attempt by d'Alembert, who inaugurated the
series of proofs using the infinitesimal calculus (cf. p. 161). But, in 1749,
Euler tackles the problem in another way ([108 a], (1), v. VI, pp. 78-147):
for every polynomial, with real coefficients, he seeks to prove the existence
of a decomposition' = 1112 into two polynomials (not constants) with real
coefficients, which would give.him a proof of the "fundamental theorem" by
induction on the degree of ,. It is sufficient even~ as he remarks, to stop with
the first factor of odd degree, and in consequence all the difficulties reduce
to considering the case where the degree n of, is even. Euler limits himself
then to the study ofthe case where the desired factors are both of degree n/2,
and he indicates that, by an elimination calculation suitably undertaken, the
unknown coefficients of It and 12 can be expressed rationally in terms of a
root of an equation with real coefficients of which the extreme terms are of
opposite signs and which as a consequence has at least one real root. But
Euler's proof is only a sketch, where a number of essential points are passed
over in silence; and it is only in 1772 that Lagrange succeeds in solving the
difficulties raised by this proof ([191], v. III, pp. 479-516) by means of a
very long and very meticulous analysis, where he proves himself capable of
lifetime ([124 a), v. II, pp. 387-397), he is seen proving the existence of a procedure
of Euclidean division in the field of cube roots of unity, and giving some indications
for an analogous procedure in the field of 5th roots; he uses these results to prove by
an argument of "infinite descent" more correct than that of Euler the impossibility
=
of the equation x 3 + rl 6 3 in the field of cube roots of unity, points out that the
method can be extended to the equation :r;5 + 1/ = Z5, but stops at the equation
=
x 7 +y7 6 7 in recording that then it is impossible to reject a priori the case where
x, y, 6 are not divisible by 7.
H From his first work on "ideal numbers", Kummer sets out explicitly the possibil-
ity of applying his method, not only to fields of roots of unity, but also to quadratic
fields, and to find again thus the results of Gauss on binary quadratic forms ([188
b), pp. 324-325).
a remarkable virtuosity in the use of "Galois" methods (so to speak) newly

created by him (cf. pp. 75 fr.).
All the same Lagrange, like Euler and all his contemporaries, does not
hesitate to argue formally in a "field of roots" of a polynomial (that is to
say, in his language, to consider "imaginary roots" of this polynomial); the
Mathematics of his time had not supplied any justification for this type of
argument. Also Gauss, deliberately hostile, from its beginnings, to the frantic
formalism of the XVIIIth century, raises himself powerfully, in his disserta-
tion, against this abuse ([124 a], v. III, p. 3). But he would not have been
himself if he had not felt that it was a case there of an argument with a
defective presentation that was intrinsically correct. Also we see him, a few
years later ([124 a], v. III, p. 33; cf. also [124 b]) taking up again a simpler
variant of Euler's argument, suggested already in 1759 by de Foncenex (but
that this latter was not able to bring to a satisfactory end), and deducing
from it a new proof of the "fundamental theorem" , where he avoids carefully
all use of "imaginary" roots: these last being replaced by clever adjunctions
and specialisations of indeterminates.
The role of Topology in the "fundamental theorem" is thus reduced to
the one theorem according to which a polynomial with real coefficients can
not change sign in an interval without becoming zero (Bolzano's theorem
for polynomials). This theorem is also at the bottom of all the separation
criteria for real roots of a polynomial (with real coefficients), which constitute
one of the favourite subjects of Algebra during the XIXth century. Iii During
this research, one could not fail to notice that it is the order structure of
R, even more than its topology, that plays there the essential role;16 for
example, Bolzano's theorem for polynomials is still true for the field of all
real algebraic numbers. This movement of ideas found its goal in the abstract
theory of ordered fields, created by E. Artin and O. Schreier ([7 b] and [8 a
and b])j one of its more remarkable results is no doubt the discovery that the
existence of an order relation on a field is linked to purely algebraic properties
of the field.
15 On these questions, the reader could fOI example consult [284) or [317 a], pp.
223-235.
16 The tendency to attribute to the order structure of the real numbers a prepon-
derant place is also prominent in the definition of real numbers in the procedure
of Dedekind "cuts", which is fundamentally a procedure applicable to all ordered
sets.
7. COMMUTATIVE ALGEBRA.
ALGEBRAIC NUMBER THEORY.
"Abstract" commutative algebra is a recent creation, but its development

can not be understood except in relation to that of algebraic number theory
and algebraic geometry which gave it birth.
It was possible to conjecture without too much improbability that the
famous "proof' that Fermat claimed to have of the impossibility of the equa-
tion xP + 11 = zP for p an odd prime number and x, y, z integers '# 0, was
based on the decomposition
(x + y)(x + (y) ... (z + (P-l l1 ) = zP
in the ring Z[(] (where ( #: 1 is a pth root of unity), and on an argument
about divisibility in this ring, supposing it to be principal. It is found in any
case that an analogous argument is outlined by Lagrange ([191], v. II, p. 531);
it is by arguments of this kind, with different variants (notably alterations of
the variables with the purpose of lowering the degree of the equation) that
Euler ([108 a), v. I, p. 488)1 and Gauss ([124 a], v. II, p.387) prove Fermat's
=
theorem for p 3, Gauss (loc. cit. and Dirichlet Q92], v. I, p. 42) for p 5, =
and Dirichlet the impossibility of the equation xl + 1/14 = z14 ([92], v. I, p.
190). Finally, in his first research on the theory of numbers, Kummer had
believed that he had obtained in this way a general proof, and it is no doubt
this error (which was pointed out to him by Dirichlet) that led him to his
studies on the arithmetic of cyclotomic fields, from where he was at last to
succeed in deducing a correct version of his proof for prime numbers p < 100
[188 d].
From another angle, the famous memoir of Gauss of 1831 on biquadratic
residues, whose results are deduced from a detailed study of divisibility in the
ring Z[i] of "Gaussian integers" ([124 a], v. II, p. 109) showed what advantage
there could be for the classical problems of number theory by the extension
of the notion of divisibility to algebraic numbers;2 so it is not surprising
that between 1830 and 1850 this theory was the object of the work of many
1 In his proof, Euler proceeds as if Z[v'-3] were a principal ideal ring, which is
not the casej however his argument can be made correct by considering the leader
of Z[p] (p a cube root of unity) on Z[v'-3l (d. [288], p. 190).
2 The research of Gauss on division of the lemniscate and the elliptic functions
linked to this curve, unpublished during his lifetime, but dating from around 1800,
must have brought him already at that time to reflect on the arithmetical properties
94 7. COMMUTATIVE ALGEBRA. ALGEBRAIC NUMBER THEORY.
German mathematicians, Jacobi, Dirichlet and Eisenstein first, then, a little

later, Kummer and his pupil and friend Kronecker. We should not speak here
of the theory of units, too restricted to number theory, where progress was
rapid, Eisenstein obtaining the structure of the groups of units for the cubic
fields, Kronecker for the cyclotomic fields, shortly before Dirichlet, in 1846
([92], v. I, p. 640) proves the general theorem, which Hermite had almost
reached on his own account ([159], v. I, p. 159). Much more difficult would
appear to be the question (central to the whole theory) of the decomposition
into prime factors. Since Lagrange had given examples of numbers of the
form Z2 + Dy2 (z, y, D integers) having divisors that are not of the form
m 2 + Dn 2 ([191]' v. II, p. 465), it was known substantially that it was not
to be expected that in general the rings Z[v'-D] should be principal ideal
rings, and to the temerity of Euler a great circumspection had succeeded;
when Dirichlet, for example, proves that the relation p2 - 5q2 = r& (p, q, r
integers) is equivalent to p + qv'S = (z + yJ5)5 for z, y integers, he limits
himself to indicating in a note that "there are analogous theorems/or many
other prime numbers [other than 5]" ([92], v. I, p. 31). With the memoir of
Gauss of 1831 and the work of Eisenstein on cubic residues [102 a], one had,
it is true, some advanced studies of the arithmetic of the principal ideal rings
Z[i] and Z[p] (p = (-1 + iV3)/2, a cube root of unity) in perfect analogy
with the theory of rational integers, and with these examples at least, the
tight link between arithmetic in quadratic fields and the theory of binary
quadratic forms developed by Gauss was very apparent; but for the general
case a "dictionary" was missing which would have allowed the treatment of
a quadratic field by simple translation of the theory of Gauss. 3
In fact, it is not for quadratic fields, but indeed for cyclotomic fields (and
for reasons that would not appear clearly until much later (cf. p. 98» that
the enigma would first be resolved. From 1837, Kummer, an analyst to begin
with, turns to the arithmetic of cyclotomic fields, which is not going to cease
from keeping him busy almost exclusively for 25 years. Like his predecessors,
he studies divisibility in the rings Z[(,], where (' is a pth root of unity ::fi 1
(p an odd prime); he soon sees that, there also, rings that are not principal
ideal rings occur, blocking all progress in extending the laws of arithmetic
[188 a], and it is only in 1845, at the end of 8 years of effort, that the light
finally dawns, thanks to his definition of "ideal numbers" [188 c and d].
What Kummer is doing reduces, in modern "language, to defining valua-
tions on a field Q[(]: they are in bijective correspondence with his "prime
ideal numbers" , the "exponent" with which such a factor appears in the "de-
composition" of a number z E Z[(] being none other than the value of z in
of the ring Z[ll, division by numbers of this ring playing a very important role in
the theory; see wha.t Jacobi says on this point ([171], v. VI, p. 275) as well as the
ca.lculations referring to these Questions found in the papers of GaUBB ([124 a], v.
II, p. 411; see also [124 al, v. X2, pp. 33 ff.).
3 The reader will find a precise description of this correspondence between
Quadratic forms a.nd quadratic fields in [288]. pp. 205-229.
7. COMMUTATIVE ALGEBRA. ALGEBRAIC NUMBER THEORY. 95
the corresponding valuation. As the conjugates of z also belong to Z[(], and

that their product N(z) (the "norm" of x 4 ) is a rational integer, the "prime
ideal factors" to be defined had also to be "factors" of rational prime num-
bers, and to give it its definition, one could limit oneself to saying that they
were the "prime ideal divisors" of a prime number q E Z. For q = p, Kum-
mer had already substantially proved [188 a] that the principal ideal (1 - ()
was prime and that its (p-l)th power was the principal ideal (p)j this case
did not therefore raise any new problems. For q =F p, the idea that seems
to have guided Kummer is to replace the cyclotomic equation cPp(z) 0 =
by the congruence cPp(u) == 0 (mod q), in other words to decompose the
cyclotomic polynomial cPp(X) over the field F q, and to associate with each
irreducible factor of this polynomial a "prime ideal factor". A simple case
(explicitly quoted in the Note [188 b] where Kummer announces his results
without proof) is that where q == 1 (mod p); if q = mp + 1 and if rEF 'I is
a (q - 1)st primitive root of 1, we have, in Fq [X],
p-1
cPp(X) = II (X - rl:m)
1:=1
since rpm = 1. Associating then with each factor X - rl:m a "prime ideal
factor" ql: of q, Kummer says that an element x E Z[(], of which P is the
minimal polynomial over Q, is divisible by ql: if in Fq we have P( r"m) = 0;
to sum up, in modern language, he writes the quotient ring Z[(]/qZ[(] as a
direct product of fields isomorphicto F q • For q ~ 1 (mod p), the irreducible
factors ofcPp(X) in F ,[X] are no longer of the first degree, and it will therefore
be necessary to substitute for X in P(X) "Galois imaginary" roots of the
factors of cPp in F, [X]. Kummer avoids this difficulty by passing on, as we
would say today, to the decomposition field K of q: if f is the smallest integer
such that q! == 1 (mod p), and if one puts p - 1 = ef, K is none other than
the subfield of Q«() constructed from the invariants of the subgroup of order
f of the Galois group (cyclic of order p - 1) of Q«() over Q; in other words
it is the unique subfield of Q«() which is of degree e over Q; it was very well
known since the Disquisitiones of Gauss, being generated by the "periods"
4 The notion of norm of an algebraic number goes back to Lagrange: if ai (1 :5 i :5
n) are the roots of a polynomial of degree n, he even considers the "norm form"
N(xo, Xl, ... , xn-I) = TI7=1 (xo + aiXl + ... + a:-lxn_d in the variables Xi, which
had no doubt been suggested to him by his research on the solution of equations
and the "Lagrange resolvants" ([191], v. VII, p. 170). It is to be noticed that it is the
multiplicative property of the norm that leads Lagrange to his identity on binary
quadratic forms, from where Gauss was to extract the "composition" of these forms
([124 a], v. II, p. 522). On the other hand, when the theory of algebraic numbers
starts up around 1830, it is very often under the form of the solution of equations
N(xo, ... , Xn-l) = >. (in particular with>' = 1 in order to seek units) or the study
of "norm forms" (also called "decomposable forms") that the problems are set out;
and even in recent work, the properties of these particular diophantine equations
are used fruitfully, notably in the theory of p-adic numbers (Skolem, Chabauty).
TJIe = (Ie + (He + (H2e + ... + (H(J-l)e

(0 ~ k ~ e - I, (" = (I" where g is a primitive root of the congruence
zp-l == 1 (mod p», which make up a normal basis for it. If R(X) is the
minimal polynomial (unitary and with rational integer coefficients) of any
one of these "periods" 'I, Kummer, basing himself on the formulae of Gauss,
proves that, over the field F" R(X) is still decomposed into distinct factors
of the first degree X - tAJ (1 ~ j ~ e), and it is to each of these tAl that he
associates this time a "prime ideal factor" 'Ii. In order to define "divisibility
by Ifi", Kummer writes every II: E Z[(] in the form II: = E{;~ (1e 1l11t where each
Yk E [( is itself written in a unique way as a polynomial of degree ~ e -1 in 'I,
with rational integer coefficients; he says that II: is divisible by 'Ii if and only
if, when tAl is substituted for 'I in each of the 1I1e, the elements of F, obtained
are all zero. But it was still necessary to define the "exponent" of 'Ii in 11:.
For that, Kummer introduces what we would now call a uni/onniser for 'Ii,
that is to sayan element PI E K such that N(PI) == 0 (mod q), N(PI) ~ 0
(mod q2), and finally such that P; is divisible by 'Ii (in the sense defined
above) but by none otherofthe ideal factors :I 'Ii of q. The existence ofsuch
a P; had been substantially proved by Kronecker in his dissertation the year
before ([186 a], v. I, p. 23); then setting pi = N(p;)/PI, Kummer says that
the exponent of 'Ii in z is equal to h if one has zpj" == 0 (mod q'a), but
xpjh+1 ~ 0 (mod qh+1); he starts of course by proving that the relation
xpj == 0 (mod q) is equivalent to the fact that II: is divisible by 'Ii (in the
previous sense). Once these definitions are set up, the extension to Z[C] of
the usual laws of divisibility for the "ideal numbers" did not offer any serious
problems; and from his first memoir [188 a] Kummer was even able, by using
the "method of drawers" of Dirichlet, to prove that the "classes" of "ideal
factors" were finite in number. 5
We will not take up the history of the subsequent work of Kummer on
cyclotomic fields, as far as the determination of the number of classes and the
application of the proof of Fermat's theorem in various cases is concerned. Let
us only mention the way in which, in 1859, he extends his method in order
to obtain (at least partially) the "prime ideal numbers" in a "Kummer field"
Q«,J.t), where I' is a root of an irreducible polynomial P(X) X" -a, with=
Q' E Z[C] [188 e]. It is interesting that Kummer sees this problem precisely
as considering Q«,I') as a cyclic extension 0/ the field Q«) taken as "base

field,,:6 he starts with a "prime ideal number" q of Z[(], that he assumes
divides neither p nora, and this time, he examines (in modern terms) the
5 He only takes up there an argument from Kronecker's dissertation, referring to
cl&88es of solutions of equations ofthe form N(:r:O,:r:l, ••• ,:r:n-l) = II ([188 a), v. II,
p. 25). On the other hand Kummer often alludes to results that Dirichlet would have
obtained about equations of this type (for an arbitrary field of algebraic numbers);
but these results have not been published, nor found in the papers of Dirichlet.
6 In his memoir on quadratic forms with coefficients in the ring of Gaussian inte-
gers ([92), v. I, pp. 533-618), Dirichlet had, in various places, been led to consider
polynomial P(X) = XP - Ci in the residual field Ie of the valuation of Q«)

corresponding to q (a being the canonical image of a in Ie). AB Q«) is the
field of pth roots of unity, P is, either irreducible over Ie, or a product of
factors of the first degree. In the first case, Kummer says that q remains
prime in Z[(, J.I]; in the second, he introduces elements wi(1 SiS p) of Z[()
whose images in Ie are the roots of P, and he associates with each index i a
=
prime factor ideal ti of qj setting next Wi(X) n#i(X - Wj), he says that,
for a polynomial f with coefficients in Z[(], f(J.I) contains the factor ideal ti
m times if one has
but
f(Wi)Wf'+l(W;) ¢ 0 (mod qm+l).
To sum up, he obtains in this way the valuations of Q«, J.I) unramified over
Q, which is sufficient for the applications which he has in mind.
Kummer had the luck to meet, in his study of the particular fields to which
his research on Fermat's theorem had first led him, a number of fortuitous
circumstances which rendered the study much more feasible. The extension
of Kummer's results to the general case presented formidable difficulties and
was to cost years of efforts.
After Kronecker and Dedekind, who hold the lead roles in it, the his-
tory of the theory of algebraic numbers, during the 40 years that follow the
discovery of Kummer, is not without a reminder (but happily without the
same acrimonious character) of the rivalry of Newton and Leibniz 180 years
earlier, over the invention of the infinitesimal Calculus. Student and soon a
colleague of Kummer at Berlin, Kronecker (whose thesis, as we have seen,
was useful to Kummer at an essential point of his theory) was very closely
interested in "ideal numbers" with the purpose of applying them to his own
researchj and we admire his astonishing insight when we see him, already in
1853 ([186 a), v. IV, p. 10), stating the general theorem on the structure of
abelian extensions of Q and, what is perhaps even more remarkable, creating,
in the following years, the theory of complex multiplication and discovering
the first shoots of the theory of class fields ([186 a), v. IV, pp. 177-183 and
207-217). A letter from Kronecker to Dirichlet; in 1857 ([186 a), v. V, pp.
418-421), shows him already at that time, in possession of a generalisation of
Kummer's theory, which besides is confirmed by Kummer himself in one of
the relative norm of the field Q( v'i5, i) over a quadratic subfield Q[v'i5]. In the
same way, Eisenstein, studying the 8th roots of unity, considers the field that they
generate as a quadratic extension of Q( i) and uses the norm relative to this sub field
([102 b], p. 253). But Kummer's work is the first example of a deep arithmetical
study of a "relative field".
his own works ([188 e], p. 57), and Kronecker will often refer to this theory
in his memoirs between 1860 and 1880. 7
But although at this time none of the mathematicians of the German
school of number Theory were ignorant of this work of Kronecker, this latter
seems only to have communicated the principles of his methods to a restricted
circle offriends and pupils, and when he finally decides to publish them, in his
memoir of 1881 on the discriminant ([186 a], v. II, pp. 193-236), and especially
in his great "Festschrift" of 1882 ([186 a], v. II, pp. 237-287), Dedekind can
not prevent himself from expressing his surprise ([79], v. III, p. 427), having
imagined quite different procedures from the echoes which he had heard ([79],
v. III, p. 287). Besides Kronecker was far from having to the same degree the
remarkable gifts of exposition and clarity of Dedekind, and it is therefore not
surprising that it is mostly the methods of this latter, published already in
1871, which formed the framework of algebraic number theory; as interesting
as it is, the method of "adjunction of indeterminates" of Kronecker, as far as
Number Theory is concerned, is no more to our eyes than a variant of that
of Dedekind, and it is mainly in another direction, aimed towards Algebraic
Geometry, that Kronecker's ideas acquired all their importance for the history
of Commutative Algebra, as we will see later.
For reasons that could only appear clearly much later, a first preamble
to any attempt at a general theory was of course the clarification of the
notion of algebraic integer. This was acquired in about 1845-1850, although
it is fairly difficult to date its apparition in a precise way; it appears likely
that it is the idea of a system stable under addition and multiplication (or,
more precisely, what we now call a Z-algebra of finite rank) that, more or
less consciously, had led to the general definition of algebraic integers: this
definition is inevitable when one forces a Z-algebra of the type Z[O] to be of
finite rank, by analogy with the ring Z[(] generated by a root of unity, which
was at the centre of the preoccupations of the arithmeticians of the time. So
it is that when, independently, Dirichlet ([92], v. I, p. 640), Hermite ([159],
v. I, pp. 115 and 146) and Eisenstein ([102 c], p. 236) introduce the notion
of algebraic integer, they do not seem to consider that it consists of a new
idea nor to believe that it is useful to make a detailed study thereof; only
Eisenstein proves substantially (loc. cit.) that the sum and the product of
two algebraic integers are algebraic integers, besides without claiming that
this result is original.
A point which was much better hidden was the determination of the
rings in which one could hope to generalise Kummer's theory. This latter,
in his first note [188 b], does not hesitate to affirm that he can find by his
methods the theory of binary quadratic forms of Gauss by considering the
rings Z[v'D] (Dan integer); he never developed this idea, but it certainly
appears that neither he nor anyone before Dedekind was able to see that the
7 On the evolution of his ideas on this subject, see the very interesting introduction
to his memoir of 1881 on the discriminant ([186 a], v. II, p. 195).
=
unique decomposition into prime ''ideal" factors is not p0S8ible in rings of the
form Z[VD] when D 1 (mod 4) (although the example of the cube roots
of unity showed that the ring Z[p] considered since GaU88 is distinct from
Z[R).s Before Dedekind and Kronecker, the only rings studied are still
of the type Z[O] or sometimes certain particul~ rings of the type Z[O,O'].9
As far as Kronecker is concerned, it is p0S8ible that the idea of considering
the ring of all integers of an algebraic extension was first suggested to him
by the study of fields of algebraic functions, where this ring appears in a
natural way as the set of functions that are ''finite at a finite distance": he
insists in any case in his memoir of 1881 on the discriminant (written and
announced to the Berlin Academy already in 1862) on this characterisation
of the "integers" in these fields ([186 a], v. II, pp. 193-236). Dedekind does
not give any indication as to the origin of his own ideas on this point, but
from his first publications on number fields in 1871, the ring of all integers of
such a field plays a fundamental role in his theory; it is also Dedekind who
clarifies the relation between such a ring and its subrings having the same
field of fractions, by the introduction of the notion of conductor ([79], v. I,
pp. 105-157).
But that was not the only difficulty. To generalise the ideas of Kummer,
it was first necessary to avoid going through the decomposition field which
naturally could not have any analogue in the case of a non abelian field. This
detour seems anyway at first sight very surprising and artificial, for if one
starts from the irreducible polynomial ~p(X) of Z[X], one asks oneself why
Kummer does not follow to the bitter end the logical consequences of his
ideas, and what it is that stops him using the theory of "Galois imaginaries",
well known at that time. The obstacle appears more clearly in the light of an
unhappy attempt to generalise made already in 1865 by Selling, a pupil of
Dedekind: given an irreducible polynomial P E Z[X], Selling decomposes the
corresponding polynomial P(X) into irreducible factors in F ,[Xl; the roots
of this polynomial belong therefore to a finite extension F r of F,; but Selling,
in order to define in the same way as Kummer the exponent of a "prime ideal
factor" of q in an integer of the field of roots of P(X), does not hesitate to
speak in the field Fr of congruences modulo a power of q ([282], p. 26); and a
little later, when he tries to tackle the question of ramification, he "adjoins"
to F r "imaginary roots" of an equation of the form zh = q ([282], p. 34). It
is obvious that these bold steps (which would be justified by replacing the
finite field F, by the q-adic field) could not at that time end up with anything
8 Although Kronecker must have been led to study the arithmetic of the rings
Z[V-J)] (D > 0) by his work on complex multiplication, he did not publish
anything on this subject, and the characterisation of the integers of an arbitrary
quadratic field Q(..;Jj) is given explicitly for the first time by Dedekind in 1871
([79], v. I, pp. 105-106).
9 We saw above the example of the ring Z[C,,,] introduced by Kummer [188 e].
Beforehand Eisenstein had been led to consider a subring generated by two elements
of the ring of integers in a field of 21st roots of unity [102 b].
except nonsense. Fortunately Dedekind had just in 1857 ([79], v.l, pp. 40-66),
under the name of "theory of superior congruences" , taken up under another
form the theory of finite fields: 1o he interprets the elements of these latter as
"remainders" of polynomials in Z[X] following a "double module" consisting
of linear combinations, with coefficients in Z[X] , of a prime number p and
a unitary irreducible polynomial P E Z[X] (which is no doubt for him, as
for Kronecker, at the beginnings of the general idea of module at which they
will independently end up a little later). By his own testimony ([79], v. I,
p. 218) it appears that Dedekind had begun to attack the problem of "ideal
factors" of p in a field Q(e), where P E Z[X] is the minimal polynomial of e,
in the following way (at least in the "unramified" case), that is to say when
in F p[X] the polynomial P corresponding to P does not have multiple roots):
we write, in Z[X],
P = P1 P2 ... Ph + pO
where the Pi are irreducible and distinct in Fp[X]j it can be assumed that G
is not divisible (in Z[X]) by any of the Pi and for all i, we set Wi = TIj¢i Pj j
then, if f E Z[X], we will say that I(e) contains the "ideal factor" Pi of p
corresponding to Pi k times if we have
IWil: == 0 (mod pI:, P)
and
IWil:+ 1 ~ 0 (mod pHI, Pl.
The relationship with the method followed by Kummer for the "Kummer
fields" is manifest here, and one can equally, in this way, rejoin easily the
initial definition of Kummer for the cyclotomic fields (see for example the
work of Zolotareft" [343] who, at first independently of Dedekind, develops
these ideas a little later).
However neither Dedekind, nor Kronecker who seems also to have made
similar attempts, were to continue further along this path, both stopped by
the difficulties presented by ramification ([79], v. I, p. 218 and [186 a], v. II,
p. 325).11 If the ring of integers A of a number field K which is considered
as admitting a basis (over Z) consisting of the powers of the same integer 0,
it is not difficult to generalise the preceding method for the ramified prime
numbers in Z[O] (as Zolotareft" indicates (loc. cit.». But there are fields K
where no basis of this type exists in the ring Aj and Dedekind even ends up by
discovering that there are cases where certain prime numbers p (the "extraor-
dinary factors of the discriminant" of the field K) are such that, whatever
10 It is known that certain results of that theory, published first by Galois, had
been obt.uned (in the language of congruences) by Gauss in about 1800; after the
death of Gauss, Dedekind had set himself the task of publishing part of his work
and had in particular found again in the papers left by Gauss the memoir on finite
fields ([124 a] v. II, pp. 212-240).
11 Zolotareff gets round the difficulty by a refinement of his method, which seems
no longer to have other than an anecdotal interest [343].
the (J E A, application of the preceding method to the minimal polynomial

of (J over Q would lead to attributing to p multiple ideal factors whereas in
fact p is not ramified in Aj12 he admits tohavingbeenstopped fora long time
by this unforeseen difficulty, before succeeding in surmounting it by creating
in its entirety the theory of modules and ideals, expounded in a masterly
way (and already totally modem, in contrast with the discursive style of his
contemporaries) in what is no doubt his masterpiece, the famous "XIth sup-
plement" to the book of Dirichlet on number Theory ([79], v. III, pp. 1-222).
This work will know three successive versions, but from the first (published
as the "Xth supplement" to the second edition of the book of Dirichlet in
1871) the essentials of the method are already in place, and almost in a single
step the theory of algebraic numbers passes from sketches and previous fum-
blings to a discipline in full maturity and already in possession of its essential
tools: from the beginning, the ring of all integers of a number field is placed
at the centre of the theory; Dedekind proves the existence of a basis of this
ring over Z, and deduces from that the definition of the discriminant of a
field, as the square of the determinant consisting of the elements of a basis
of the ring of integers and their conjugates; he gives however in the XIth
supplement a characterisation of ramified prime numbers (as prime factors
of the discriminant) only for quadratic fields ([79] v. III, p. 202), whereas he
was in possession ofthe general theorem since i871. 13 The central result of
the work is the theorem on the existence and uniqueness of the decomposi-
tion of ideals into prime factors, for which Dedekind starts by developing an
elementary theory of "modules" ; in fact, in the XIth supplement, he reserves
this name for the Z-submodules of a number field, but the conception of it
that he builds and the results that he proves are already set out in a way
that is immediately applicable to the most general modulesj 14 we must note
among other things, from 1871, the introduction of the notion of "Noether
quotient" which plays an important role (as well besides as the "ascending
chain condition") in the first proof of unique factorisation. In the following
two editions, Dedekind was to give as well two other proofs of this theorem,
which he considered justifiably to be the keystone of this theory. It must be
noted here that it is in the third proof that fractional ideals occur (already
introduced by Kummer from 1859 for cyclotomic fields) and the fact that
they form a groupj we will return later to the second proof (p. 107).
12 Kronecker says that he had encountered the same phenomenon in a subfield of

the field of 13th roots of unity, which he does not go into further however ([186 a],
v. II, p. 384). The example of the extraordinary factor of the discriminant given by
Dedekind is treated in detail in [150 d], p. 333; a little later, Haase gives an example
of a field K where there is no extraordinary factor of the discriminant, but where
there exists no 9 e A such that A = Z[9] ([150 d], p. 335).
13 He only published the proof of this theorem in his memoir of 1882 on the different
({79], v. I, pp. 351-396).
1 In his memoir of 1882 on algebraic curves (in common with H. Weber) [80], he
uses in the same way the theory of modules over the ring C[X].
All these results (up to the language used) were without doubt already
known to Kronecker in about 1860 as particular cases of his more general
concepts of which we will speak later (whereas Dedekind admits not having
overcome the last difficulties of the theory until 1869-1870 ([79], v. I, p.
351»;15 as far as number fields are concerned, we must underline in particular
that, from this time, Kronecker knew that the whole theory is applicable
without any essential change when one departs from a "base field" Ie which
is itself a number field (other than Q), a point of view to which the theory of
complex multiplication naturally led; he had also recognised, for certain fields
k, the existence of algebraic extensions K =F k un ramified over Ie ([186 a], v.
II, p. 269) which can not happen for Ie = Q (as follows from the output of
Hermite and Minkowski for the discriminant). Dedekind was never to develop
this last point of view (although he indicates its possibility in his memoir of
1882 on the different), and the first systematic exposition of the theory of
"relative fields" is due to Hilbert ([163 a], v. I, pp. 63-363).
Finally, in 1882 ([79], v. I, pp. 359-396), Dedekind completes the theory
by introducing the different, which gives him a new definition of the dis-
criminant and allows him to specify the exponents of the prime ideal factors
in the decomposition of the latter. It is also at about this time that he be-
comes interested in the particular points brought out by Galois extensions,
introducing the notions of a decomposition group and an inertia group (in a
memoir ([79], v. II, pp. 43-48) that was only published in 1894), and even (in
papers unpublished during his lifetime ([79], v. II, pp. 410-411» a sketch of
ramification groups, that Hilbert (independently of Dedekind) would develop
a little later ([163 al, v. I, pp. 13-23 and 63-363).
So, in about 1895, Algebraic Number theory had finished the first stage
of its development; the tools forged during this period of formation are going
to allow it to tackle almost straightaway the next stage, the general theory
of class fields (or, what amounts to the same thing, the theory of abelian
extensions of number fields) which is carried on to our day and which we will
not need to describe here. From the point of view of Commutative Algebra, it
can be said that at the same time the theory of Dedekind rings is practically
completed, apart from their axiomatic characterisation, as well as the struc-
tUre of modules of finite type over these rings (which, in the case of number
fields, will only be clarified in substance by Steinitz in 1912 [294 b]).lS
The subsequent progress of Commutative Algebra is going to arise above

all from quite different problems, issuing from Algebraic Geometry (which,
15 Kronecker had however not succeeded in obtaining by his methods the complete
characterisation of ramified ideals in the case of number fields. On the other hand,
he has this characterisation for the field of algebraic functions of a variable, and
proves as well that in this case there is no "extraordinary fa.ctor" of the discriminant
([186 a], v. II, pp. 193-236).
16 A beginning of the study of modules over a field of algebraic integers had already
been started by Dedekind ([79], v. II, pp. 59-85).
besides will influence in a direct way Number Theory, even before the "ab-
stract" developments of the contemporary era).
We are not going to do the detailed history of Algebraic Geometry here,
which, until the death of Riemann, hardly touches on our subject. It is suf-
ficient to remember that it had above all as its goal the study of algebraic
curves in the complex projective plane, tackled most often by the methods
of projective geometry (with or without the use of co-ordinates). In paral-
lel there was developing, with Abel, Jacobi, Weierstrass and Riemann, the
theory of "algebraic functions" of one complex variable and their integrals;
the link between this theory and the geometry of plane algebraic curves was
evidently in their minds, and it was known how on that occasion to "apply
Analysis to Geometry" ; but the methods used for the study of algebraic func-
tions were mainly of a "transcendental" nature, even before Riemann;17 this
characteristic is more accentuated in the work of this latter, with the intro-
duction of "Riemann surfaces" and of arbitrary analytic functions defined on
such a surface. Almost immediately after the death of Riemann, Roch and
especially Clebsch, recognised the possibility of drawing out from the deep
results obtained by the transcendental methods of Riemann numerous and
striking applications to the projective geometry of curves, which was natu-
rally going to encourage contemporary geometers to give these results purely
"geometric" proofs; this programme, incompletely followed by Clebsch and
Gordan, was accomplished by Brill and M. Noether a few years later [37],
by means of the study of systems of variable points on a given curve and of
auxiliary curves (the "adjoints") going through such systems of points. But
even for the contemporaries, the transcendental methods of Riemann (and
notably his use of topological notions and the "Dirichlet principle") seem to
rest on uncertain foundations; and even though Brill and Noether were more
careful than the majority of contemporary "synthetic" geometers (see later
p. 106), their geometrico-analytic arguments are not safe from all blame. It
is essentially in order to give to the theory of plane algebraic curves a solid
basis that Dedekind and Weber publish in 1882 their great memoir on this
subject [80]: "The researches published herewith", they say, "have as their
goal to state the foundations of the theory of algebraic functions of one vari-
able, one of the main creations of Riemann, in a way that is at the same
time simple, rigorous and entirely general. In later researches on this subject,
17 It must be noted however that Weierstrass; in his research on abelian functions
(which go back to 1857 but were only brought out in his lectures in about 1865 and
published only in his Complete Works ([329 a], v. IV», gives as opposed to Riemann,
a purely algebraic definition of the genus of a curve as the least integer p such that
there are rational functions on the curve having poles at p+ 1 arbitrary given points.
It is interesting to point out that, seeking to obtain elements which take the place for
him of functions having only a single pole on the curve, Weierstrass, before finally
using for this purpose transcendental functions, had, as witnessed by Kronecker
([186 a], v. II, p. 197), encouraged this latter to extend to algebraic functions of
one variable the results that he had just obtained at that time concerning number
fields (the "prime ideal factors" playing effectively the role desired by Weierstrass).
restrictive hypotheses on the singularities 01 the functions being considered

are often made, and the supposed exceptional cases are, either mentioned in
passing as limit cases, or entirely neglected. In the same way, certain fun-
damental theorems on continuity or analyticity are assumed, lor which the
"evidence" leans on geometric intuitions 01 a varied nature" ([80], p. 181).1s
The essential idea of their work is to copy the theory of algebraic functions
of one variable onto the theory of algebraic numbers such as it had just
been developed by Dedekind; to do this, they must first put themselves in
an "affine" point of view (over against their contemporaries who invariably
considered algebraic curves as embedded in complex projective space): they
start therefore from a finite algebraic extension K of the field C(X) of ra-
tional fractions, and from the ring A of "integral algebraic functions" in K,
i. e. from the elements of this field which are integers over the ring C[X] of
polynomials; their fundamental result, that they obtain without using any
topological consideration,19 is that A is a Dedekind ring, to which are ap-
plied mutatis mutandis (and even, as Dedekind and Weber remark without
having seen clearly the reason yet ([79], v. I, p. 268), in a simpler way) all the
results of the "XIth supplement" . That done, they prove that their theorems
are in fact birationally invariant (in other words, only depending on the field
K) and in particular do not depend on the choice of the "line at infinity"
made at the beginning. What is no doubt even more interesting for us, is
that, wanting to define the points of the "Riemann surface" corresponding
to K (and in particular the "points at infinity" , which could not correspond
to ideals of A), they are led to introduce the notion of a "place" of the field
K: they find themselves faced with the situation that will be found again by
Gelfand in 1940 while setting up the theory of normed algebras, namely a set
K of elements which are not given in advance as functions, but that nonethe-
less one wants to be able to consider as such; and, in order to obtain the set
of definition of these hypothetical functions, they have for the first time the
idea (that Gelfand will take up again, and which has become dull through
having been used at every turn in modern mathematics) of associating with
a point x of a set E and with a set F of maps of E into a set G the map
18 It is known that, in spite of the efforts of Dedekind, Weber and Kronecker, the
relaxation in the concept of what constitutes a correct proof, already noticeable in
the German school of Geometry in the years 1870-1880, was only to become worse
and worse in the work of the French geometers and especially the Italians of the
following two generations, who, following the German geometers, and in develop-
ing their methods, attack the theory of algebraic surfaces: a "scandal" denounced
several times (especially from 1920) by the algebraists, but which was not without
being justified to a certain extent by the brilliant successes obtained by these "non-
rigorous" methods, contruting with the fact that, until about 1940, the orthodox
successors of Dedekind showed themselves incapable of formulating with enough
flexibility and power the algebraic notions that would have allowed them to give
correct proofs for these results.
19 They underline that, thanks to this fact, all these results remain valid when
replacing the field C with the field of all algebraic numbers ([79], v. I, p. 240).
/1-+ /(:z:) of:F into G, in other words to consider, in the expression /(:z:), /
as variable and :z: as ji:z:ed, contrary to the classical tradition. Finally, they
have no trouble, starting from the notion of place, in defining the "positive
divisors" ("Polygone" in their terminology) that refine the notion of ideal
of A and correspond to the "systems of points" of Brill and Noether; but,
although they write the principal divisors and the divisors of differentials as
"quotients" of positive divisors, they do not give the general definition of
divisors, and it is only in 1902 that Hensel and Landsberg will introduce,
in analogy with fractional ideals, this notion that will always embarrass the
holders of purely "geometric" methods (obliged in spite of themselves to de-
fine them under the name of "virtual systems" , but hindered from being able
to give them a "concrete" interpretation).
The same year 1882 also sees the appearance of the great memoir of Kr<>-
necker awaited for· more than 20 years ([186 a], v. II, pp. 237- 387). Much
more ambitious than the work of Dedekind-Weber, it is unhappily also much
more vague and obscure. His central theme is (in modern language) the study
of the ideals of a finite integral algebra over one of the rings of polynomials
C[Xl, .. . ,X.. ] or Z[Xl, ... ,X.. ]; Kronecker limits himself a priori to those
of these ideals that are of finite type (the fact that they are all ofthis kind
was only to be proved (for the ideals of C[Xl,"" X .. ] several years later by
Hilbert during his work on invariants ([163 a], v. II, pp. 199-257». As far
as C[X1 , ... , X .. ] or Z[X1 , .... , X .. ] are concerned one was naturally led to
associate to each ideal of one of these rings the "algebraic variety" consisting
of the common zeros of all the elements of the ideal; and the geometrical
studies in 2 or 3 dimensions done during the course of the XIXth century
would intuitively lead to the idea that every variety is the union of "irre-
ducible" varieties. finite in number. whose "dimensions" are not necessarily
the same. It appears that the proof of this fact was the goal that Kronecker
was setting himself. although he does not state it explicitly anywhere. and
that nowhere in his memoir can any definition of "irreducible variety" nor of
"dimension" be found. In fact he limits himself to indicating summarily how
a general method of elimination20 gives, starting with a system of generators
of the ideal under consideration. a finite number of algebraic varieties, for
each of which. in a suitable system of c<>-ordinates. a certain number of the
20 By a linear change of co-ordinates. one can lUIIIume that the generators Fi (1 ~

r ~r) of the ideal are polynomials where the term of highest degree in Xl is
of the form CiX;"i. where Ci is a constant :F O. It can also be assumed that
the Fi do not have a common factor. One considers then for 2r indeterminates
Ui. Vi (1 ~ i ~ r) the polynomials ~;.l uiFi and E;.l "iF! as po1llflomial. in
Xi; one calculates their Sylvester resUltant. which is a polynomial in the Ui and
Vi. with coefficients in C[Xl ..... X"] (respectively Z[Xl, ... ,X,,]); in cancelling
these coefficients. a system of equations is obtained whose solutions (Z2 ••••• z .. )
are exactly the projections of the solutions (Zl •...• z .. ) of the system of equations
Fi(2:1, 2:2, ... ,2: .. ) == 0 (1 ~ i ~ r). One can then continue with the application of
the method by induction on n.
co-ordinates are arbitrary and the others are "algebraic functions".21 But, if
it is really the decomposition into irreducible varieties that Kronecker is aim-
ing at, it has to be recognised that he only succeeds in the elementary case
of a principal ideal, where he proves substantially, by extending a classical
lemma of Gauss on Z[X] ([124 a], v. I, p. 34), that the rings C[X1. ... , Xn]
and Z[Xlt ... , Xn] are unique factorisation domains; and, in the general case,
it can even be asked if Kronecker was at that time in possession of the notion
of prime ideal (what he calls "Primmodulsystem" is an ideal indecomposable
liS the product of two others ([186 a], v. II, p. 336); that is all the more aston-
ishing as the definition given since 1871 by Dedekind was perfectly general).
A little later, Kronecker was however to correct this inadvertence.
It must be said however that Kronecker's method of elimination, suitably
applied, leads exactly to the decomposition of an algebraic variety into its
irreducible components: that is what is clearly established by E. Lasker at
the beginning of his great memoir of 1905 on ideals of polynomials [194];
he defines correctly the notion of irreducible variety (in Cn) as an algebraic
variety V such that the product of two polynomials can not be zero in the
whole variety V unless one of them is zero on it, and there is also a defini-
tion of dimension that is independent of the axes chosen. In the interesting
historical considerations that he inserts in this work, Lasker indicates on the
other hand that he links up, not only with the purely algebraic tendency of
Kronecker and Dedekind, but also with the problems raised by the geometric
methods of the school of Clebsch and M. Noether, and notably with the fa-
mous theorem proved by the latter in 1873 [239]. It consists essentially, as we
would say today, of the determination of the ideal a of those polynomials of
C[Xl' ... , Xn] which are zero on the points of a given set M in C n ; most of-
ten M was the "algebraic variety" of the zeros common to a finite number of
polynomials Ii, and for a long time it appears that it was assumed (of course
without justification) that, at least for n = 2 or n = 3, the ideal a was quite
simply generated by the li;22 M. Noether had shown that already for n = 2
and for two polynomials It, /2, this is in general inexact, and he had given
sufficient conditions for a to be generated by It and /2. Ten years later, Netto
proves that, without any hypothesis on It and /2, a power of a is in any case
contained in the ideal generated by It and /2 [231], a theorem that Hilbert
generalises in 1893 in his famous "zeros theorem" ([163 a], v. II, pp. 287-344).
It is without doubt that, inspired by this result Lasker, in his memoir, intro-
21 It is the number of arbitrary co-ordinates that he calls the dimeru'on ("Stufe").

22 See the remarks of M. Noether at the beginning of his memoir [239]. It is inter-
esting to note on this point that, according to Lasker, Cayley, in about 1860, had
conjectured that for every left algebraic curve in C 3 , there was a finite number of
polynomials generating the ideal of polynomials of C[X, Y, Z] which are zero on the
curve (in other words, a particular case of the finiteness theorem of Hilbert ([163
a], v. II, pp. 199-257».
duces the general notion of primary ideal 23 in the rings C[X1 , ••• , Xn] and
Z[X1, ... , Xn] (after having given in these rings the definition of prime ideals,
by transcribing the definition of Dedekind), and proves24 the existence of a
primary decomposition for every ideal in these rings. 25 He does not seem to
have been concerned with questions of uniqueness of this decomposition; it
is Macaulay who, a little later [211] introduces the distinction between "im-
mersed" and "non-immersed" primary ideals and shows that the latter are
determined in a unique way, but not the earlier. It must finally be noted that
Lasker also extends his results to the ring of entire series convergent in the
neighbourhood of a point, relying on the "preparation theorem" of Weier-
strass. This part of his memoir is doubtless the first place where this ring
had been considered from a purely algebraic point of view, and the methods
that Lasker develops for this purpose were to influence Krull strongly when
in 1938 he created the general theory of local rings ( cf. [187 h], pp. 204 and
passim).
The movement of ideas that will end up with modern Commutative Al-
gebra starts to take shape around 1910. If the general notion of a field is
acquired already at the beginning of the XXth century, on the other hand
the first work where the general notion of a ring is defined is without doubt
that of Fraenkel in 1914 [113 a]. At that time, there were already as exam-
ples of rings, not only the integral rings of Number Theory and of Algebraic
23 Examples of primary ideals which are not powers of prime ideals had been en-
countered by Dedekind in "orders", i. e. the rings of algebraic numbers having a
given number field as field of fractions ([79], v. III, p. 306). Kronecker also gives
as an example of an ideal "indecomposable" into a product of two others which
are non trivial, the ideal of Z[X] generated by p2 and X 2 + p, where p is a prime
number (an ideal that is primary for the prime ideal generated by X and p ([186
a], v. II, p. 341».
24 Lasker proceeds by induction on the maximal dimension Ia of the irreducible
components of the variety V of zeros of the ideal a under consideration. In mod-
ern terms, he considers first the prime ideals Pi (1 ~ i ~ r) containing a which
correspond to the irreducible components of maximal dimension 1& of V. To each
Pi, he associates the saturated qi of a relative to Pi; he considers then the Noether
quotient bi = a : qi of qi in a, takes in E· bi an element c not belonging to any
of the Pi and shows on the one hand that' a is the intersection of the qi and of
Q + (c) = ai, and on the other hand that the variety Vi of zeros of a' only has
irreducible components of dimension ~ h - 1, which enables him to conclude by
induction.
211 It is interesting to remark that the second proof of Dedekind for the unique
decomposition theorem proceeds by establishing first the existence of a unique re-
duced primary decomposition; and in a part not published in the XIth supplement,
Dedekind observes explicitly that this part of the proof is valid not only for the
ring A of all integers in the number field K, but also for all the "orders" of K ([79],
v. III, p. 303). It is only later, after having proved explicitly that A is "completely
integrally closed" (up to terminology) that he shows by using this fact, that the
primary ideals of the preceding decomposition are in fact powers of prime ideals
([79], v. III, p. 307).
Geometry, but also rings of series (formal or convergent), and finally algebras
(commutative or not) over a base field. However, as much for the theory of
rings as for that of fields, the catalytic role seems to have been played by the
theory of p-adic numbers of Hensel, that Fra.enkel as well as Steinitz [294 a]
mention quite particularly as the point of departure for their research.
The first publication of Hensel on this subject goes back to 1897; in it he
starts from the analogy brought to light by Dedekind and Weber between the
points of a Riemann surface of a field of algebraic functions K and the prime
ideals of a number field kj he proposes to transport into Number Theory the
"Puiseux expansions" (classical since the middle of the XIXth century) which,
in the neighbourhood of an arbitrary point of a Riemann surface of K, allow
us to express every element z E K in the form of a convergent series of powers
of the "uniformiser" at the point under consideration (a series having only a
finite number of terms with negative exponents). Hensel shows in the same
vein that if p is a prime ideal of k above a prime number P, one can associate
to each z E k a "p-adic series" of the form L, (tiP' (or Li (tipi/e when ~ is
ramified above p) the Qi being taken from a system of given representatives
of the quotient field of the ideal ~; but his great originality is to have the idea
of considering such "expansions" even when they do not correspond to any
element of k, by analogy with the expansions in entire series of transcendental
functions on a Riemann surface [157 a].
During the whole of his subsequent career, Hensel will devote himself to
polishing and perfecting little by little his new calculus; and if his approach
can seem to us hesitant or heavy, it must not be forgotten that at least in the
beginning he still does not have available any of the topological or algebraic
tools of present day mathematics which would have facilitated his task. In his
first publications he besides hardly ever speaks of topological notions, and to
sum up, for him the ring of ~a.dic numbers (p a prime ideal of the ring of
integers A of a number field k), is, in modern terms, the projective limit of
the rings A/~n for n tending to infinity, with a purely algebraic meaningj and
to establish the properties of this ring and of its field of fractions, he must at
each step use more or less painfully ad hoc arguments (for example to prove
that the p-adic numbers form an integral domain). The idea of introducing
topological notions in a ~adic field hardly appears with Hensel before 1905
[157 d]j and it is only in 1907, after having finished writing the book where
he restates the theory of algebraic numbers following his ideas [157 f], that
he reaches the definition and essential properties of absolute ~adic values
[157 el, starting from which he will be able to develop, by copying the theory
of Cauchy, a complete "~adic analysis" that he will know how to apply
fruitfully in number Theory (notably with the use of the ~adic exponential
and logarithm), and whose importance has not ceased to grow since then.
Hensel had well seen, from the beginning, the simplifications that his the-
ory was bringing to classical statements, by allowing the "localisation" of
problems and working in a field where not only the properties of divisibility
are trivial, but also where, thanks to a fundamental lemma that he got out
already in 1902 [157 c], the study of polynomials of which the polynomial
"reduced" mod p has no multiple root is reduced to the study of polyno-
mials over a finite field. He had given from 1897 [157 b] striking examples
of these simplifications, notably in questions referring to the discriminant
(in particular, a short proof of the criterion given by him some years pre-
viously for the existence of "extraordinary divisors"). But for a long time
it seems as if the p-adic numbers inspired a great distrust in contemporary
mathematicians; an attitude current without doubt towards ideas that were
too "abstract", but that the slightly excessive enthusiasm of their author (so
frequent in mathematics amongst the zealots of new theories) was not with-
out justifying in part. Not content in fact with applying his theory fruitfully
to algebraic numbers, Hensel, impressed like all his contemporaries by the
proofs of transcendence of e and 'If', and perhaps deluded by the qualification
of "transcendent" applied at the same time to numbers and to functions, had
reached the point of thinking that there existed a link between his p-adie
numbers and real transcendent numbers, and he had believed for a moment
that he could obtain thus a simple proof of the transcendence of e and even
of ee ([157 d], p. 556).26
Soon after 1910, the situation changes, with the rising of the following
generation, influenced by the ideas of Frechet and of F. Riesz on topology,
by those of Steinitz on algebra, and conquered by "abstraction" from the
beginning; it will know how to make assimilable and put in its place the work
of Hensel. From 1913, Kiirschak [190] defines in a general way the notion of
valuation, recognises the importance of the archimedean valuations (of which
the p-adic valuation gave an example), proves (by copying the proof in the
case of real numbers) the existence of the completion of a field with respect
to a valuation, and above all proves in a general way the possibility of the
extension of a valuation to an algebraic extension of a given field. But he
had not seen that the non-archimedean character of a valuation was already
hidden in the prime field; that point was established by Ostrowski, to whom
is also due the determination of all the valuations on the field Q, and the
fundamental theorem characterising fields furnished with a non archimedean
valuation as subfields of C [242]. In the years that go from 1920 to 1935, the
theory will complete itself with a more detailed study of valuations which
are not necessarily discrete, including among others the examination of the
different .circumstances; which arise when one goes to an algebraic or
transcendental extension (Ostrowski, Deuring, F. K. Schmidt); on the other
hand, in 1931, Krull introduces and studies the general notion of valuation
26 This research at all costs for a strict parallelism between p-adic series and Taylor
series also pushes Hensel to set himself strange problems: he proves for example
that every p-adic integer can be written in the form of a series ~::o 0..,/' where
the ale are rational numben chosen in such a way that the senes converges not
only in Qp but also in R (no doubt by remembering Taylor series that converge at
several points simultaneously?) [157 e and f].
[187 f] which will be much used in the years that follow by Zariski and his
school of algebraic Geometry.27 We must also mention here, even though it is
outside our remit, the deeper studies on the structure of complete valuation
fields and complete local rings, which come from the same period (Hasse-
Schmidt, Witt, Teichmiiller, I. Cohen).
The work of Fraenkel mentioned above (p. 107) dealt only with a very
special kind of ring (artinian rings having only a single prime ideal, which
is, as well, assumed to be principal). If one excludes the work of Steinitz on
fields [294 a], the first important work on the study of general commutative
rings are the two great memoirs of E. Noether on the theory of ideals: that of
1921 [236 a], dedicated to the primary decomposition, which takes up again
on the most general level and completes on many points the results of Lasker
and Macaulay; and that of 1927 characterising Dedekind rings axiomatically
[236 b]. In the same way that Steinitz had shown it for fields, it is seen in
these memoirs how a small number of abstract ideas, such as the notion of
irreducible ideal, chain conditions and the idea of an integrally closed ring
(the last two, as we have seen, already brought out by Dedekind) can on their
own lead to general results which seem inextricably linked to results of pure
calculation in the cases where they were known beforehand.
With these memoirs of E. Noether, joined to the slightly later work of
Artin-van der Waerden on divisor ideals ([317 a], v. II, pp. 105-109) and of
Krull linking these ideals to essential valuations [187 f] is thus completed the
long study of the decomposition of ideals started a century before,2s at the
same time as modern Commutative Algebra is inaugurated.
The countless later researches on Commutative Algebra are grouped most

easily following some major directing tendencies:
A)Local and topological rings. Although contained in embryo in all the
previous work in Number Theory and Algebraic Geometry, the general idea
of localisation frees itself very slowly. The general notion of a ring of fractions
is only defined in 1926 by H. Grell, a pupil ofE. Noether, and only for integral
domains [137]; its extension to more general rings will only be given in 1944
by C. Chevalley for noetherian rings and in 1948.by Uzkov in the general
case. Until about 1940, Krull and his school are practically alone in using in
general arguments consideration of the local rings Ap of an integral domain;
27 An example of a valuation of height 2 had already been introduced incidentally

by H. lung [175] in 1925.
28 Following the definition of divisor ideals, lOme fairly numerous researches (Prufer,
Krull, Lorenzen, etc.) were undertaken on ideals that are stable under other oper-
ations a 1-+ at satisfying axiomatic conditions analogous to the properties of the
operation a 1-+ A : (A : a) which gives rise to divisor ideals; the results obtained
in this way have not found any applications until now in Algebraic Geometry or in
Number Theory.
these rings will only begin to appear explicitly in Algebraic Geometry with
the work of Chevalley and Zariski starting in 1940. 29
The general study of local rings themselves only starts in 1938 with the
great memoir of Krull [187 h]. The most important results of this work con-
cern dimension theory and regular rings, of which we should not speak here;
but it is there also that appears for the first time the completion of an arbi-
trary local noetherian ring, as well as a still imperfect form of the graded ring
associated with a local ring;30 this latter will only be defined in about 1948
by P. Samuel [270] and independently by the research in algebraic Topology
of Leray and H. Cartan. Krull, in the previously quoted work, hardly uses
topological language; but from 1928 [187 e], he had proved that, in a noethe-
rian ring A, the intersection of powers of a single ideal a is the set of z E A
such that z(1 - a) = 0 for an a E a; it is easily deduced from that that
for every ideal m of A, the m-adic topology on A induces on an ideal a the
m-adic topology of a; in his memoir of 1938, Krull completes this result by
proving that in a local noetherian ring, every ideal is closed. These theorems
were soon after extended by Chevalley to semi-local noetherian rings, then
by Zariski to the rings which bear his name [340 b]; it is also to Chevalley
that the introduction of "linear compactness" in topological rings goes back,
as well as the determination of the structure of semi-local complete rings [62
c].
B)Passing from local to global. Since Weierstrass, the habit has existed of
associating an analytic function of one variable (and in particular an algebraic
function) with the set of its "expansions" at all the points of the Riemann
surface where it is defined. In the introduction to his book on Number Theory
([157 f], p. V), Hensel associates in the same way with every element of an
algebraic number field k the set of elements which correspond to it in the
completions of k for all valuations31 on k. It can be said that it is this point of
view that, in modern Commutative Algebra, has replaced the decomposition
formula for an ideal as a product of prime ideals (extending in a certain
29 In the work of Hensel and his pupils on Number Theory, the local rings Ap are
systematically neglected for the sake of their completions, no doubt because of the
possibility of applying Hensel's lemma to these latter.
30 If m is the maximal ideal of the local noetherian ring A under consideration,
(O'.hS'Sr a minimal system of generators for m, Krull defines for all x :F 0 in A
the "initial forms" of x in the following way: if i is the largest integer such that
x E mi, the initial forms of x are all the homogeneous polynomials of degree ;,
P(Xl, ... , X r ), with coefficients in the quotient field k = Aim. such that x ==
P( 0'1, ••• , O'r) (mod mHl). To every ideal a of A he puts into correspondence the
graded ideal of k[X 1 , ... , Xr] generated by the initial forms of all the elements of
a ("Leitdeal"); these two notions take the pla.ce for him of the associated graded
ring.
31 Hensel takes, as non archimedean valuations on a field K of degree n over Q the
functions x 1-+ Ix{')1 (where the x{,) for 1 :5 i :5 n are the conjugates of x} currently
used since Dirichlet; Ostrowski will show a little later that these functions are
essentially the only non archimedean valuations on K.
sense the initial point of view of Kummer). The remark of Hensel reduces
implicitly to embedding 11: in the product of all its completionsj that is what
is done explicitly by Chevalley in 1936 with his theory of "ideIes" [62 b],
which perfects the previous analogous ideaa of Priifer and von Neumann
(these latter limit themselves to embedding 11: in the product of its ,.adic
completions).32 Although this is a bit outside our remit, it is important to
mention here that, thanks to an appropriate topology on the group of ideles,
all the techniques of locally compact groups (including Haar meaaure) can
thus be applied to Number Theory in a very effectiv~ way.
In a more general setting, the theorem of Krull [187 fl, characterising
an integrally closed ring aa the intersection of valuation rings (which comes
back to embedding the ring under consideration in the produCt of valuation
rings) often eaaes the study of these rings, although the method is not really
manageable except for the essential valuations of Krull rings. Examples (fairly
elementary) are besides often found in Krull [187 i] of the method of "passing
from the local to the global" consisting of proving a property of an integral
domain A by reducing it to verifying it for the "localisations" Ap of A at all its
prime idealsj33 more recently, Serre haa noticed that this method is valid for
arbitrary commutative rings A, that it is applicable also to A-modules and
to their homomorphisms and that it is sufficient often to "localise" at the
maximal ideals of A: a point of view that is tied closely to ideaa on "spectra"
and on sheaves defined on these spectra (see below, p. 115).
C) Integers and integra' closure. We have seen that the notion of algebraic
integer, first introduced for number fields, had already been extended by
Kronecker and Dedekind to algebraic function fields, although in this C88e it
could appear fairly artificial (not corresponding to a projective notion). The
memoir of E. Noether of 1927, followed by the work of Krull starting in 1931,
was to show the interest that these notions were to offer for the most general
rings. 34 It is due to Krull in particular that we owe the lifting theorems for
32 Because of this remark of Hensel, the habit has arisen (by abuae of language) of
calling the non archimedean valuations of K the "placea at infinity" of a number
field K. by analogy with the process by which Dedekind and Weber define the
"points at infinity" of the Riemann sudace of an affine curve (el. p. 10.).
33 When one speaks of "passing from the local to the global". reference is often
made to much more difficult questions, linked to the theory of class fields, and of
which the best known examples are those treated in the memoirs of Haase [150 a
and b] on quadratic forms over an algebraic number field kj he shows there among
other things that for an equation f(z1, .... Zn) = G to have a solution in kR (f a
quadratic form. G E k). it is necessary and sufficient that it has a solution in each of
the completions of k. By the testimony of Haase. the idea for this type of theorem
was suggested by his master Hensel [150 c}. The exteBSion of this "Haase principle"
to groups other than the orthogonal group is one of the objectives of the modern
theory of "adtHises" of algebraic groups.
3. Krull and E. Noether Bmit themselves to integral domains, but the extension of
their methods to the general cue is not difficult; the most interesting memoir in
this context is that where I. Cohen and Seidenberg extend the theorems of Krull,
by indicating exactly their Hmits of vaHdity [66]. It is appropriate to note that
prime ideals in entire algebras [187 g], as well as the extension of the theory
of decomposition and inertia groups of Dedekind-Hilbert [187 fl. A1J. for E.
Noether, to her is owed the general formulation of the norm~isation lemma35
(from which follows among others the zeros theorem of Hilbert) as well as the
first general criterion (transcription of classical arguments of Kronecker and
Dedekind) allowing the affirmation that the integral closure of an integral
domain is finite over the ring.
Finally, it must be pointed out here that one of the reasons for the modern
importance of the notion of integrally closed ring is due to the studies of
Zariski on algebraic varieties; he has discovered in effect that the "normal"
varieties (that is to say those whose local rings are integrally closed) stand out
by means of particularly pleasant properties, notably the fact they have no
"singularity of co dimension 1"; and it was noticed afterwards that analogous
phenomena take place for "analytical spaces" . Also "normalisation" (that is
to say the operation that, for local rings of a variety, consists in taking their
integral closure) has itself become a powerful tool in the arsenal of modern
Algebraic Geometry.
D) The study of modules and the influence of Homological Algebra. One of
the distinguishing characteristics of the work of E. Noether and W. Krull in
Algebra is the tendency to "linearisation", extending the analogous direction
imprinted on field theory by Dedekind and Steinitz; in other words, it is as
modules that ideals are considered above all else, and one is therefore led to
apply to them all the constructions of linear Algebra (quotient, product, and
more recently tensor product and forming homomorphism modules) resulting
in general in modules that are no longer ideals. It appears thus fairly quickly
that in many questions (whether it is a matter of commutative or non com-
mutative rings), it is not in our interest to limit ourselves to the study of the
ideals of a ring A, but that it is necessary, on the contrary to state the the-
orems more generally for A-modules (eventually subject to certain finiteness
conditions).
The intervention of Homological Algebra only reinforced the previous ten-
dency, since this branch of Algebra is essentially concerned with questions of
a linear nature. We should not retrace its history here; but it is interesting
to point out that several of the fundamental notions of Homological Algebra
(such as those of projective module and that of the functor Tor) were born as
a result of the close study of the behaviour of modules over a Dedekind ring
relative to the tensor product, a study undertaken by H. Cartan in 1948.
Conversely, it could be foreseen that the new classes of modules introduced
in a natural way by Homological Algebra as "universal annihilators" of the
functors Ext (projective modules and injective modules) and of the functors
Tor (flat modules) would throw a new light on Commutative Algebra. It
E. Noether had explicitly mentioned the possibility of such generalisations in her
memoir of 1927 ([236 b], p. 30).
35 A particular case had already been stated by Hilbert in 1893 ([163 a], v. II, p.
290).
turns out that it is especially the projective modules and even more the flat
modules that have proved to be useful: the importance of these latter arises
above all from the remark, first made by Serre [283 b), that localisation and
completion naturally introduce flat modules, "explaining" thus in a much
more satisfactory way the properties of these two operations that were already
known and making their use much easier. It is appropriate to mention besides
that the applications of Homological Algebra are far from being limited to
that, and that it plays a deeper and deeper role in Algebraic Geometry.
E) The notion 0/ spectrum. The last by date of the new notions of Com-
mutative Algebra has a complex history. The spectral theorem of Hilbert
introduced ordered sets of orthogonal projectors of a Hilbert space, making
up a "Boolean algebra" (or better a Boolean lattice),36 in bijective corre-
spondence with a Boolean lattice of classes of measurable subsets (for an
appropriate measure) of R. It is no doubt his earlier work on operators in
Hilbert· spaces that, around 1935, led M. H. Stone to study in a general way
Boolean lattices, and notably to look for "representations" of them by sub-
sets of a set (or classes of subsets under a certain equivalence relation). He
observes that a Boolean lattice becomes a commutative ring (of a very special
type besides), when multiplication is defined by zy = inf(z,y) and addition
by z + 11 = sup(inf(z, 11'), inf(z',y». In the particular ease where one leaves
the Boolean lattice ~(X) of all subsets of a finite set X, it is seen immedi-
ately that the elements of X are in a natural bijective correspondence with
the maximal ideals of the corresponding "Boolean" ring; and Stone obtains
exactly his general theorem about the representation of a Boolean lattice on
the set of maximal ideals that contain it [301 a).
On the other hand, it was known that a classical example of a Boolean
lattice was the set of subsets which are both open and closed in a topological
space. In a second work [301 b), Stone showed that in fact every Boolean
lattice is also isomorphic to a Boolean lattice of this kind. For that it was
naturally necessary to define a topology on the set of maximal ideals of a
"Boolean" ring; which is done very simply by taking as closed sets, for each
ideal 0, the set of maximal ideals containing o.
We should not speak here of the influence of these ideas in Functional
Analysis, where they played an important role in the birth of the theory
of normed algebras developed by I. Gelfand and his school. But in 1945,
Jacobson observes [172 c] that the procedure of defining a topology, thought
up by Stone, can in fact be applied to every ring A (commutative or not)
so long as one takes as set of ideals not the set of maximal ideals, but the
set of two sided "primitive" ideals (i. e. the two sided ideals b such that
A/b is a primitive ring); for a commutative ring, one obtains of course the
maximal ideals. From his side, Zariski in 1944 [340 a], uses an analogous
36 A Boolean lattice is an ordered lattice E, having a least element 0/ and a greatest
element W, where each of the laws sup and inf is distributive with respect to the
other and where, for each a E E, there exists one and only one a' E E such that
inf(a, a') = 0/ and sup(a, a') = w.
method for defining a topology on the set of places of an algebraic function

field. However these topologies remained simple curiosities for the majority
of algebraists, because of the fact that they are in general not Hausdorff, and
that there was a fairly understandable reluctance to work with such awkward
objects. This mistrust was only dissipated when A. Weilshowed, in 1952, that
every algebraic variety can be furnished in a natural way with a topology of
the preceding type and that this topology allows the definition, in a perfect
analogy with the case of differential or analytic varieties, of the notion of
a fibred space [330 e]j soon after Serre had the idea of extending to these
varieties thus topologised the theory of coherent sheaves, thanks to which
the topology supplies in the case of "abstract" varieties the same services as
the usual topology when the base field in C, notably in what concerns the
application of the methods of Algebraic Topology [283 a and b].
From then on it was natural to use this geometric language in all Com-
mutative Algebra. It was rapidly observed that the consideration of maximal
ideals is normally insufficient for obtaining convenient statements,37 and that
the adequate notion is that of the set of prime ideals of the ring, topologised
in the same way. With the introduction of the notion of spectrum, there is
at our disposal now a dictionary allowing every theorem of Commutative
Algebra to be expressed in a geometric language very close to that of the
Algebraic Geometry of the Weil-Zariski period; which besides has led imme-
diately to a considerable widening of the framework of this last, in such a
way that Commutative Algebra is now hardly more from this point of view
than the most elementary part [138 a].
37 The inconvenience of being limited to the "maximal spectrum" arises from the
fact that if t/J : A -+ B is a homomorphism of rings and n is a maximal ideal of B,
-1
t/J (n) is not necessarily a maximal ideal of A, whereas for every prime ideal p of
-1
B, t/J (p) is a prime ideal of A. Therefore it is not possible in general to associate
with t/J in a natural way a mapping of the set of maximal ideals of B into the set of
maximal ideals of A.
8. NON COMMUTATIVE ALGEBRA.
We have seen (p. 62) how the first non commutative algebras made their
appearance in 1843-44, in the work of Hamilton [145 a] and of Grassmann
([134], v. 12 ). Hamilton, in introducing the quaternions, already has a very
clear conception of arbitrary algebras of finite rank over the field of real
numbers ([145 a], Preface, pp. (26)-(31».1 In developing his theory, he has,
a little later, the idea of considering what he calls "biquaternions", that is
to say the algebra over the complex numbers having the same multiplication
table as the field of quaternions; and he observes on this occasion that this
extension has the effect of provoking the apparition of divisors of zero ([145
a], p. 650). The point of view of Grassmann is somewhat different, and for
a long time his "exterior algebra" will remain more or less apart from the
theory of algebras, 2 but often in his language, which still lacks precision,
the first idea of an algebra (of finite dimension or not) defined by a system
of generators and relations cannot miss being recognised ([134], v. lIb pp.
199-217).
New examples of algebras are introduced in the years 1850-1860, in a
more or less explicit way: if Cayley, developing the theory of matrices ([58],
v. II, pp. 475-496), does not consider yet that square matrices make up an
algebra (a point of view that will not be expressed clearly until the Peirces
around 1870 [248 cD, at least he notes already, on this occasion, the existence
of a system of matrices of order 2 which satisfy the multiplication table of
the quaternions, a remark that can be considered as the first example of a
1 The concept of the isomorphism of two algebras is not mentioned by Hamilton;

but from this time mathematicians of the English school, and notably of Morgan
and Cayley, know well that a change of basis does not modify substantially the
algebra being studied (see for example the work of Cayley on algebras of rank 2
([58], v. I, pp. 128-130».
2 Perhaps the reason for this must be seen in the fact that apart from the "exterior"
multiplication, Grassmann introduces also between the multivectors what he calls
the "regressive" and "interior" multiplications (which take the place for him of all
that touches on duality). It is in any case fairly remarkable that, around 1900 still,
in the article Study-Cartan of the Encyclopaedia ([52 a], v. Ill, pp. 107-246), the
exterior algebra is not classed among the associative algebras, but receives separate
treatment, and that it is not pointed out that one of the types of algebras of rank
4 (type VIII of p. 180) is none other than the exterior algebra over a space of
dimension 2.
118 8. NON COMMUTATIVE ALGEBRA.
linear representation of an algebra. 3 On the other hand, in the memoir where

he defines the abstract notion of a finite group, he also gives in passing the
definition of the algebra of such a group, without besides getting anything
out of this definition ([58], v. II, p. 129).
There is no other notable progress to point out before 1870; but at that
time research on the general structure of algebras of finite dimension (over
the field of real or complex numbers) starts. It is B. Peirce who takes the
first steps along this way; he introduces the notions of nilpotent element,
of idempotent element, proves that an algebra (with or without identity) of
which at least one element is not nilpotent contains an idempotent :# 0, writes
down the famous decomposition
x = exe + (xe - ex e) + (ex - ex e) + (x - xe - ex + exe)
(e idempotent, x an arbitrary element), and has the idea (still a bit imprecise)
of the decomposition of an idempotent into a sum of "primitive" idempotents
orthogonal in pairs [247]. As well, according to Clifford ([65], p.274),4 it is
to B. Peirce that must be attributed the notion of the tensor product of two
algebras, that Clifford himself applies implicitly to a generalisation of the
"biquaternions" of Hamilton ([65], pp. 181-200), and explicitly to the study
of the algebras that bear his name, a few years later ([65], pp. 397-401 and
266-276). These new notions are used by B. Peirce for the classification of
algebras of small dimension (over the complex numbers), a problem which is
also attacked, around 1880, by other mathematicians of the anglo-American
school, Cayley and Sylvester in the lead. The great variety of possible struc-
tures thus becomes rapidly obvious, and it is no doubt this fact that, during
the following period, is going to direct research towards obtaining classes of
algebras with more particular properties.
On the continent, where the evolution of ideas is fairly different, such
research appears already before 1880. In 1878, Frobenius proves that the
quaternions constitute the only example of a non commutative field (of fi-
nite dimension) over the field of real numbers ([119], v. I, pp. 343-405) - a
result published independently two years later by C. S. Peirce [248 d]. From
1861, Weierstrass, stating accurately a remark of Gauss, had, in his lectures,
3 Truth to say, Cayley does not prove this existence, does not write down explicitly
the matrices in question, and does not seem to have noticed at that moment that
certain ones are necessarily imaginary (in all this memoir, it is never made dear
if the "quantities" that occur in the matrices are real or complex; there occurs
incidentally however a complex number in p. 494). One would think that there
is only one more step needed in order to identify the "biquaternions" of Hamilton
with the complex matrices of order 2; in fact, this result will not be explicitly stated
until the Peirces in 1870 ([247], p. 132). The general idea. of a regular representation
of an algebra is introduced by C. S. Peirce around 1879 [248 c]; it was foreseen by
Laguerre already in 1876 ([192], v. I, p. 235).
4 B. Peirce met CIif£ord in London in 1871, and both the one and the other allude
many times to their conversations, of which one took place no doubt at the meeting
of the London Mathematical Society, where Peirce had presented his results.
8. NON COMMUTATIVE ALGEBRA. 119
characterised commutative algebras without nilpotent elements5 over R or

C as direct sums of fields (isomorphic to R or C); Dedekind had on his
side arrived at the same conclusions around 1870, in connection with his
"hypercomplex" conception of the theory of commutative fields; their proofs
were published in 1884-85 ([329 a], v. II, pp. 311-332 and [79], v. II, pp. 1-
19). It is in 1884 also that H. Poincare, in a short very cryptic note ([251
a], v. V, pp. 77-79), draws attention to the possibility of considering the
equations Zi = lPi (:z: 1 , ••• , :Z:n, Y1, .•• , Yn) which express the multiplicative law
(Ei :Z:iei)(Ei Yiei) = Ei Zie, in an algebra, as defining (locally of course) a
Lie group. This remark seems to have made a big impression on Lie and his
disciples (Study, Scheffers, F. Schur and a little later Molien and E. Cartan),
busy precisely at this time with the development of the theory of "contin-
uous" groups, and notably the problems of classification (see in particular
[271], p. 387); during the period 1885-1905, it guides the mathematicians of
this school to apply to the study of the structure of algebras methods of the
same kind as those used by them in the study of Lie groups and Lie alge-
bras. These methods rely above all on the consideration of the characteristic
polynomial of an element of the algebra relative to its regular representation
(a polynomial already met in the work of Weierstrass and Dedekind quoted
earlier) and on the decomposition of this polynomial into irreducible factors;
a decomposition where, as Frobenius will discover a bit later, is reflected the
decomposition of the regular representation into irreducible components.
During the research of the school of Lie on algebras the "intrinsic" notions
of the theory gradually emerge. The notion of radical appears in a particular
case (that where the quotient by the radical is a .direct summand of the field)
with G. Scheffers in 1891 [271], more clearly with Molien [224 a] and Cartan
([52 a], v. Ill, pp. 7-105), who study the general case (the word "radical" itself
is from Frobenius ([119] v. III, pp. 284-329». Study and Scheffers [271] put
into prominence the concept of an algebra as a direct sum of several others
(already foreseen by B. Peirce ([247], p. 221». Finally with Molien [224 a]
quotient algebras of an algebra are introduced, a notion that is essentially
equi valent to that of a twosided ideal (defined for the first time by Cartan ([52
a], v. lIb pp. 7-105» or of homomorphism (a name also due to Frobenius)j the
analogy with groups is very sharp here, and a little later in 1904, Epsteen and
Wedderburn consider composition sequences of tW08ided ideals and extend to
them the Jordan-Holder theorem. The mO$t important results of this period
are those of T. Molien [224 a]: guided by the notion of a simple group, he
defines simple algebras (over C) and proves that these are matrix algebras,
then proves that the structure of an arbitrary algebra of finite rank over
5 In fact, Weierstrass imposes on his algebras a stricter condition, namely that the
equation
ao+alx+ ... +a"x"=O
(where the ai and the unknown x are in the algebra) can only have an infinity of
roots if the ai are all multiplies of the same divisor of zero.
C reduces essentially to the case (already studied by Scheffers) where the

quotient by the radical is a direct sum of fields. These results are soon after
found again and established in a clearer and more rigorous way by E. Cartan
([52 a], v. Ill, pp. 7-105), who introduces on this occasion the notion of semi-
simple algebra, and brings out numerical invariants (the "Cartan integers")
linked with an arbitrary algebra over the field C - thus bringing the theory
of these algebras to a point beyond which we have hardly progressed sincej 6
finally he extends the results of Molien and his own to algebras over R.
Around 1900 a movement of ideas grows up which leads to the aban-
donment of all restrictions on the field of scalars in everything touching on
linear algebraj in particular we must bring out the vigorous impulsion given
to the study of finite fields by the American school, around E. H. Moore
and L. E. Dickson; the most striking result of this research is Wedderburn's
theorem [328 a] proving that every finite field is "commutative. In 1907, Wed-
derburn picks up again Cartan's results and extends them to an arbitrary
base field [328 b]j doing this he abandons completely the methods of his
forebears (which become inapplicable as soon as the base field is no longer
algebraically closed or totally ordered), and returns, by perfecting it, to
B. Peirce's technique of idempotents, which allows him to put into definitive
form the theorem on the structure of semi-simple algebras, whose study is
reduced to that of non commutative fields. Further, the problem of the ex-
tension of the field of scalars is stated naturally in the perspective which he
adopts, and he proves that every semi-simple algebra remains semi-simple
after a separable extension of the base field,7 and becomes a direct sum of
central algebras of matrices if this extension is taken large enough ([328 b],
p. 102).8 A little later, Dickson, for n = 3 [88 a] and Wedderburn himself
for arbitrary n [328 c] give the first examples of non commutative fields of
6 The essential difficulties come from study of the radical, for whose structure no
satisfying classification principle has yet been found.
7 At the time when Wedderburn was writing, the notion of separable extension had
not yet been defined; but he uses implicitly the hypothesis that, if an irreducible
polynomial / over the base field has a root z in an extension of this field, then
one necessarily has /'(z) ::F 0 ([328 b], p. 103). It is only in 1929 that E. Noether
pointed out the phenomena linked to the inseparability of the extension of the field
of scalars [236 c].
Let us mention here another result linked to questions of separability (and now
attached to homological algebra), the decomposition of an algebra as the direct
sum (but not direct product!) of its radical and a semi-simple algebra. This result
(which had been proved by Molien when the field of scalars is C and by Cartan for
algebras over R) is stated in its general form by Wedderburn, who only proves it in
fact when the quotient of the algebra by its radical is simple ([328 b], pp. 10S-109)
by using besides the same hypothesis on irreducible polynomials as above.
8 The arithmetical researches on linear representations of groups, which start at the
same time, also lead to the consideration of the equivalent notion of a neutralising
field of a representation [279 d].
rank n 2 over their centre,9 inaugurating thus in a particular case the theory
of "crossed products" and of "factor sets" that would be developed later by
R. Brauer [34 a) and E. Noether [236 c). Finally, in 1921, Wedderburn proves
a particular case of the commutation theorem [328 d).
In between times, from 1896 to 1910, there was developing, in the hands of
Frobenius, Burnside and I. Schur, a neighbouring theory to that of algebras,
the theory of the linear representation of groups· (limited at first to represen-
tations of finite groups). It takes its origins from remarks of Dedekind: this
latter (even before the publication of his work on algebras) had, around 1880,
met during his research on normal bases of Galois extensions, the "Gruppen-
determinant" det(z,,-l), where (Z')'EG is a sequence of indeterminates for
which the set of indices is a finite group G (in other words, the norm of the
generic element of the group algebra G relative to its regular representation);
and he had observed that when G is abelian, this polynomial decomposes
into linear factors (which generalised an identity proved a long time before
for "circulant" determinants, which correspond to cyclic groups G). During
his very interesting correspondence with Frobenius ([79], v. II, pp. 414-442),
Dedekind, in 1896, draws his attention to this property, its link with the
theory of characters of abelian groups [327 c) and some analogous results
on particular non commutative groups, that he had obtained in 1886. A few
months later, Frobenius solved completely the problem of the decomposition
of the "Gruppendeterminant". into irreducible factors ([119], v. III, pp. 38-
77), thanks to his briIliant generalisation ofthe notion of character ([119], v.
III, pp. 1-37), of which we should not speak here. But it must be noted that
in the later development of this theory,lO Frobenius always remains aware of
its relation to the theory of algebras (on which Dedekind had besides never
ceased insisting in his letters); and after having introduced for groups the
notion of irreducible representation and of completely reducible representa-
tion ([119], v. III, pp. 82-103), and shown that the regular representation
contains all the irreducible representations, it is by analogous methods that
he proposed, in 1903, to take up again the theory of Molien-Cartan ([119], v.
III, pp. 284- 329). With Burnside [44 a] and I. Schur [279 c), the "hypercom-
plex" aspect of the theory does not occur explicitly; but it is with them that
the fundamental properties of irreducible representations, Schur's lemma and
Burnside's theorem come to light. Finally, it must be noted for our objective
that it is in this theory that appear for the first time two particular cases
of the commutation theorem: in the thesis of I. Schur [279 a] who links up
(precisely by commutation in the ring of endomorphismB of a tensor space)
the representations of the linear group and those of the symmetric group, and
in his work of 1905 [279 c), where he shows that matrices permutable with
9 Let us take note that in the "GnlRdlogen der Geometrie" I Hilbert had given an
example of a non commutative field of infinite rank over its centre ([163 c], pp.
107-109).
10 Part of the results of Frobenius had been obtained independently by T. Molien
in 1897 [224 b].
all the matrices of an irreducible representation over the field C are scalar
multiples of I (a result that flows out also from Burnside's theorem).
It remained to disentangle clearly the common substrate of these theories:
it was the work of the German school around E. Noether and E. Artin, in
the period 1921-1933 which sees the creation of modern algebra. Already, in
1903, in a memoir on the algebraic integration of linear differential equations
([251 a], v. III, pp. 140-149), H. Poincare had defined, in an algebra, left ideals
and right ideals and the notion of minimal ideal; he had also remarked that
in a semi-simple algebra, every left ideal is the direct sum of its intersections
with the simple components, and that in the algebra of matrices of order n,
the minimal ideals are of dimension n; but his work remained unnoticed by
algebraists. l l In 1907, Wedderburn defines anew left and right ideals of an
algebra and proves some properties (notably that the radical is the largest
nilpotent left ideal ([328 b], pp. 113-114». But we must wait until 1927 for
these notions to be used in an essential way in the theory of algebras. 12
Putting into general form procedures of proof appearing previously here and
there,13 W. Krull in 1925 [187 a) and E. Noether in 1926 [236 b) introduce and
use systematically the maximal and minimal conditions; the first is used to
extend to abelian groups with operators (which he defines on this occasion)
Remak's theorem on the decomposition of a finite group into a direct product
of indecomposable groups, whereas the second brings these conditions into
the characterisation of Dedekind rings. In 1927, E. Artin [7 c], applying the
same idea to non commutative rings, shows how, by a systematic study of
minimal ideals, Wedderburn's theorems can be extended to all rings whose
left ideals satisfy both the maximal and minimal conditions. 14
On the other hand, Krull, in 1926 [187 b), makes the link between the
notion of abelian groups with operators and that of linear representations of
groups; a point of view generalised to algebras and developed in detail by
E. Noether in a fundamental work of 1929 [236 c) which, by the importance
of the ideas introduced and the clarity of the exposition, deserves to stand
11 Let us also note that, in this memoir, Poincare observes that the set of operators,
in a group algebra, that annihilate a vector of a linear representation space of the
group, form a left ideal; he points out that this remark could be applied to the
theory of linear representations ([251 a], v. III, p. 149), but never developed this
idea.
12 It is interesting to remark that, in the interval, the notion of left or right ideal
appears, not in the study of algebras, but in a work of E. Noether and W. Schmeidler
~238), devoted to rings of differential operators.
3 The maximal condition (in the form of "ascending chain condition") goes back
to Dedekind who introduced it explicitly ([79], v. III, p. 90) in the study of ideals
of an algebraic number field; one of the first examples of an argument using a
"descending chain" is no doubt that which is found. in the memoir of Wedderburn
of 1907 ([328 b], p. 90) concerning twosided ideals.
14 In 1929, E. Noether showed that for rings without radical, these theorems apply
assuming only that the minimal condition holds ([236 cl, p. 663); C. Hopkins proved
in 1939 that this condition alone forces the radical to be nilpotent [167].
alongside the memoir of Steinitz on commutative fields as one of the pillars

of modern linear algebra. 1&
Finally, in a series of works which start in 1927 ([237], [34 a], [236 dD, E.
Noether and R. Brauer (who is joined starting in 1929-31 by A. Albert and H.
Hasse) take up again the study of left fields at the point where Wedderburn
and Dickson had left it. If the most important part of their results consists
in a deep study of Brauer groups (in particular over the field of algebraic
numbers) and so goes beyond the framework of this note, let us point out in
any case that it is in the course of this work that the commutation theorems
are stated precisely, as well as the notion of a field neutralising a simple
algebra and its relations with the maximal commutative subfields; finally,
in 1927, Skolem characterises the automorphisms of simple rings [286 b], a
theorem found again a few years later by E. Noether [236 b] and R. Brauer
[34 a].
So, in 1934, the elementary theory of simple and semi-simple rings has just
about reached its final aspect (for an expose of the state of the theory at this
stage, see [87]); since then, it has been developing in two different directions,
that we limit ourselves to mentioning briefly. On the one hand, the theory
of ''factor sets" of R. Brauer and E. Noether has recently received new im-
pulsion, following its incorporation into modern Homological Algebra. 16 On
the other hand, there have been many attempts, with more or less success,
to extend - at least in part.- the results of the classical theory to rings
without minimal condition17 or to rings without identity. But to date these
extensions have had hardly any repercussions on other branches of mathe-
matics; for more details on this work, we refer you to the recent expose of N.
Jacobson [172 b].
15 It is there that is found among other things for. the first time in their general
form the notions of homomorphism of a group with operators, of the opposite
ring, of bimodule, as well as the famous "isomorphism theorems" (which already
appear for commutative groups in [236 b]). Particular cases or corollaries of these
latter had, it is well understood, come up long before, for example (for the second
isomorphism theorem) with Holder in connection with finite groups [165], with
Dedekind concerning abelian groups ([79], v. III, pp. 76-77), with Wedderburn
concerning twosided ideals ([328 b], pp. 82-83); as for the first isomorphism theorem,
it is for example stated explicitly by de Seguier in 1904 ([86], p. 65).
16 We should not do here the history of this theory and its relations with the notion
of the extension of one group by another; but it is appropriate to note that the first
"factor sets" made their appearance precisely in connection with a problem of group
extensions, in the memoir of 1904 where I. Schur founded the theory of "projective
representations" of groups [279 b].
11 From 1928, Krull had extended to arbitrary semi-simple modules the general
theorems on semi-simple modules of finite length ([187 c], pp. 63-66).
9. QUADRATIC FORMS; ELEMENTARY
GEOMETRY.
The theory of quadratic forms, in its modern aspect, hardly goes back before
the second half of the XVIIIth century, and, as we will see, it was developed
mainly to respond to the needs of Arithmetic, Analysis and Mechanics. But
the fundamental notions of this theory have in reality appeared from the
beginnings of "Euclidean" geometry, of which they formed the frame. For
this reason, its history can not be retraced without speaking, at least in a
summary way, of the development of "elementary geometry" since antiquity.
Of course, we will only be able to link up with the evolution of a few general
ideas, and the reader must not expect to find here precise information on the
history of such or such a particular theorem, about which it will suffice to
refer back to specialised historical or didactic works. 1 It goes without saying
also, when we speak below of various possible interpretations of the same
theorem in various algebraic or geometric languages, that we do not intend
at all to say that these "translations" have at all times been as familiar as
they are today; quite on the contrary, it is the principal gaol of this Note to
show how, very gradually, mathematicians have become conscious of these
relationships between questions often of very different aspect; we will also
have to show how, doing this, they have been led to put some coherence in
the mass of theorems from geometry bequeathed by the ancients, and finally
to try to delimit exactly what should be understood by "geometry".
If one puts aside the discovery, by the Babylonians, of the formula for the
solution of equations of the second degree ([232], pp. 183-189) it is therefore
under their geometric disguise that the birth of the principal concepts of the
theory of quadratic forms must be noted. These appear first as squares of
distances (in the plane or space of three dimensions) and the corresponding
notion of "orthogonality" is introduced by means of the right angle, defined
by Euclid as half the straight angle (Elements, Book I, Def. 10); the notions
of distance and right angle being linked by the theorem of Pythagoras, the
keystone of the Euclidean edifice. 2 The idea of angle seems to have been in-
troduced very early in Greek mathematics (which no doubt had received it
1 See ([311], v. IV to VI), as well as [185] and [106], v. III.
2 Most ancient civilisations (Egypt, Babylon, India, China) seem to have reached
independently statements covering certain particular cases of the "theorem of
Pythagoras", and the Hindus even had the idea of. principles of proof of this the-
orem, quite distinct from those found in Euclid (who gives two proofs of it, one
126 9. QUADRATIC FORMS; ELEMENTARY GEOMETRY.
from the Babylonians, broken in to the use of angles by their long astronomi-
cal experience). It is known that in the classical period, only angles less than
2 right angles are defined (the "definition" of Euclid is besides as vague and
unusable as the ones he gives of straight line and plane); the notion of direc-
tion is not brought out, although Euclid uses (without axiom or definition)
the fact that a straight line divides the plane into two regions, which he dis-
tinguishes carefully when it is necessary.3 At this stage, the idea of the group
of plane rotations only comes to light in a very imperfect way, by addition
(introduced, it also, without explanation by Euclid) of non directed angles of
half-lines, which is only defined, in principle, when the sum is at most equal
to two right angles. 4 As for trigonometry, it is disdained by geometers and
abandoned to surveyors and astronomers; it is these latter (Aristarchus, Hip-
parchus, Ptolemy especially [255]) who establish the fundamental relations
between the sides and angles of a right angled triangle (plane or spherical)
and draw up the first tables (they consist of tables giving the chord of the
arc cut out by an angle (J < 11" on a circle of radius r, in other words the
number 2r sin ~; the introduction of the sine, more easily handled, is due to
Hindu mathematicians of the Middle Ages); in the calculation of these tables,
the formula for the addition of arcs, unknown at this time, is replaced by the
equivalent use of the theorem of Ptolemy (going back perhaps to Hipparchus)
by construction of auxiliary figures, the other using the theory of proportions)(d.

[3111, v. IV, pp. 135-144).
3 The notion of directed angle with its various variants (angle between lines, angle
between half-lines) did not appear until late. In analytic geometry, Euler ([108 a],
(1), v. IX, pp. 217-239 and 305-307) introduces polar co-ordinates, and the modern
conception of an angle (measured in radians) taking arbitrary values (positive or
negative). L. Carnot [51] inaugurates the tendency which will oppose, during the
whole of the XIXth century, "synthetic" geometry to analytic geometry; seeking
to develop the first as independently as possible, he is led, in order to avoid the
"case of the figure" of the ancient geometers, to introduce systematically directed
quantities, lengths and angles; unfortunately, his work is considerably complicated
by his prejudice against using negative numbers (that he took to be contradictory!)
and to replace them by a poorly manageable system of "correspondence of signs"
between different figures. We must await Mobius ([223], v. II, pp. 1-54) for the
concept of directed angle to be introduced in the arguments of synthetic geometry;
however, in the same way as his successors until very recent times, he only knows
how to introduce direction by a direct appeal to spatial intuition (a rule "of the man
Ampere" so called); it is only with the development of n-dimensional geometry and
algebraic topology that a rigorous definition of "orient able space" is finally reached.
4 One finds nevertheless in Euclid at least two passages where he speaks of angles
of which the "sum" may exceed 2 right angles, namely the inequalities satisfied by
the faces of a trihedral (Elementl, Book XI, prop. 20 and 21) (not to speak of the
"argument" concerning the "measure" of angles, which is no doubt an interpolation
(d. p. 164»; in these two passages, Euclid seems therefore to be caught up by
intuition beyond what is authorised by his own definitions. His successors are still
less scrupulous, and Proclus, for example, (Vth century after J.C.) does not hesitate
in stating a general "theorem" giving the sum of the angles of a convex polygon
([153 el, v. I, p. 322).
9. QUADRATIC FORMS; ELEMENTARY GEOMETRY. 127
on quadrilaterals inscribed in a circle. It must be noted also that Euclid and

Hero give propositions equivalent to the formula
02 = 62 + C2 - 26c C08"A
between the sides and angles of an arbitrary plane triangle; but one can hardly
see there the first appearance of the notion of a bilinear form associated with
a metric form, for lack of the idea of a vector calculus which will only emerge
in the XIXth century.
Displacements (or movements, the distinction between the two notions not
being clear in antiquity - nor even much later) are known to Euclid; but, for
reasons of which we are ignorant, he seems to feel a clear repugnance to use
it (for example in the "case of equality of triangles" , where the impression is
gained that he only uses the notion of displacement because he has not been
able to formulate an appropriate axiom ([153 e), v. I, pp. 225-227 and 249»;
however, it is to the notion of displacement (rotation about an axis) that he
has recourse for the definition of cones of revolution and of spheres (Elements,
Book XI, def. 14 and 18), 88 well 88 Archimedes for that of quadrics of
revolution. But the general idea of a transformation, applied to the whole of
space, is more or less a stranger to mathematical thought before the end of
the XVIIIth centuryj5 and before the XVIIth century, no trace is found either
of the notion of composition of movements, nor a fortiori of the composition
of displacements. That does not mean to say, of course, that the Greeks
were not particularly aware of the "regularities" and "symmetries" of figures,
which we now attach to the notion of groups of displacements: their theory
of regular polygons, and even more that of regular polyhedra - one of the
most remarkable chapters of all their mathematics - is there to prove the
opposite. 6
Finally, the last of the essential contributions of Greek mathematics, in the
area which concerns us, is the theory of conics (88 far as quadrics is concerned,
the Greeks only know certain quadrics of revolution, and do not carry their
study of them very far, except for the sphere). It is interesting to note here
that, although the Greeks never had the idea of the fundamental principle of
analytic geometry (essentially because of the lack of a manageable algebra),
II One can hardly quote as examples of such a notion other than the "projections" of
the cartographers and draughtsmen; stereographic projection is known to Ptolemy
(and in the XVIth century it is known to preserve angles), and central projection
plays a primary role in the work of Desargues [84]; but it is a matter there of
correspondence between the whole of space (or a surface) and a plane. One of the
properties of inversion, that we express today by saying that the transform of a
circle is a circle or a straight line, is known substantially to Viete, and used by him
in problems concerning the construction of circles; but neither he, nor Fermat who
extends his constructions to spheres, have the idea of introducing inversion as a
transformation of the plane or space.
S See on that [291], where will be found also interesting remarks on the connections
between the theory of displacement groups and the different types of ornaments
thought up by the civilisations of Antiquity and the Middle Ages.
they commonly use, for the study of particular "figures", "ordinates" relative
to two (or even more than two) axes in the plane (linked closely to the figure,
which is one of the fundamental points where their method differs from that
of Fermat and Descartes, whose axes are fixed independently of the figure
under consideration). In particular, the first examples of conics (other than
the circle) which come up in connection with the problem of the duplication
of the cube, are the curves given by the equations y2 = az, y = bz 2, zy = c
(Menechme, a pupil of Eudoxus, middle of the IVth century)j7 and it is
the equation of conics (normally with reference to two oblique axes made
up of a diameter and of the tangent to one of its points of contact with
the curve) that is most often used in the study of problems relative to these
curves (whereas the "focal" properties only playa very effacing role, contrary
to what scholarly traditions going back only to the XIXth century would
make us believe). From this vast theory, we must above all remember here
the notion of conjugate diameters (already known by Archimedes), and the
property that today serves as the definition of the polar of a point, given by
Apollonius [153 b) when the point is exterior to the conic (the polar being
therefore for him the straight line joining the points of contact of the tangents
issuing from this point)j from our point of view, these are two examples of
"orthogonality" with respect to a quadratic form distinct from the metric
form, but it is well understood that the link between these notions and the
classical notion of perpendiculars could not possibly be conceived of at that
time.
There is hardly any other progress to point out before Descartes and
Fermatj but from the beginnings of analytic geometry, the algebraic theory
of quadratic forms starts to emerge from its geometric crust: Fermat knows
that an equation ofthe second degree in the plane represents a conic ([109], v.
I, pp. 100-102j French translation, v. III, pp. 84-101) and sketches analogous
ideas about quadrics ([109], v. I, pp. 111-117j French translation, v. III, pp.
102-108). With the development of analytic geometry in 2 and 3 dimensions
during the course of the XVIIIth century two of the central problems of
the theory appear (especially in connection with conics and quadrics): the
reduction of a quadratic form to a sum of squares and the search for its
"axes" with respect to the metric form. For conics, these two problems are
too elementary to give rise to important algebraic progressj for an arbitrary
number of variables, the first is solved by Lagrange in 1759, in connection
with the maxima offunctions of several variables ([191], v. I, pp. 3-20). But
this problem is almost immediately eclipsed by that of the search for axes,
even before invariance of rank had been formulatedjs as for the law of inertia,
7 It appears that the idea of considering these curves 88 plane sections of cones
with a circular base (also due to Menechme) is latedhan their definition by means
of the preceding equations (d. [153 b], pp. XVII-XXX).
8 Treating a problem independent, because of its nature, of the choice of co-
ordinate axes, Lagrange could not have missed observing that his procedure con-
tained much that was arbitrary, but he is still missing notions allowing him to state
it is only discovered around 1850 by Jacobi ([171], v. III, pp. 593-598), who
proves it by the same argument as nowadays, and Sylvester ([304], v. I, pp.
378-381) who limits himself to stating it as quasi-obvious. 9
The problem of the reduction of a quadric to its axes already presents
algebraic difficulties substantially greater than the analogous problem for
conics; and Euler, who is the first to tackle it, is not in a position to prove
the real character of the eigenvalues, which he admits after an attempt at
justification without conviction ([108 a], (1), v. IX, pp. 379-392).10 Given
that this point is correctly established in about 1800 [140], we must await
Cauchy for the proof of the corresponding theorem for forms in an arbitrary
number n of variables ([56 a], (2), v. IX, pp. 174-195). It is also Cauchy who,
at about the same time, proves that the characteristic equation giving the
eigenvalues is invariant under all orthogonal changes of axes ([56 a], (2), v.
= =
V, p. 252);11 but for n 2 or n 3, this invariance was intuitively "obvious"
because of the geometric interpretation of eigenvalues by means of axes of
the corresponding conic or quadric. Besides, during the course of research
on this subject, the elementary symmetric functions of the eigenvalues have
also occurred naturally (with various geometric interpretations, in connec-
tion notably with the theorems of Apollonius on conjugate diameters), and
in particular the discriminant, which (known for a long time for n = 2 in
connection with the theory of the equation of the second degree) appears for
the first time for n = 3 with Euler ([108 a], (1), v. IX, p. 382); this latter
meets it in connection with the classification of quadrics (in expressing the
condition for a quadric not to have a point at infinity) and does not mention
its invariance with respect to orthogonal axis changes. But a bit later, with
the beginnings of the arithmetical theory of quadratic forms with integral
coefficients, Lagrange notes (for n = 2) a particular case of the invariance of
the discriminant under linear but not orthogonal change of variables ([191],
precisely this idea: "As for the resr', he says, "so as not to misunderstand these
researches, it must be noticed that the transformed quantities [into a sum of squares]
could well come in a different form from those that we have given; but, in examining
the matter more closely, one will invariably /ind that, whatever they may be, they
will always be reducible to these, or at least be contained in them [?]" (loc. cit., p.
8J.
Gauss on his part had reached this result, and proved it in his lectures by the
method of least squares, as witnessed by Riemann, who followed his lectures in
1846-47 ([259 b], p. 59).
10 He is more fortunate in the determination of the principal axes of inertia of a
solid: having reduced the problem to an equation of the third degree, he observes
that such an equation has at least one real root, therefore that there is at least
one axis of inertia; taking this axis as a co-ordinate axis, he is then reduced to a
problem in the plane, with an easy solution ([108 a], (2), v. III, pp. 200-202).
11 It must be noted that, until about 1930, what is meant by "quadratic form" is
never anything other than a homogeneous polynomial of the second degree with
respect to co-ordinates taken relative to a given set of axes. It appears that it is
only the theory of Hilbert spaces which led to an "intrinsic" concept of quadratic
forms, even in spaces of finite dimension.
v. III, p. 699), and Gauss establishes, for n = 3, the "covariance" of the dis-
criminant for all linear transformations ([124 a], v. I, pp. 301-302).12 Once the
general formula for the mUltiplication of determinants was proved by Cauchy
and Binet, the extension of the formula of Gauss to an arbitrary number of
variables was immediate; it is that which, around 1845, will give the first
impulsion to the general theory of invariants.
To the two notions that, amongst the Greeks, took the place of the theory
of displacements - that of movement and that of "symmetry" of a figure -
has just been added a third in the XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries with the
problem of the changing of rectangular axes, which is substantially equiv-
alent to this theory. Euler devotes several works to this question, attaching
importance above all to obtaining parametric representations which are man-
ageable for the formulae for changing axes. It is known what use Mechanics
was going to make of the three angles which he introduces for this purpose
for n =.3 ([108 al, (1), v. IX, pp. 371-378). But he does not limit himself to
that, considers in 1770 the general problem of orthogonal transformations for
arbitrary n, remarks that the goal is reached here by introducing n(n -1)/2
angles as parameters, and finally, for n = 3 ano n = 4, gives for rotations
rationairepresentations (as a function, respectively, of 4 homogeneous param-
eters and of 8 homogeneous parameters linked by a relation), which are none
other than those obtained later by means of the theory of quaternions, and
of which he does not indicate the origin ([108 al, (1), v. VI, pp. 287-315).13
On the other hand, Euler indicates also how to translate analytically the
search for the "symmetries" of plane figures, and it is for this purpose that
he is led to prove, substantially, that a plane displacement is a rotation, or
a translation, or a translation followed by a symmetry ([108 a], (1), v. IX,
pp. 197-199). The rise of Mechanics at this time leads besides to the general
study of displacements: but first of all it is only a question of "infinitely small"
displacements tangent to continuous movements: they are apparently the only
ones that occur in the researches of Torricelli, Roberval and Descartes on the
composition of movements and the instantaneous centre of rotation for plane
movements (cf. p. 177). This latter is defined in a general way by Johann
Bernoulli; d'Alembert in 1749, Euler the following year, extend this notion
by proving the existence of an instantaneous axis of rotation for movements
which leave a point fixed. The analogous theorem for finite displacements is
not stated until 1775 by Euler [108 b], in a memoir where he discovers at the
12 It is also in connection with this research that Gauss defined the inverse of a
quadratic form ([124 al, v. I, p. 301) and obtains the condition of positivity for
such a form bringing in a sequence of principal minors of the discriminant (ibid.,
pp. 305-307).
13 Euler besides does not give the formula for the composition of rotations expressed
by means of these parameters; for n = 3, it is not found before a note of Gauss
(unpublished during his lifetime ([124 a], v. VIII, pp. 357-362)) and work of Olinde
Rodrigues of 1840, who finds the parametric representation of Euler, more or less
fallen into limbo at that time.
same time that the determinant of a rotation is equal to 1; the following year,
he proves the existence of a fixed point for plane similarities ([108 a], (I), v.
XXVI, pp. 276-285). But the work of Chasles must be awaited, starting in
1830 [60 a], in order to obtain finally a coherent theory of finite and infinitely
small displacements.
We arrive thus at what can be called the golden age of geometry, which is
inserted grosso modo between the dates of the publication of the Geometrie
descriptive of Monge (1795) [225] and of the "Erlangen programme" of F.
Klein (1872) ([182], v. I, pp. 460-497). The essential progress that we owe to
this brusque renewal of geometry are the followjng:
A) The notion of the element at infinity (point, straight line or plane),
introduced by Desargues in the XVIIth century [84], but which is hardly ex-
pressed during the XVIIIth century except by abuse of language, is rehabili-
tated and systematically used by Poncelet [252] who thus makes of projective
space the general framework of all geometrical phenomena.
B) At the same time, with Monge and especially Poncelet, the passage
to complex projective geometry is effected. The notion of imaginary point,
sporadically used during the XVIIIth century, is here exploited (concurrently
with that of the point at infinity) to give statements independent of the "case
of the figure" of real affine geometry. If at first the justifications brought in
to support these innovations remained very awkward (especially those from
the members of the school of "synthetic" geometry, where the use of co-
ordinates ends up as being seen as a disgrace), what cannot be missed is
recognising there, under the name of "principle of contingent relations" in
Monge, or "principle of continuity" in Poncelet, the first germ of the idea of
"specialisation" from modern algebraic geometry.14
One of the first results following on from these concepts is the remark that,
in complex projective space, all the conics (respectively quadrics) which are
non degenerate are of the same kind; which brings Poncelet to the discovery
of "isotropic" elements:"Circles placed arbitrarily on a plane", he says, "are
therefore not totally independent among themselves, as could be thought at
first sight, they have ideally two imaginary points in common at infinit7/'
([252], v. I, p. 48). Later, he introduces in the same way the "umbilical", an
imaginary conic at infinity common to all spheres ([252], v. I, p. 370); and
if he does not speak particularly of the isotropic generators of the sphere, at
least he underlines explicitly the existence of rectilinear generators, real or
imaginary, for all quadrics (ibid., p. 371 );15 notions that his followers (notably
14 These "principles" are justified, of course (as Cauchy had already remarked) by
the a.pplication of the principle of the extension of algebraic identities, because of
the fact that the "synthetic" geometries only ever consider properties that translate
analytically into identities of this nature.
16 The first mention of rectilinear generators of quadrics seems due to Wren (1669),
who remarks tha.t the one sheet hyperboloid of revolution can be generated by the
Plucker and Chasles), even more than he, make great use of, in particular in
the study of "focal" properties of conics and quadrics.
C) The notions of point transformation and of composition of transfor-
mations are, they also, formulated in a general way and introduced system-
atically as means of proof. Apart from displacements and projections, only
certain particular transformations were known up to that point: certain plane
projective transformations of the type z' = a/z, y' = y/z, used by La Hire
and Newton, the "affinity" z' = az, y' = by of Clairaut and Euler ([108 a], (1),
v. IX, chap. XVIII), and finally a few particular quadratic transformations,
with Newton again, Maclaurin and Braikenridge. Monge, in his Geometrie
descriptive, shows all the use that can be made of plane projections in 3
dimensional geometry. With Poncelet, one of the systematic procedures for
proofs, used to surfeit, consists in reducing by projection properties of the
conic to those of the circle (a method already used on occasion by Descartes
and PCUlcal); and in order to go from a quadric to a sphere, he invents the
first example of a projective transformation of space, the "homology" ([252],
v. I, p. 357); finally it is he also who introduces the first examples of bira-
tional transformations of a curve into itself. In 1827, Mobius ([223], v. I, p.
217) (and independently Chasles in 1830 ([60 b], p. 695», define the most
general linear projective transformations; at the same time appear inversion
and other types of quadratic transformations, whose study will inaugurate
the theory of birational transformations, which will develop in the second
half of the XIXth century.
D) The notion of duality appears fully in the open and is found consciously
linked to the theory of bilinear forms. The theory of poles and polars with
respect to conics, which, since Apollonius, had only made some progress with
Desargues and La Hire, is extended to quadrics by Monge, who, as well as his
pupils, sees the possibility of transforming by this means known theorems into
new results. 16 But it is again due to Poncelet that the credit returns for having
built up these remarks into a general method in the theory of transformations
"by reciprocal polars" , and of having made it into a particularly efficacious
tool of discovery. A little later, notably with Gergonne, Plucker, Mobius and
Chasles, the general notion of duality frees itself from the link with quadratic
forms, still too close with Poncelet. In particular, Mobius, while examining the
various possibilities for duality in space of 3 dimensions (defined by a bilinear
form), discovers in 1833 duality with respect to an alternating bilinear form
([223], v. I, pp. 489-515),17 especially studied, in the XIXth century, under
the form of the theory of "linear complexes" and developed in relation to the
rotation of a straight line about an axis not in the same plane; but their study was
only developed by Monge and his school.
16 The best known is the theorem of Brianchon (1810), a transform of Pascal's
theorem by duality.
17 In 1828, Giorgini had already met polarity with respect to an alternating form,
in connection with a problem of statics [128].
"geometry of straight lines" and the "Plucker co-ordinates" introduced by

Cayley, Grassmann and Plucker around 1860.
E) From the beginnings of projective geometry, the intensive study of the
properties of classical geometry in their relationships with projective space
had rapidly led to dividing them into "projective properties" and "metric
properties"; and it is no doubt not exaggerated to see in this separation
one of the clearest manifestations, at this time, of what was to become the
modern notion of structure. But Poncelet, who is the first to introduce this
distinction and this terminology, is already conscious of what links these
two types of properties; and, tackling in the Traite the problems concerning
angles, whose properties "seem not to be part of those that we have called
projective ... , they follow on nonetheless in such a simple war/', he says,
"/rom the principles that fonn the basis [of this work] ... , that I do not
believe that any other geometrical theory could lead to it in a manner which
is both more direct and simpler. It will not be astonishing, if one considers
that projective properties of figures are necessarily the most general among
those that can belong to them; in such a way that they must encompass, as
simple corollaries, all the other properties or particular relations of the area"
([252], v. I, p. 248). Truth to tell, after this declaration, it is a little surprising
to see him tackle questions about angles in a very roundabout way, by linking
them to focal properties of conics, instead of bringing in directly the cyclic
points; and in fact, it is only 30 years later that Laguerre (still a pupil at the
Ecole Poly technique ) gave the expression for a right angle by means of the
cross-ratio of these straight lines and isotropic straight lines with the same
origin ([192], v. II, p. 13). Finally, with Cayley ([58], v. II, pp. 561-592) the
fundamental idea that "metric" properties of a plane figure are none other
than the "projective" properties of the figure extended by the cyclic points
becomes clearly expressed - a decisive way station towards the "Erlangen
programme" .
F) Non-Euclidean hyperbolic geometry, which will come to light around
1830, remains at first a little apart from the movement of which we are trac-
ing the main features. Arising out of preoccupations of an essentially logical
order touching on the foundations of classical geometry, this new geometry
is presented by its inventors 18 in the same axiomatic and "synthetic" form
as Euclid's geometry, and without any link to projective geometry (whose
introduction following the classical model.seems even to be excluded a pri-
ori, since the notion of unique parallel disappears in this geometry); it is no
doubt because of that that it hardly attracts, for a long time, any interest
from the French, German or English schools of projective geometry. Also,
when Cayley, in the fundamental memoir quoted earlier ([58), v. II, pp. 561-
18 It is known that Gauss, from 1816, had convinced himself of the impossibility of
proving Euclid's postulate, and of the logical possibility of developing a geometry
where this postulate would not be valid. But he di4 not publish his results about
this matter, and they were found again independently by Lobatschevsky in 1829
and Bolyai in 1832. For more details, see [105 a and b).
592) has the idea of replacing cyclic points (considered as a "tangentially

degenerate" conic) by an arbitrary conic (that he calls "absolute"), he is not
thinking at all of linking this idea with the geometry of Lobatschevsky-Bolyai,
even though he indicates how his conception leads to new expressions for the
"distance" between two points, and that he mentions its links with spheri-
cal geometry. The situation changes around 1870, when the non-Euclidean
geometries, following the diffusion of the works of Lobatschevsky, and the
publication of the works of Gauss and the inaugural lecture of Riemann,
come to the fore of mathematical news. Following the path traced by Rie-
mann, Beltrami, without knowing of the work of Cayley, finds again in 1868
expressions for distance as given by this latter, but in quite another context,
by considering the interior of a circle as an image of a surface with constant
curvature, in which the geodesics are represented by straight lines [18 ali it is
Klein, who two years later, makes (independently of Beltrami) a synthesis of
these various points of view, which he completes by the discovery of elliptic
non-Euclidean space ([182], v. I, pp. 254-305).19
G) In the second half of the period which we are considering here, a period
of critical reflection is inserted, during which the supporters of "synthetic"
geometry, not content with having banished co-ordinates from their proofs,
pretend to do without real numbers even in their axioms for geometry. The
principal representative of this school is von Staudt, who succeeds essentially
in bringing about this tour de force [325], very admired in his time and
even well into the XXth century; and if today the same importance is not
attributed to ideas of this order, whose possibilities for fruitful application are
revealed to be fairly thin, it must nonetheless be recognised that the efforts
of von Staudt and his disciples contributed to clarifying the role of real or
complex "scalars" in classical geometry, and to introducing in that very way
the modern conception of geometries over an arbitrary base field.
Around 1860, "synthetic" geometry was at its peak, but the end of its
reign was approaching at great speed. Having remained heavy and ungra-
cious during the whole of the XVI11th century, analytic geometry, in the
hands of Lame, BobiIlier, Cauchy, Plucker and Mobius, acquires at last the
elegance and conciseness that will allow it to fight on equal terms with its ri-
val. Especially, after about 1850, the ideas of group and invariant, formulated
at last in a precise way, invade little by little the scene, and it is seen that the
theorems of classical geometry are none other than the expression of identi-
cal relations between invariants or covariants of the group of similarities,2o
in the same way that those of projective geometry express the identities (or
19 The example of spherical geometry had for some time led to the belief that, in a
space with constant positive curvature, there always exist pairs of points through
which more than one geodesic passes.
20 For example, the first members of the equations for the three heights of a triangle
are covariants of the three corners of the triangle for the group of similarities, and
the theorem affirming that these three heights have a common point is equivalent
to saying that the three covariants in question are linearly dependant.
"syzygies") between covariants of the projective group. It is this thesis that is

magisterially stated by F. Klein in the famous "Erlangen programme" ([182],
v. I, pp. 460-497), where he advocates the abandonment of sterile contro-
versies between the "synthetic" tendency and the "analytical" tendency; if,
he says, the accusation levelled against this latter of giving a privileged role
to an arbitrary system of axes "was most often justified in what concerns
the defective way in which the method of co-ordinates was used previously,
it founders when it is a case of a rational application of this method . .. The
domain of spatial intuition is not forbidden by the analytic method . .. " , and
he underlines that "one must not underestimate the advantage that a well
adapted formalism brings to subsequent research, in that it goes in advance
so to say of thought' (loc. cit., pp. 488-490).
One concludes thus with a rational and "structural" classification of the
theorems of "geometry" according to the group from which they arise: the lin-
ear group for projective geometry, the orthogonal group for metric questions,
the symplectic group for "linear complex" geometry. But under this merciless
clarity, classical geometry - with the exception of algebraic geometry and dif-
ferential geometry,21 henceforth constituted as autonomous sciences - flares
suddenly and loses all its brightness. Already the generalisation of methods
based on the use of transformations had made the development of new the-
orems somewhat mechanical: "Today,", says Chasles in 1837 in his Aper,u
historique, "everyone can put himself forward, take an arbitrary known truth,
and submit it to various general transformation principles; he will draw out
other truths, different or more general; and these will be susceptible to sim-
ilar operations; so that one will be able to multiply, almost to infinity, the
number of new truths deduced from the first . .. So anyone can who wishes, in
the present state of the science, generalise and create in Geometry; genius is
no longer indispensable in order to add a stone ·to the structure" ([60 b], pp.
268-269). But the situation becomes much clearer with progress in the the-
ory of invariants, which succeeds at last (at least for the "classical" groups)
in formulating general methods allowing in principle the writing down of all
the algebraic covariants and all their "syzygies" in a purely automatic way;
a victory that, at the same time, signals the death, as a field of research,
of the classical theory of invariants itself, and of "elementary" geometry,22
which has become in practice a simple dictionary for it. No doubt, nothing
21 We should not here write the history of these two disciplines nor examine in detail
the influence of the "Erlangen programme" on their subsequent development. Let
us mention only that algebraic geometry, after more than 100 years of research,
is more actively studied than ever; as for differential geometry, after a brilliant.
flowering with Lie, Darhoux and t.heir disciples, it. seemed to be menaced by the
same paralysis as elementary classical geometry, when contemporary work (t.aking
above all ita. origin in the ideas of E. Cartan) on fibred spaces and "global"
problems came to give it back its vitality.
22 This word is taken here in the sense of Klein, made precise on p. 135; certain
mathematicians give it a much wider meaning, including all mathematical questions
that can be stated about the plane or space of three dimensions, including difficult
allows the foresight a priori, among the infinity of "theorems" that can thus
be rolled out at will, as to which will be those whose statement, in the appro-
priate geometric language, will have a simplicity and an elegance comparable
to those of the classical results, and there remains there a restricted domain
where numerous amateurs continue to work with pleasure (the geometry of
the triangle, the tetrahedron, of algebraic curves and surfaces of low degree,
etc.). But for the professional mathematician, the mine is worked out, since
there are no longer there any structural problems, susceptible of reverberat-
ing on other parts of mathematics; and this chapter of the theory of groups
and invariants can be considered as closed until further notice. 23
Thus, after the Erlangen programme, Euclidean and noneuclidean geome-
tries, from a purely algebraic point of view, became simple languages, more
or less convenient, for expressing the results of the theory of bilinear forms,
whose progress went in tandem with that of the theory of invariants. 24 All
that concerns the notion of rank of a bilinear form and the relationships be-
tween these forms and linear transformations is definitively clarified by the
works of Frobenius ([119], v. I, pp. 343- 405). It is also due to Frobenius that
we have the canonical expression of an alternating form on a free Z-module
([119], v. I, pp. 482-544); however, the left symmetric determinant had al-
ready appeared with Pfaff, at the beginning of the century, in connection
with the reduction of differential forms to a normal form; Jacobi, who, in
1827, takes up this problem again ([171], v. IV, pp. 17- 29), knows that a
left symmetric determinant of odd order is null, and it is he who constructs
the expression for the pfaffian and shows that it is a factor of the left sym-
metric determinant of even order; but he had not realised that this latter
is the square of the pfaffian, and this point was only established by Cayley
in 1849 ([58], v. I, pp. 410-413). The notion of the symmetric bilinear form
associated with a quadratic form is the most elementary case of the process
of "polarisation", one of the fundamental tools of the theory of invariants.
Under the name of "scalar product" , this notion will know an immense pros-
perity, first with the vulgarisers of the "vector calculus", then, starting in
the XXth century, thanks to the unsuspected generalisation that is brought
to it by the theory of Hilbert spaces (see p. 212). It is also this latter the-
ory that will bring to light the notion of the adjoint of an operator (which
beforehand had hardly come out except in the theory of linear differential
problems touching on the theory of convex sets, on topology and measure theory.
Of course, there is no question of these problems here.
23 Of course, this inescapable decline of geometry (Euclidean or projective), which
seems evident to our eyes, was however for a long time remaining unseen by contem-
poraries, and until about 1900, this discipline continued to figure as an important
branch of mathematics, as is borne witness for example by the place it occupies
in the Enzyklopadie; until these last years, it still occupied a place in teaching at
Universities.
24 In particular, the interest that was attached to noneuclidean geometry came, not
from this banal algebraic aspect, but indeed from its relationship with differential
geometry and the theory of functions of complex variables.
equations, and, in tensor calculus, by the waltz of the ~ and contravariant

indices under the baton of the metric tensor); it is that which finally will give
all its character to the notion of hermitian form introduced first by Hermite
in 1853 in connection with his arithmetic research ([159], v. I, p. 237), but
having remained on the edge of the great mathematical streams until around
1925 and the applications of complex Hilbert spaces to quantum theories.
The study of the orthogonal group and the group of similarities - clearly
conceived and treated as such since the middle of the XIXth century, and
having become the heart of the theory of quadratic forms - as well as that
of the other "classical" groups (linear group, symplectic group and unitary
group), takes up on the other hand a greater and greater importance. We can
only mention here the essential role played by these groups, in the theory of
Lie groups and differential geometry on the one hand, the arithmetic theory
of quadratic forms .(see for example [285] and [100]) on the other;25 it is to
this circumstance, as well as to the extension of the concept of duality to the
most diverse questions that is due the fact that there is hardly any modern
mathematical theory where bilinear forms do not crop up in some form or
other. We must in any case note that it is the study of rotation groups (in
three dimensions) that led Hamilton to the discovery of quaternions [145
a]; this discovery is generalised by W. Clifford who, in 1876, introduces the
algebras that bear his name, and proves that they are tensor products of
quaternion algebras, or quate~nion algebras and a quadratic extension ([65],
pp. 266-276). Found again four years later by Lipschitz [205 b], who uses
them to give a parametric representation of orthogonal transformations in n
variables (generalising those that Cayley had obtained for n = 3 ([58], v. I,
pp. 123-126) and n = 4 (v. II, pp. 202-215) by the theory of quaternions),
these algebras, and the notion of "spinor" that derives from them ([52 b] and
[62 a]), would also know a great vogue in modern times by virtue of their use
in quantum theories.
It remains for us finally to say a word about the evolution of ideas which
led to the almost total abandonment of all restrictions on the ring of scalars
in the theory of sesquilinear forms - a common tendency in all modern alge-
bra, but which has perhaps manifested itself here earlier than elsewhere. We
have already pointed out the fruitful introduction of geometry over the field
of complex numbers (which, besides, during the whole of the XIXth century,
did not go without a perpetual and sometimes dangerous confusion between
this geometry and real geometry); the clarity here comes especially from the
axiomatic studies of the end of the XIXth century on the foundations of
geometry [163 c]. In the course of this research, Hilbert and his emulators,
notably, on examining the relationships between the various axioms, were
led to construct appropriate counterexamples, where the "base field" (com-
25 Not to speak of quantum theories, where the linear representations of orthogonal
or unitary groups are used a great deal, nor of the theory of relativity, which will
attract attention to the "Lorentz group" (orthogonal group for a form of signature
(3,1».
mutative or not) possessed more or less pathological properties, and they

thus accustomed mathematicians to "geometries" of a quite new type. From
an analytical point of view, Galois had already considered linear transfor-
mations where coefficients and variables took values in a finite prime field
([123], p. 145); in developing these ideas, Jordan [174 a] is led in a natural
way to consider the classical groups over these fields, groups whose interven-
tion manifests itself in varied mathematical domains. Dickson, around 1900,
extends the research of Jordan to all finite fields, and more recently, it has
become apparent that a large part of the theoty of Jordan-Dickson can be
extended to an absolutely arbitrary "base field"; this is due essentially to
general properties of isotropic vectors and to Witt's theorem, which, trivial
in the classical cases, were only established for an arbitrary base field in 1936
[337 a].26
But in thus pushing the study of sesquilinear forms towards an "abstrac-
tion" which is always greater, it has turned out to be extremely suggestive
to keep as is the terminology which, in the case of space of 2 or 3 dimen-
sions, came out of classical geometry, and to extend it to the n-dimensional
case and even to infinite dimensional spaces. Passed over in its role as an
autonomous and living science, classical geometry is thus transfigured into
a universal language of contemporary mathematics, with a suppleness and a
usefulness that are incomparable.
28 For more details on these questions, see [90 b].

10. TOPOLOGICAL SPACES.
The notions of limit and continuity go back to antiquity; it would be impossi-

ble to make a complete history of them without studying systematically from
this point of view, not only the mathematicians, but also the Greek philoso-
phers and in particular Aristotle, nor also without following the evolution of
these ideas across the mathematics of the Renaissance and the beginnings of
the differential and integral Calculus. Such a study, which it would certainly
be very interesting to undertake, would go far beyond the framework of this
note.
It is Riemann who must be considered as the creator of topology, as of
so many other bra.nches of modern mathematics: it is in fact he who, first,
sought to disengage the notion of topological space, conceived the idea of
an autonomous theory of theae spaces, defined the invariants (the "Betti
numbers") which were to play the greatest role in the later development of
topology, and gave its first applications to analysis (periods of abelian inte-
grals). But the movement of ideas in the first half of the XIXth century had
not happened without preparing the way for Riemann in more than one way.
Indeed, the desire to settle mathematics on a firm base, which was the cause
of so much important research during the whole of the XIXth century and
up to our day, had led to the correct definition of the notion of a conver-
gent series and of a sequence of numbers tending to a limit (Cauchy, Abel)
and that of a continuous function (Bolzano, Cauchy). On the other hand,
the geometric representation (by points in the plane) of complex numbers,
or, as had been said until then, "imaginary numbers" (qualified sometimes
also, in the XVlIIth century, as "impossible" numbers), a representation due
to Argand and Gauss (see p. 161), had become familiar to the majority of
mathematicians: it constituted progress of the same order as in our days the
adoption of geometric language in the study of Hilbert space, and contained
in embryo the possibility of a geometric representation of every object which
was susceptible to continuous variation; Gauss, who in any ease was natu-
rally led to such conceptions by his research on the foundations of geometry,
on non-Euclidean geometry, on curved surfaces, seems already to have had
this possibility in view, for he uses the words "size twice extended" in defin-
ing (independently of Argand and the French mathematicians) the geometric
140 10. TOPOLOGICAL SPACES.
representation of imaginary numbers ([124 a), v. II, pp. 101-103 and pp. 175-
178).
It is on the one hand his research on algebraic functions and their integrals,
on the other hand his thoughts (largely inspired by his study of the works
of Gauss) on the foundations of geometry, that led Riemann to formulate a
programme of study which is exactly that of modern topology, and to give
this programme a start towards its realisation .. Here for example is how he
expresses himself in his Theory of abelian functions ([259 a), p. 91):
«In the study of functions that are obtained by the integration of ezact
differentials, some theorems of analysis situs are almost indispensable. Un-
der this name, which wa, ued by Leibniz, Although perhAp, with a ,0mewhAt
different meaning, it is in order to include that part of the theory of con-
tinuous quantitie, which ,tudie, the,e quAntitie" not a, independent of their
position and measurable the ones by means of the other" bfd in abstracting
every idea of measurement and ,tudying ,olely their relationship. of po.ition
and inclusion. I re.erve the right to treat this object later, in a way that is
completely independent of all meAsurement ... " .
And in his famous inaugural Lecture "On the hypotheses that form the
foundation of geometry"([259 a), p. 272):
"... The general notion of quantity ,everal time, eztended, l which con-
tains that of spatial quantity as a particular ca.e, has remained completely
unezplored ... (p. 272)".
« ••• The notion of quantit, presupposes an element su,ceptible of different
determinations. Following on whether or not one can pass from one determi-
nation to another by continuo, transitions, these determinAtions make up a
continuous multiplicity (of which they will be called the points) or a discrete
multiplicity (p. 273)".
"... The measurement consists of a superposition of quantities to compare;
to measure, there must therefore be a means of bringing one quantity onto
another. In the absence of such a means, it is not pOlSible to compare two
quantities ezcept when one ;, part of the other • .. The studie, that can then be
made about this subject constitute part of the theory of quantities, independent
of the measurement, and where the quantities are not considered as having
an ezistence independent of their po.ition, nor as being uprelSible by means
of a unit of measure, but as parts of a multiplicity. Such studies have become
a necelSit,l in many parts of mathematics, and in particular for the theory of
analytic multiform functions ... (p. 274)".
"... The determination of the position in a given multiplicity;' thus re-
duced, each time that it is pOlSible, to a finite number of numerical determi-
1 Riemann means by that, u is shown in what follows, a part of topological space

with an arbitrary number of dimensions.
10. TOPOLOGICAL SPACES. 141
nations. There are, it is 'rue, some multiplicities, in which the detennination

of the position requires, not a finite number, but an infinite sequence or /I
continuous multiplicity of detenninations of quantities. Such multiplicities
/Ire made up for e:r;ample b, the possible detenninations of a Junction in a
given domain, the position of a figure in space, etc. " (p. 276).
In this last sentence will be noticed the first idea of a study of functional
spaces; besides, already in Riemann's Dissertation the same idea is to be
found expressed "The set of these Junctioni' , he says in connection with the
minimum problem known under the name of Ditichlet's principle, "makes up
II connected domain, closed in itself ([259 a], p. 30), which is, in an imperfect
form, nonetheless the embryo of the proof that Hilbert would give later of
Dirichlet's principle, and even of the majority of the applications of functional
spaces to the calculus of variations.
As we have said, Riemann gave a start to the carrying out of this grandiose
programme, by defining the "Betti numbers", first of a surface ([259 a1, pp.
92-93), then (ibid., pp. 479-482; d. also [259 cD of a multiplicity of an ar-
bitrary number of dimensions, and in applying this definition to the theory
of integrals; results which inaugurate algebraic Topology, a branch of mathe-
matics whose development has not stopped accelerating since the beginning
of the XXth century, and should not be traced here.
As for the general theory of topological spaces, such as was foreseen by
Riemann, it was necessary in order for it to develop, that the theory of
real numbers, of sets of numbers, of sets of points on the straight line, in
the plane and in space, should first be studied more systematically than had
been the case in Riemann's time: this study was linked, on the other hand, to
researches (semi philosophical with Bolzano, essentially mathematical with
Dedekind) on the nature of irrational numbers, as well as progress in the
theory of functions of a real variable (to which Riemann himself brought
an important contribution by his definition of the integral and his theory of
trigonometric series, and which was the object, among others, of the work
of du Bois-Reymond, Dini, Weierstrass); it was the work of the second half
of the XIXth century and most particularly Cantor, who was the first to
define (first on a straight line, then in Euclidean space of n dimensions)
the notions of accumulation point, closed and perfect set, and who obtained
the essential results on the structure of these sets on the straight line(cf.
p. 155): one should consult on this, not only the Works of Cantor [47), but
also his very interesting correspondence with Dedekind [48], where will be
found clearly expressed also the idea of the number of dimensions considered
as a topological invariant.
Further progress of the theory is stated for example, in a semi-historical,
semi-systematic form in the book of Schoenflies [275 a]: by far the most
important was the Borel-Lebesgue theorem (proved first by Borel for a closed
interval on the straight line and a countable family of open intervals covering
it).
142 10. TOPOLOGICAL SPACES.
The ideas of Cantor had first met a fairly lively opposition (cf. p. 28). At
least his theory of sets of points on the straight line and in the plane was
soon used and widely spread by the French and German schools of the theory
of functions (J ordan, Poincare, Klein, Mittag-Leffier, then Hadamard, Borel,
Baire, Lebesgue, etc.): the first volumes of the Borel collection, in particular,
each contain an elementary statement of this theory (see for example [32 aD.
As these ideas were spread, people began to think in different ways about their
possible application to sets, not of points anymore, but of curves or functions:
an idea that saw the light of day, for example, already in 1884, in the title "On
the limit curves of a family of curves" of a memoir of Ascoli [10], and which
expresses itself in a communication of Hadamard to the congress of mathe-
maticians at Zurich in 1896 [141]; it is tightly linked also to the introduction
of "line functions" by Volterra in 1887, and to tlie creation of the "functional
calculus", or theory of functions where the argument is a function (on that,
the work of Volterra on functional Analysis [322 b] can be consulted). On the
other hand, in the famous memoir ([163 a], v. III, pp. 10-37) where Hilbert,
taking up again on this point the ideas of Riemann, proved the existence of
the minimum in the Dirichlet principle and inaugurated the "direct method"
of the calculus of variations, one sees clearly appearing the interest that there
is in considering sets of functions where the Bolzano-Weierstrass principle is
valid, that is to say every sequence contains a convergent sub sequence; such
sets would soon indeed play an important role, not only in the calculus of
variations, but in the theory of functions of a real variable (Ascoli, Arzela)
and in that of functions of a complex variable(Vitali, Caratheodory, Montel).
Finally the study of functional equations, and most particularly the solution
by Fredhom of the type of equation that bears his name [116], made familiar
the consideration of a function as an argument, and of a set of functions
as the analogue of a set of points, in connection with which it was quite as
natural to use geometric language as for the points of a Euclidean space of
n dimensions (a space which, also, escapes "intuition", and for that reason,
remained for a long time an object of mistrust for many mathematicians).
In particular, the memorable works of Hilbert on integral equations [163 b]
end with the definition and the geometric study of Hilbert space by Erhard
Schmidt [274 b], in complete analogy with Euclidean geometry (see p. 212).
Meanwhile the notion of axiomatic theory had taken an increasingly
greater importance, thanks above all to numerous works on the foundations
of geometry, among which those of Hilbert [163 c] exercised a particularly
decisive influence; during this very same work, Hilbert had been led to state
exactly, from 1902 ([163 c], p. 180), a first axiomatic definition of the "mul-
tiplicity twice extended" in the sense of Riemann, a definition which consti-
tuted, he said, "the foundation of a rigorous axiomatic treatment of analysis
situs" , and already used neighbourhoods (in a meaning restricted by the ex-
igencies of the problem to which Hilbert was then limiting himself).
10. TOPOLOGICAL SPACES. 143
The first attempts to bring out that which was in common to the proper-
ties of sets of points and of functions (without the intervention of a notion of
"distance"), were made by Frechet [115 a] and F. Riesz [260 b); but the first,
starting from the notion of countable limit, does not succeed in constructing,
for non metrizable spaces, an axiom system which is convenient and fruit-
ful; at least he recognised the relationship between the Bolzano-Weierstrass
principle and the Borel-Lebesgue theorem; it is in this connection that he
introduced the word "compact", even though with a meaning somewhat dif-
ferent from that given to it today. As for F. Riesz, who started from the
notion of point of accumulation (or rather, which comes to the same thing, of
"derived" set), his theory was still incomplete, and remained besides as only
a sketch.
With Hausdorff ([152 a], chap. 7-8-9) general topology as it is understood
today starts. Taking up again the notion of neighbourhood, he knew how to
choose, among the axioms of Hilbert on neighbourhoods in the plane, those
that could give to his theory at the same time all the precision and the gen-
erality that were desirable. The chapter where he develops its consequences
remains a model of axiomatic theory, abstract but adapted to applications
from the beginning. That was, quite naturally, the point of departure for sub-
sequent research on general topology, and principally the work of the school
of Moscow, directed for the greater part towards the problem of metrisation
(cf. p. 166): we must remember from this especially here the definition, by
Alexandroff and Urysohn, of compact spaces (under the name of "bicompact
spaces"), then the proof by Tychonoff [313] of the compactness of products of
compact spaces. Finally the introduction of filters by H. Cartan [53], which
while supplying a very valuable instrument in view of all kinds of applica-
tions (where it is an advantageous substitute for the notion of "Moore-Smith
convergence" [227]), came, thanks to the theorem on ultrafilters, to achieve
a clarification and simplification of the theory.
11. UNIFORM SPACES.
The principal notions and propositions relating to uniform spaces came out
little by little from the theory of real variables, and were the object of sy~
tematic study only recently. Cauchy, looking to set up rigorously the theory
of series (cf. p. 153), took as departure point & principle that he seems to
have considered as obvious, according to which a necessary and sufficient
condition for the convergence of a sequence (an) is that lan+p - ani should
be arbitrarily small whenever n is sufficiently large (see for example ([56 a],
(2), v. VII, p. 267». With Bolzano [27 c], he was without doubt one of the
first to state explicitly this principle, and to recognise its importance: whence
the name "Cauchy sequence" given to sequences of real numbers that satisfy
the condition in question, and by extension to ~quences (zn) of points in &
metric space such that the distance between zn+p and Zn is arbitrarily small
whenever n is sufficiently large; from there finally the name of "Cauchy filter"
given to the generalisation of Cauchy sequences in uniform spaces.
When later on the intuitive notion of real number was no longer sat~
factory, and that it was sought, in order to give Analysis & solid foundation,
to define real numbers starting from rational numbers, it was precisely the
Cauchy principle that furnished the most fruitful among the definitions sug-
gested in the second half of the XIXth century; it is Cantor's definition ([47],
pp. 93-96) (developed also, among others, from the ideas of Cantor, by Heine
[154 b], and independently, by Meray), according to which one makes a real
number correspond to every Cauchy sequence ("fundamental sequence" in
the terminology of Cantor) of rational numbers; the same real number will
correspond to two Cauchy sequences of rational numbers (an) and (bn ) if
Ian - bn I tends to zero, and in this case only. The essential idea here is that,
from a certain point of view, the set Q of rational numbers is "incomplete",
and that the set of real numbers is the "complete" set that is deduced from
Q by "completing" it.
On the other hand, Heine, in work mainly inspired by the ideas of Weier-
strass and Cantor, was the first to define uniform continuity for numerical
functions of one or more real variables [154 a], and proved that every nu-
merical function, continuous on a closed bounded interval of R, is uniformly
continuous there [154 b]: it is "Heine's theorem". This result is linked to
the compactness of a closed bounded interval in R ("Borel-Lebesgue thea-
146 11. UNIFORM SPACES.
rem", cf. p. 141), and the proof given by Heine of his theorem can also be
used, with a few modifications, to prove the Borel-Lebesgue theorem (which
seemed to several authors a sufficient reason for giving this theorem the name
"Heine-Borel theorem").
The extension of these ideas to more general spaces was made when, first
some special cases were studied, and then in general, metric spaces, where
a distance (numerical function of pairs of points, satisfying certain axioms)
is given and defines at the same time a topology and a uniform structure.
Frckhet, who was the first to state the general definition of these spaces,
recognised the importance of the Cauchy principle [115 a], and introduced
also for all metric spaces, the notion of pre compact (or "totally bounded"
[115 a and b)) space. Hausdorff, who, in his "Mengenlehre" [152 a and b]
developed a lot of the theory of metric spaces, recognised in particular that
one can apply to these spaces the Cantor construction which was considered
above, and so deduce, for every non "complete" metric space (that is to say
where the Cauchy principle is not valid), a "complete" metric space.
Metric spaces are "uniform spaces" of a particular kind; uniform spaces
have only been defined in a general way recently, by A. Weil [330 b]. Be-
forehand it was only known how to use the notions and results referring to
"uniform structure" when metric spaces were being dealt with: which explains
the important role played in a lot of modern work on topology by metric or
metrizable spaces (and in particular by compact metrizable spaces) in ques-
tions where distance is not of any real use. Once the definition of uniform
spaces is stated, there is no difficulty (especially when the notion of filter is
also available) in extending to these spaces nearly all the theory of metric
spaces, as it is stated for example by Hausdorff (and to extend in the same
way, for example, to all compact spaces, the results set out for compact metric
spaces in the Topology of Alexandroff-Hopf (4)). In particular, the completion
theorem for uniform spaces is none other than the transposition, without any
essential modification, of Cantor's construction for the real numbers.
12. REAL NUMBERS.
Every measure of size implies a diffuse notion of real numbers. From the
point of view of mathematics, the origins of the theory of real numbers must
go back to the progressive formation, in Babylonian science, of a system of
numbering capable (in principle) of denoting values as near as required to
every real number [232]. The possession of such a system, and the confidence
in numerical calculations which can not but follow from this, terminated
inevitably, in fact, with a "naive" notion of real numbers, which is hardly
different from that which one finds again today (linked to the decimal sys-
tem of numbering) in elementary teaching or with physicists and engineers;
this notion does not allow itself to be defined with exactness, but it can be
expressed by saying that a number is considered as defined by the possibility
of obtaining approximate values and introducing these into the calculations:
which, besides, implies necessarily a certain degree of confusion between the
measures of size given by experience, which are naturally not susceptible to
indefinite approximation, and such "numbers" as .../2 (supposing that there
exists an algorithm for the indefinite approximation of this number).
A similar "pragmatic" point of view reappears therefore in all the schools
of mathematics where calculating skills take over from the desire for rigour
and theoretical preoccupations. It is these latter, on the contrary, which domi-
nate Greek mathematics: so we owe to it the first rigorous and coherent theory
of ratios of quantities, that is to say, essentially the real numbers; it is the end
result of a series of discoveries on ratios and in particular on incommensurable
ratios, of which it is difficult to exaggerate the importance in the history of
Greek thought, but of which, in the absence of precise texts, we can only just
discern the major lines. Greek mathematics in its beginnings is inseparably
linked to speculations, partly scientific, partly philosophical and mystical,
on proportions, similitiudes and ratios, in particular the "simple ratios" (ex-
pressible by fractions with small numerator and denominator); and it was one
of the characteristic tendencies of the Pythagorean school to claim to explain
all by integers and the ratio of integers. But it was the Pythagorean school,
precisely, that discovered the incommensurability of the side of a square with
its diagonal (the irrationality of V2): the first example, no doubt, of a proof
of impossibility in mathematics; just the fact of stating this question implies
a clear distinction between a ratio and its approximate values, and suffices to
148 12. REAL NUMBERS.
indicate the immense gap which separates Greek mathematicians from their
predecessors. 1
We are badly informed about the movement of ideas that accompanied
and followed this important discovery. 2 We will limit ourselves to indicating
summarily the principal ideas that are at the basis of the theory of ratios
of quantities, a theory which, codified by the great mathematician Eudoxus
(contemporary and friend of Plato), was definitively adopted by classical
Greek mathematics, and is known to us through the Elements of Euclid
[107], where it is given a masterly exposition (in Book V of these Elements):
1) The word and the idea of number are strictly reserved for integers> 1
(1 is the monad and not a number properly speaking), to the exclusion, not
only of our irrational numbers, but even of those that we call rational num-
bers, these being, for the Greek mathematicians of the classical era, ratios of
numbers. There is there much more than a simple question of terminology,
the word number being linked for the Greeks (and for the moderns until re-
cent times) to the idea of a system with a double law of composition (addition
and multiplication): the ratios of integers are conceived by the classical Greek
mathematicians as operators, defined on the set of integers or on a part of this
set (the ratio of p to q is the operator which, to N, makes correspond, if N is
a multiple of q, the integer p.(N/q», and making up a multiplicative group,
but not a system with a double law of composition. In this, the Greek math-
ematicians were separating themselves voluntarily from the "logisticians" or
professional calculators, who had, like their Egyptian and Babylonian prede-
cessors, no scruples at treating as numbers fractions or the sum of an integer
and a fraction. It seems besides that they imposed on themselves this restric-
tion on the idea of number for motives more philosophical than mathematical,
and following on from the thoughts of the first Greek thinkers on the unit
and the multiple, the unit not being capable of subdivision (in this system
of thought) without losing by that selfsame action its character of unit. 3
1 The discovery of the irrationality of .../2 is attributed by some to Pythagoras

himself, without sufficient authority it would seem; by others to some Pythagorean
of the Vth century; there is agreement, on the testimony of Plato in the Theetete
in attributing to Theodorus of Cyrene the proof of the irrationality of y'3, y'5, "an
so on therefore until .f[7", following which Theetete would either have obtained a
general proof for ..fFi (N = an integer not a pedect square), or in any case (if, as
may be, the proof of Theodorus was general in its principle) have proceeded to a
classification of certain types of irrationals. It is not known if these first proofs of
irrationality proceeded by an arithmetic or geometric path: see on that [148], chap.
IV; d. also [153 a], [321] and [151].
2 On this consult in particular [153 a], [309 b and c], and further the works cited
in the preceding note, as well as [317 c].
3 Plato ([250], book VII, 525th) mocks the calculators "who change the unit lor
small change" and tells us that, where these divide, the scholarly multiply: which
means that, for example, for the mathematician, the equality of two ratios alb and
cl d is realised, not by dividing a by b and c by d, which in general leads to a
12. REAL NUMBERS. 149
2) The theory of quantities is axiomatically based, and at the same time

for all kinds of quantities (one finds allusions to previous theories which,
from what appears, treated separately lengths, areas, volumes, time, etc.).
The quantities of one kind are characterised by the fact that they are capa-
ble of being compared (that is to say that a definition or equality, which is
properly speaking an equivalence, and the relations> and < are assumed),
of being added and subtracted (A + B is defined, and A - B if A > B), and
satisfy the axiom of "Archimedes" so-calledj this is clearly conceived, from
the beginning, as a keystone of the edifice (it is in fact indispensable for all
axiomatic characterisations of real numbers)j it is a pure accident that it has
been given the name of Archimedes, and this latter insists, in the introduc-
tion to his "Quadrature of the Parabola" ([5 b), v. II, p. 265), on the fact
that this axiom has been used by his predecessors, that it plays an essential
role in the work of Eudoxus, and that its consequences are no less sure than
the determinations of areas and volumes made without its help.4
It is easy to see that, from this axiomatic foundation, follows necessarily
the theory of real numbers. It must be noted that, for Eudoxus, the quan-
tities of a given kind form a system with oae internal law of composition
(addition), but that this system has an eztemallaw of composition with as
operators the ratios 0/ quaatities, these being conceived of as forming an
abelian multiplicative group. A and A' being quantities of the same kind, and
similarly B and B', the ratios of A and A' and of B and B' are defiaed as
equal if, whatever the integers m and m', mA < m' A' forces mB < m' B'
and mA > m' A' forces mB > m' B' j inequalities between ratios are defined
in an analogous manner. That these ratios form a domain 0/ operators for
every kind of quantity is equivalent to the axiom (not made explicit but often
used in the drafting of Euclid) of the existence or a fourth proportional: a
ratio A/A' being given and B' being given, there exists a B, oCthe same kind
as B', such that B / B' = A/A'. Thus the highly original idea of Eudoxus
allowed identification between the domains or operators defined for all kinds
of quantitiesj l5 in an analogous manner, the set of integers (see above) can be
identified with a subset of the set of ratios of quantities, namely with the set
of rational ratios (ratios of commensurable quantities)j however, because of
calculus of fractions (it is thus that the Egyptians and Babylonians would also have
operated), but in checking that CI.d = b.c; and other similar facts.
4 A manifest allusion to polemics that have not been kept for us: it could be
believed that it is a modern speaking of Zermelo's axiom.
II Thus it was possible to do in all rigour what was currently being done by the
Greek mathematicians when they considered as proved a theorem on proportions
as soon as it had been proved for all rational ratios. It seems that before Eudoxus,
an attempt at constructing a theory which would have attained the same objectives
had been made by defining the ratio A/A' of two quantities by what we would call
in modern language the terms of the continuous fraCtion which expresses it; about
these attempts, to which the algorithm so-called of "Euclid" for the search for a
common measure for A and A' if it exists (or for the determination of the G. C.
D.) was naturally leading, d. [17 al.
the fact that these ratios, in as much as they are operators on the integers,
are (in general) defined only for a subset of the set of integers, it was still
necessary to develop their theory separately (Book VII of Euclid).
The domain of universal operators thus constructed was therefore for
Greek mathematicians the equivalent of what is for us the set of real numbers;
it is clear besides that with the addition of quantities and the multiplication
of ratios of quantities, they possessed the equivalent of what for us is the
field of real numbers, even though in a much less handy form. 6 It is possible,
on the other hand, to ask oneself if they had conceived of these sets (set
of quantities of a given kind, or sets of ratios of quantities) as complete in
our sense; it is not easy to see, otherwise, why they would have assumed
(without even feeling the need to turn it into an axiom) the existence of a
fourth proportional; furthermore, certain texts seem to refer to ideas of this
kind; finally they certainly assume as obvious that a curve, capable of being
described by a continuous movement, can not pass from one side to the other
of a straight line without cutting it, a principle that they used for example
in their research on the duplication of the cube (construction of ~ by the
intersection of curves) and which is essentially equivalent to the property
under consideration; however, the texts that we possess do not allow us to
know with complete precision their ideas on this point.
Thus therefore is the state of the theory of real numbers in the classi-
cal era of Greek mathematics. As admirable as the construction of Eudoxus
was, and not leaving anything to be desired from the point of view of co-
herence and rigour, it must be admitted that it lacked in suppleness, and
was hardly favourable for the development of numerical calculations and es-
pecially of algebraic calculations. What is more, its logical necessity could
only be appreciated by minds taken with rigour and exercised in abstraction;
it is therefore natural that with the decline of Greek mathematics, one sees
reappearing little by little the "naive" point of view which had been kept
by means of the tradition of the logisticians; it is that which dominates for
example with Diophantus [91 al, a true follower ofthis tradition rather than
official Greek science; this latter, while reproducing for form's sake the Eu-
clidean definition of number, understands really by the word "number", the
unknown of the algebraic problems whose solution is, either an integer, or a
fractional number, or even an irrational. 1 Although this change in attitude,
about the subject of number, was linked to one of the most important ad-
6 So unhandy that the Greek mathematicians, to translate the algebraic science of

the Babylonians into their language, had found it necessary to use systematically a
means of quite another order, namely the correspondence between two lengths and
the area of a rectangle constructed with these two lengths as sides: which is not
properly speaking a law of composition, and does not allow the convenient writing
of algebraic relations of a degree higher than the second.
7 "The "numberP is found to be not rationaf, Diophantus, book IV, problem IX.
On this return to the naive notion of number, d. also Eutocius, in his Commentary
on Archimedes ([5 b], v. III, pp. 120-126).
vances in the history of mathematics, namely the development of Algebra

(see p. 48), it does not constitute, be it well understood, progress in itself,
but rather regress.
It is not possible for us to follow here all the vicissitudes of the idea of
number through Hindu, Arab and Occidental mathematics until the end of
the Middle Ages: it is the "naive" notion of number that dominates; and,
even though the Elements of Euclid were used· as basis for the teaching of
mathematics during this period, it is likely that the doctrine of Eudoxus
remained generally not understood because the necessity for it did not arise
any more. The "ratios" of Euclid were most often qualified as "numbers" i
the rules of calculation of integers were applied to them, obtaining thus exact
results, without seeking to analyse deeply the reasons for the success of these
methods.
We see however already R. Bombelli, in the middle of the XVIth century,
writing on this subject, in his Algebra [28 bl,s a point of view that (on con-
dition that we assume acquired the results of book V of Euclid) is essentially
correct; having recognised that once the unit of length is chosen there is a
bijective correspondence between the lengths and the ratios of quantities, he
defines the various algebraic operations (assuming the unit fixed, of course)
on the lengths, and, representing numbers by lengths, obtains the geometric
definition of the field of real numbers (a point of view for which the credit is
most often given to Descartes), and gives thus to his Algebra a solid geomet-
rical basis. 9
But the Algebra of Bombelli, even though singularly advanced for his
times, did not go beyond the extraction of radicals and the solution by rad-
icals of equations of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th degrees; of course the possibility
of extraction of radicals is assumed by him without discussion. Simon Stevin
[295], also, adopts an analogous point of view on the subject of number, which
is for him that which marks a measure of quantity, and which he considers
as essentially "continuous" (without making precise the meaning he gives to
this word); if he distinguishes between the "geometrical numbers" and the
"arithmetical numbers" , it is only from the accident of their mode of defini-
tion, without there being for him there a difference of kind; here besides is
his last word on the subject: "We conclude therefore that there are no ab-
surd, irrational, irregular, inexplicable or deaf number,,; but that there is in
them such excellence and agreement that we have subject maffer for medita-
tion night and day in their admirable perfection" ([295], p. 10). On the other
hand, having been the first to have turned the tool of decimal fractions into
8 It is a matter here of book IV of this Algebra, which remained unpublished to
our day; it matters little for the object of the statement below, whether the ideas
of Bombelli on this subject were known or not by his contemporaries.
" We will not enter here into the history of the use of negative numbers, which
is the province of Algebra. Let us note however that Bombe1li, in this same place,
gives with perfect clarity the definition, purely formal (such as it could be found in
a modern Algebra), not only of negative quantities, but also of complex numbers.
a method of calculation, and proposed for them a notation already close to

ours, he conceived clearly that these fractions furnish an indefinite approx-
imation algorithm for every real number, as he brings out in his Appendice
alge6raique of 1594 "containing a general rule lor all Equationi' (a booklet
of which the only known example was burnt at Louvain in 1914; but see
[295], p. 88). Such an equation having been put into the form P(:e) Q(:e) =
(where P is a polynomial of degree greater than that of the polynomial Q,
and P(O) < Q(O», we substitute for :e the numbers 10, 100, 1000, ... until
we find P(:e) > Q(z), which, he says, determines the number of digits of the
root; then (if for example the root is found to· have two digits) we substi-
tute 10,20, ... which determines the digit of tensj and then the same for the
following digit, then for the successive decimal digits: "And proceeding thus
infinitely", he says, "one reaches infinitel, near to that requiret/' ([295], p.
88). As can be seen, Stevin had (no doubt the first) a clear idea of Bolzano's
theorem and had recognised in this theorem the essential tool for the system-
atic solution of numerical equationsj an intuitive conception of the numerical
continuum is recognised there, at the same time, so clear that there remained
little to do to make it definitively precise.
However, in the two centuries that followed, the definitive establishment
of correct methods was twice slowed down by the development of two theories
of which we do not have to give the history here: the infinitesimal calculus,
and the theory of series. Across the discU88ions that they brought up, we
recognise, as at all periods of the history of mathematics, the perpetual bal-
ancing between the seekers occupied with going forward, at the cost of some
insecurity, persuaded that there will always be time later to consolidate the
conquered territory, and the critical spirits, who (without necessarily giving
an inch to the first as far 88 intuitive faculties and inventive talents go) do not
believe they are wasting their efforts in devoting some effort to precise expres-
sion and to rigorous justification of their concepts. In the XVIIth century, the
principal object of debate is the notion of the infinitely small, which, justified
a posteriori by the results which it allows us to reach, seemed in open oppo-
sition to the axiom of Archimedes; and we see the most open spirits of the
time finish by adopting a point of view little different from that of Bombelli,
and which is distinguished from it mainly by the greater attention paid to
the rigorous methods of the ancients; Isaac Barrow (the master of Newton,
and who himself played an important part in the creation of the infinitesimal
calculus) gives a brilliant expose ofit in his Lessons in Mathematics delivered
at Cambridge in 1664-65-66 [16 a and b]j recognising the necessity, in order to
find again for the subject of numbers the proverbial "geometrical certainty" ,
of returning to the theory of Eudoxus, he presents at length, and very judi-
cially, the defence of this latter (who, 88 he witnessed, appeared intelligible
to many of his contemporaries) against those who tackled him with obscurity
or even absurdity. On the other hand, defining numbers 88 symbols which
denote the ratio of quantities, and susceptible of being combined amongst
themselves by the operations of arithmetic, he obtains the field of real num-

bers, in terms taken up again after him by Newton in his Arithmetic and of
which his successors until Dedekind and Cantor would not change anything.
But it is at about this time that the method of expansion in series was
introduced, which soon, in the hands of impenitent algebraists, takes on an
exclusively formal character and turns away the attention of mathematicians
from the questions of convergence that the sane use of series raises in the
domain of real numbers. Newton, the principal creator of this method, was
still conscious of the necessity of considering these questions: and, if he had
not sufficiently elucidated them, he had recognised at least that the power
series that he was introducing converged "most of the time" at least as well
as a geometric series (whose convergence was already known to the ancients)
for small values of the variable ([233 al, v. I, pp. 3-26); at about the same
time, Leibniz had observed that an alternating series, with terms decreasing
in absolute value and tending to 0, is convergent; in the following century,
d' Alembert, in 1768, expresses doubts on the use of non-convergent series.
But the authority of Bernoulli and especially Euler means that such doubts
are exceptional at this time.
It is clear that the mathematicians who would have had the habit of
using series in numerical calculation would never have neglected thus the
notion of convergence; and it is not chance that the first who, in this domain
as in many others, had brought about a return to correct methods, was a
mathematician who, already from the prime of youth, had a love of numerical
calculation: C. F. Gauss, who, almost a child, had used the algorithm of the
arithmetico-geometric mean,10 could not avoid forming for himself a clear
idea of limits; and we see him, in a fragment that dates from 1800 (but was
only published in our time) ([124 al, v Xl, p. 390), defining precisely, on
the one hand the upper bound and the lower bound, on the other hand the
upper limit and the lower limit of a sequence of real numbers; the existence
of the first (for a bounded sequence) seeming to be assumed as obvious, and
the latter having been correctly defined 88 limits for n tending to +00, of
sUPp>o un +p , infp~o un +p. Gauss, as well, gives also, in his memoir of 1812
on tlie hypergeometric series ([124 a], v. III, p. 139) the first model of a
discussion about convergence undertaken, as he says, "in all rigour, and done
to satisfy those wh08e preferences go to the rigorous methods of the ancient
geometeri': it is true that this discussion, forming a secondary point in the
memoir, does not go back to first principles in the theory of series; it is Cauchy
who establishes these first, in his Cours d'Anal,se of 1821 ([56 a], (2), v. III),
in a manner correct at all points, starting from the Cauchy criterion clearly
stated, and assumed to be obvious; 88, for the definition of number, he keeps
to the point of view of Barrow and Newton, it c.an thus be said that for him
=
10 zo,l/o being given and > 0, let Z .. +1 =
(z .. +I/.. )/2,1/..+1 ~i for n tending
to +00, z .. and 1/.. tend (very fast) to a common limit, calfed the arithmetico-
geometric mean of Zo and fIOi this function is intimately linked to elliptic functions
and formed the point of departure for important work of Gauss on this subject.
the real numbers are defined by the axioms of quantities and the criterion of
Cauchy: which indeed is sufficient to define them.
It is at the same time that another important aspect of the theory of real
numbers is definitively clarified. As we have said, it has always been assumed
as geometrically obvious that two continuous curves can not cross without
intersecting; a principle that (made suitably precise) would be equivalent,
it also, to the property of the straight line being a complete space. This
principle is still part of the basis of the "rigorous" proof given by Gauss in
1799 of d' Alembert's theorem, according to which every polynomial with real
coefficients admits a real or complex root ([124 a], v. III, p. 1); the proof of
the same theorem, given by Gauss in 1815 ([124 a], v. III, p. 31), relies, in
the same way as a previous attempt by Lagrange, on the principle, analogous
but simpler, according to which a polynomial can not change sign without
becoming zero (a principle that we have already seen used by Stevin). In
1817, Bolzano gives, starting with the criterion of Cauchy, a complete proof
of this latter principle, which he obtains as a particular case of an analogous
theorem about continuous numerical functions of a numerical variable [27 c].
Stating clearly (before Cauchy) the "Cauchy criterion" , he seeks to justify it
by an argument that, in the absence of all arithmetical definitions of a real
number, was only and could only be a vicious circle; but, once this point is
admitted, his work is entirely correct and quite remarkable, as containing, not
only the modern definition of a continuous function (given here for the first
time), with a proof of the continuity of polynomials, but even the proof of the
existence of the lower bound of an arbitrary bounded set of real numbers (he
does not speak of sets, but, which amounts to the same thing, of properties
of real numbers). On the other hand, Cauchy, in his Cours d'Analyse ([56 a],
(2), v. III), defining, he also, continuous functions of one or more numerical
variables, proves equally that a continuous function of one variable can not
change sign without becoming zero, and this by the same argument as Simon
Stevin, which naturally becomes correct, once continuity is defined, as soon as
the Cauchy criterion is used (or as soon as the equivalent principle of "nested
intervals" so-called is assumed, as Cauchy does at this point, of which the
convergence of indefinite decimal fractions is of course only a particular case).
Once this point is reached, it only remained for mathematicians to make
precise and develop the results acquired, by correcting a few errors and filling
a few gaps. Cauchy, for example, had believed for a time that a convergent
series, whose terms are continuous functions of a variable, has as sum a
continuous function: the correction of this point by Abel, during the course of
his important work on series ([1], v. I, p. 219; cf. also v. II, p. 257 and passim),
ended finally by the elucidation by Weierstrass, in his lectures (unpublished,
but which had a considerable influence), of the notion of uniform convergence
(see p. 205). On the other hand, Cauchy had, without sufficient justification,
assumed the existence of a minimum of a continuous function in one of the
proofs given by him for the existence of roots oof a polynomial; it is again
Weierstrass who brought clarity to questions of this kind by proving in his

lectures the existence of a minimum for functions of numerical variables,
defined on closed bounded intervals; it is following on from his critique of
the unjustified application of this theorem to sets of functions (of which the
"Dirichlet principle" is the best known example) that the movement of ideas
begins which ends (see p. 143) with the general definition of compact spaces
and the modern statement of the theorem.
At the same time, Weierstrass, in his lectures, had recognised the logical
interest that there is in completely separating the idea of real numbers from
the theory of quantities: to use this, in effect, reduces to defining axiomatically
the set of points of the straight line (therefore definitively the set of real
numbers) and assuming the existence of such a set; although this way of
doing things is essentially correct, it is evidently preferable to start only with
rational numbers, and to deduce the real numbers from there by completion. l l
This is what was done, by different methods, and independently the one
from the other, by Weierstrass, Dedekind, Meray and Cantor; whereas the
procedure of "cuts" so-called, proposed by Dedekind ([79], v. II, pp. 315-334)
was much closer to the definitions of Eudoxus, the other proposed methods
are nearer to the method used since Hausdorff to complete a metric space.
It is at this moment also that Cantor starts to develop the theory of sets
of real numbers, of which Dedekind had had the first idea [48], obtaining
thus the principal elementary results on the topology of the straight line,
the structure of open sets, of closed sets, the notions of derived sets, perfect
totally discontinuous sets, etc ..
With Cantor, the theory of real numbers took, with few exceptions, its
definitive form; let us indicate briefly in what way it has been extended.
Apart from the work in general topology (see p. 143), and applications to
Integration (see p. 221), it is mainly a case of research on the structure and
classification of sets of points on the straight line and of numerical functions
of real variables; they have their origin in the works of Borel [32 a], aiming
mainly at measure theory, but which ended up among other things at the
definition of "Borel sets": these are sets belonging to the smallest family of
subsets of R, containing the intervals, and closed with respect to union and
countable intersection and the operation C. Intimately linked to these sets
are the so-called "Baire" functions, that is to say those that can be obtained
starting with continuous functions by the operation of limits, repeated "trans-
11 Indeed, the question of existence, that is to say, in modern language, the consis-
tency of the theory of real numbers, is thus reduced to the analogous question for
rational numbers, on condition however that the theor, 0/ ob.truct .ee. u o..umed
known (since completion presupposes the notion of generic subset of an infinite set);
in other words, everything is reduced to this latter theory, since one can deduce
from it the theory of rational numbers. On the contrary, if it is assumed that the
Theory of sets is not available, it is impossible to reduce the consistency of the
theory of real numbers to that of arithmetic, and it becomes again necessary to
give it an independent axiomatic characterisation.
finitelY"; they were defined by Baire in the course of important work where
he abandons entirely the measure point of view in order to tackle systemat-
ically the qualitative and "topological" aspect of these questions [11 a1: it is
on this occasion that he defines and studies for the first time semi-continuous
functions, and with a view to characterise limit functions of continuous func-
tions, he introduces the important notion of a thin set ("first category" set
in the terminology of Baire) (see p. 165). As for the numerous works that
have followed those of Baire, and which are due mainly to the Russian and
especially Polish schools, we can only draw attention to their existence here
(see p. 166).
13. EXPONENTIALS AND LOGARITHMS.
The history of the multiplicative group R~ of real numbers > 0 is closely

linked to that of the development of the notion of powers of a number> 0, and
of the notations employed to indicate them. The conception of a "geometric
progression" made up of the successive powers of the same number goes back
to the Egyptians and the Babylonians; it was familiar to Greek mathemati-
cians, and one finds already in Euclid (Elements, Book IX, prop. 11) a general
statement equivalent to the rule ama n = a m+n for integer exponents> O. In
the Middle Ages, the French mathematicianN. Oresme (XIVth century) finds
this rule again; it is also with him that appears for the first time the notion of
fractional exponent> 0, with a notation already close to ours and some rules
for calculation (stated in general form) concerning them (for example the two
= =
rules that we now write (a6)1/n a 1/ n61/ n , (am)"/f (amp )l/f [74]. But the
ideas of Oresme were too much in advance of the Mathematics of his time
to exercise an influence on his contemporaries and his treatise sunk rapidly
into forgetfulness. A century later, N. Chuquei stated again Euclid's rule;
he introduces as well an exponential notation for the powers of unknowns
in his equations, and does not hesitate to make use of the exponent 0 and
integer exponents < 0. 1 This time (and although the work of Chuquet re-
mained in manuscript and does not seem to have been circulated much), the
idea of isomorphism between the "arithmetic progression" of the exponents,
and the "geometric progression" of the powers, will no longer be lost sight of;
extended to negative exponents and to fractional exponents by Stifel ([298],
fol. 35 and 249-250), it ends up finally with the definition of logarithms and
the construction of the first tables, undertaken independently by the Scot
J. Napier, in 1614-1620, and the Swiss J. Burgi (whose work did not appear
until 1620, although his conception went back to the first years of the XVIIth
century). With Burgi, the continuity of the isomorphism established between
Rand R+ is implicitly assumed by the use of interpolation in the handling
of the tables; it is on the contrary explicitly formulated in the definition of
1 Chuquet writes for example 121 ,122 ,123 , etc., for 122:,122: 2 ,122: 3 , etc., 12° for
the number 12, and 122 '" for 122:-2 ([64], pp. 737-738).
158 13. EXPONENTIALS AND LOGARITHMS.
Napier (as explicitly at least as was allowed by the fairly vague concept of
continuity that obtained at that time).2
We do not need to dwell here on the services rendered by logarithms in
the numerical Calculusj from the theoretical point of view, their importance
dates especially from the beginnings of the infinitesimal Calculus, with the
discovery of series expansions of log( 1 + :e) and of e~, and of the differential
properties of these functions (see pp. 172 ff.). As far as the definition of
exponentials and logarithms is concerned, it will be limited, until the middle
of the XIXth century, to assuming intuitively the possibility of extending by
continuity to the set of real numbers the function a Z defined for all rational rej
and it is only once the notion of real number is definitively made precise and
deduced from that of rational number, that there will be thought of giving a
rigorous justification to this extension.
2 Napier considered two points M, N simultaneously mobile on two straight lines,

the movement of M being uniform, that of N such that the speed of N was pro-
portional to its abscissa; the abscissa of M is then by definition the logarithm of
that of N ([230 a], p. 3).
14. N DIMENSIONAL SPACES.
We have already had the opportunity of saying how the development of the
analytic Geometry of the plane and space led mathematicians to introduce
the notion of n dimensional space, which supplied them with a geometric lan-
guage which was extremely convenient for expreSsing in a concise and simple
way theorems of algebra concerning equations with an arbitrary number of
variables, and notably all the general results of linear Algebra (see p. 61).
But if, towards the middle of the XIXth century, this language had become
current among numerous geometers, it remained purely conventional, and
the absence of an "intuitive" representation of spaces of more than three
dimensions seemed to forbid in these latter arguments "by continuity" that
were allowed in the plane or in space based exclusively on "intuition". It
is Riemann who was the first, in his research on Analysis situs and on the
foundations of Geometry, who was bold to argue in that way by analogy with
the case of three dimensional space (see p. 176);1 following him, numerous
mathematicians set out to use, with great success, arguments of this nature,
notably in the theory of algebraic functions of several complex variables. But
the control of spatial intuition being very limited at that time, one could
remain with good reason very sceptical as to the worth in proofs of such con-
siderations, and only allow them purely heuristically, in as much as they made
very plausible the exactness of certain theorems. It is thus that H. Poincare,
in his memoir of 1887 on the residues of double integrals of functions of two
complex variables, avoids as far as possible all recourse to intuition in four di-
mensional space: "As this hypergeometric language is repugnant still to many
good minds", he says, "I will only make infrequent use of it"; the "artifices"
that he employs to this end allow him to get back to topological arguments
in three dimensional space, where he then hesitates no longer to appeal to
intuition ([251 a], v. III, pp. 443 ff.).
Elsewhere, the discoveries of Cantor, and notably the famous theorem
establishing that Rand R n are equipotent (which seemed to put into question
the very notion of dimension)2 showed that it was indispensable, in order to
provide a solid basis for the arguments of Geometry and Topology, to free
1 See also the work of L. Schli.fli ([273], v. I, pp. 169-387), dating from the same
time, but which was only published in the XXth century.
2 It is interesting to note that, as soon as he knew of this result, Dedekind had
understood the reason for its appearance being so paradoxical, and had notified
160 14. N DIMENSIONAL SPACES.
them entirely from all recourse to intuition. We have already said (cf. p. 139)
that this need is at the origin of the modern conception of general Topology;
but even before the creation of this latter, a rigorous study had begun of
the topology of number spaces and of their most immediate generalisations
(the "n dimensional varieties") by methods arising mainly from the branch
of Topology called "combinatorial Topology" or better "algebraic Topology" ,
of which we can not speak here.
Cantor that it should be possible to prove the impossibility of a bijective and bi-
continuous correspondence between R m and R n for m #: n ([48], pp. 37-38).
15. COMPLEX NUMBERS;
MEASUREMENT OF ANGLES.
We will not take up again here the complete expose of the historical develop-
ment of the theory of complex numbers or that of quaternions, these theories
being essentially in the domain of Algebra (see pp. 72 and 62)j but we will say
a few words about the geometric representation of imaginary numbers which
in many respects constitutes decisive progress in the history of Mathematics.
It is to C. F. Gauss that is due without dispute the first clear conception
of the bijective correspondence between complex numbers and points of the
plane, l and especially the merit of having been the first to have known how
to apply this idea to the theory of complex numbers, and to have foreseen
clearly the advantage that the analysts of the XIXth century would make of
it. During the course of the XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries, mathematicians
had little by little reached the conviction that imaginary numbers, which
allowed the solution of equations of the 2nd degree, also allowed the solution
of algebraic equations of arbitrary degree. Numerous attempts at the proof of
this theorem were published during the XVIIIth centuryj but, even without
mentioning those that rely only on a vicious circle, there were none that
were not open to serious objections. Gauss, after a detailed examination of
these attempts and a tight critique of the gaps, proposed, in his inaugural
Dissertation (written in 1797, appeared in 1799), to give finally a rigorous
proof; taking up an idea given out in passing by d'Alembert (in the published
proof by this latter in 1746,2 he remarks that the points (a, b) of the plane
=
such that a + ib is a root of the polynomial P(z + iy) X(z, y) + iY(z, y),
are the intersections of the curves X = =
0 and Y OJ by a qualitative study
of these curves, he shows that a continuous arc of one of them joins points of
two distinct regions bounded by the other, and concludes from this that the
1 The first to have the idea of such a correspondence is without doubt Wallis, in
his Treatise on Algebra published in 1685; but hie ideas on this point remained
confused, and did not exert any influence on his contemporaries.
2 This proof (where d'Alembert makes nothing ofthe remark which serves as the
point of departure for Gauss) is the first by date that does not reduce to a clumsy
a.ppeal to principles. Ga.uss, who criticises precisely the weak points, does not fail
however to recognise the value of the fundamental idea of d'Alembert: "the troe
nerve of the proor, he says, ""eem" to me to be unaffected by all the"e objection¥'
([124 al, v. III, p. 11); a little later, he sketches a method for making the argument of
d'Alembert rigorous; it is already, to all intents and purposes, cl08e to the argument
of Cauchy in one of hie proofs of the same theorem.
162 15. COMPLEX NUMBERS; MEASUREMENT OF ANGLES.
curves meet ([124 a], v. III, p. 3; see also [124 b]): a proofthat, by its clarity
and originality, constitutes a considerable progress on previous attempts, and
is without doubt one of the first examples of an argument from pure Topology
applied to a problem of Algebra. 3
In his Dissertation, Gauss does not define explicitly the correspondence
between points of the plane and imaginary numbers; as far as these latter are
concerned, and the questions about "existence" that they raised during two
centuries, he even adopts a fairly reserved position, intentionally presenting
all his arguments in a form in which only real numbers occur. But the march
of ideas in his proof would be entirely unintelligible if they did not presuppose
a fully conscious identification of the points of the plane and complex num-
bers; and his contemporaneous research on the theory of numbers and elliptic
functions, where complex numbers also occur, only reinforces this hypothesis.
At what point the geometric conception of imaginary numbers became famil-
iar to him, and to what results it would lead in his hands, is what is shown
clearly in the notes (published only in our day) where he applies complex
numbers to the solution of problems of elementary Geometry ([124 a], v. IV,
p. 396 and v. VIII, p. 307). Still more explicit is the letter to Bessel of 1811
([124 al, v. VIII, pp. 90- 91), where he sketches the essentials of the theory
of integration of functions of complex variables: "In the same wall', he says,
"that one can represent the whole domain 0/ real quantities 6y means 0/ an
indefinite straight line, so one can picture ("sinnlich machen") the complete
domain 0/ all the quantities, the reals and the imaginaries, 6y means 0/ an
indefinite plane, where each point, determined 6y its abscissa a and its or-
dinate 6, represents at the same time the quantity a + i6. The continuous
movement 0/ a value 0/ z to another in consequence is made /ollowing a line,
and so can 6e accomplished in an infinity 0/ ways ... "
But it is only in 1831 that Gauss (in connection with the introduction of
the "Gaussian integers" a+ib, where a and b are integers) displayed publicly
his ideas on this point in such a clear a manner ([124 a], v. II, Theoria
Residuorum Biquadraticorum, Commentatio secunda, art. 38, p. 109, and
A nzeige, pp. 174 ff.). In the interval, the idea of the geometric representation
of imaginary numbers had been found again independently by two modest
seekers, both amateur mathematicians, more or less self-taught, and for whom
it was the only contribution to science, both also without much contact with
the scientific environment of their time. Because of this, their work was in
grave risk of being completely overlooked; it is precisely what happened for
the first in time, the Dane C. Wessel, whose pamphlet, which appeared in
1798, very clearly conceived and drawn up, was only brought out of limbo
a century later; and the same misadventure almost happened to the second,
the Swiss J. Argand, who only by chance saw, in 1813, the exhumation of his
3 Gauss published in all four proofs of the "theorem of d' Alembert-Gauss" i the last
is a variant of the first, and, like the first, appeals to intuitive topological properties
of the plane; but the second and the third are based on quite different principles
(see p. 91).
15. COMPLEX NUMBERS; MEASUREMENT OF ANGLES. 163
work that he had published seven years earlier. 4 This work provoked an active
discussion in the Annales de Gergonne, and the matter was the object, in
France and in England, of several publications (due to fairly obscure authors)
between 1820 and 1830; but it lacked the authority of a big name to put an
end to these controversies and to rally mathematicians to the new point of
view; and it was necessary to wait until the middle of the century before
the geometric representation of imaginary numbers was finally universally
adopted, following the publications of Gauss (quoted above) in Germany,
the work of Hamilton and Cayley on hypercomplex systems in England, and
finally, in France the adherence ofCauchy,5 a few years only before Riemann,
by a brilliant extension, came also to widen the role of Geometry in the theory
of analytic functions, and create Topology at the same time.
The measurement of angles, by the arcs that they cut out on the cir-
cle, is as ancient as the notion of angle itself, and is already known to the
Babylonians, from whom we have kept the unit of angle, the degree; it is
besides only a matter for them of the measurement of angles between 0 and
360 0 , which sufficed for them, since their angles were mainly used by them to
identify the position of celestial objects at predetermined points of their ap-
parent trajectories, and to draw up tables for use in scientific and astrological
situations.
With the Greek geometers of the classical era, the definition of angle (Evel.
EI., I, def. 8 and 9) is still more restricted, since it only applies to angles less
than two right angles; and as on the other hand their theory of ratios and
of measurement relied on the comparison of arbitrarily large multiples of the
quantities measured, the angles could not be for .them a measurable quantity,
although one finds naturally with them the notions of equal angles, of angles
greater or less one than the other, and of the sum of two angles when this
sum does not exceed two right angles. In the same way as for the addition of
fractions, the measurement of angles must therefore have been in their eyes
an empirical procedure without scientific value. This point of view is well
illustrated by the admirable memoir of Archimedes on spirals ([5 b], v. II,
pp. 1-12), where, in default of being able to define these by the proportionality
of the radius vector to the angle, he gives a cinematic description of them
• In opposition to Gauss, Wessel and Argand are more preoccupied in justi/ing

calculations with complex numbers than to ma.ke the geometric representation that
they propose be of use in new resea.rch; Wessel does not give any indica.tion of
applications, and the only one that Argand gives is a proof of the theorem of
d'Alembert-Gauss, which is none other than a variation of the proof by d'Alembert,
and open to the same objections.
c. In his first works on the integrals of functions of complex variables (between 1814
and 1826), Cauchy considers complex numbers as "symbolic" expressions and does
not identify them with points of the plane; which does not stop him associating
constantly to the number x + iy the point (x, y) and using freely the language of
Geometry to this end.
164 15. COMPLEX NUMBERSj MEASUREMENT OF ANGLES.
(def 1, p. 44; cf the statement of prop. 12, p. 46) from which he manages to
draw out, as is shown by the rest of his work, all that the general notion of
the measurement of angles would have given him if were to have had it. As
for the Greek astronomers, they seem, on this point as on many others, to
have been content to follow their Babylonian predecessors.
Here also, as in the evolution of the concept of real numbers (cf. p. 150),
the loosening of the spirit of rigour, during the decadence of Greek science,
brought the return of the "naive" point of view, which in certain respects,
is closer to our own than the rigid Euclidean conception. It is thus that an
ill-advised interpolator inserts in Euclid the famous proposition (Eucl. El.,
VI, 33): ''The angles are proportional to the arcs that they cut out on the
circle" ,6 and an anonymous scholastic who comments on the "proof" of this
proposition does not hesitate to introduce, without any justification of course,
arcs equal to arbitrarily large multiples of a circumference, and the angles
corresponding to these arcs ([107], v. V, p. 357). But Vietus even, in the
XVIth century, while appearing to touch on our modern conception of angle
when he discovers that the equation sin nz = sin a has several roots, only ob-
tains the roots that correspond to angles less than 2 right angles ([319], pp.
305-313). It is only in the XVIIth century that this point ofview is overtaken
in a definitive manner; and, after the discovery by Newton of the expansions
in series of sin z and cos z had supplied expressions for these functions, valid
for all values of the variables, one finds with Euler, in connection with loga-
rithms of "imaginary" numbers, the precise conception of the notion of the
measurement of an arbitrary angle ([108 a], (1), v. XVII, p. 220).
Of course, the classical definition of the measurement of an angle by the
length of the arc of a circle is not only intuitive, but essentially correct;
however, it requires, in order to be made rigorous, the notion of the length
of a curve, that is to say the integral Calculus. From the point of view of the
structures that come into play, that is a very roundabout procedure, and it
is possible to use no other methods than those of the theory of topological
groups; the real exponential and the complex exponential appear thus as
deriving from the same origin, the theorem characterising "groups with one
parameter" .
6 That it is indeed an interpolation, is brought out convincingly by the absurdity of

the proof, clumsily copied from the classical paradigms of the method of Eudoxusj
it is obvious, besides, that this result has nothing to do with the end of Book VI.
It is ironic to see Theon, in the IVth century of our era, claiming naively the credit
for having grafted, on this interpolation, another, where he pretends to prove that
"the area of sectors of a circle are proportional to their angles at the centre" ([107],
v. V, p. 24), and that six centuries after the determination by Archimedes of the
area of sectors of spirals.
16. METRIC SPACES.
As we said (see p. 146), the notion of metric space was introduced in 1906 by
M. Frechet, and developed a few years later by F. Hausdorff in his "Mengen-
lehre" . It acquired great importance after 1920, on the one hand following the
fundamental work of S. Banach and his school on normed spaces and their
applications to functional Analysis (see pp. 216 ff.), on the other by reason of
the interest that was raised by the notion of valuation in Arithmetic and in
Algebraic Geometry (where notably completion with respect to a valuation
shows itself to be very fruitful).
From the period 1920-1930 are dated a whole series of studies undertaken
by the Moscow school on the properties of the topology of a metric space, work
which aimed in particular at obtaining necessary and sufficient conditions for
a given topology to be metrizable. It is this movement of ideas that caused
the appearance of interest in the notion of a normal space, defined in 1923 by
Tietze, but whose important role was only recognised following the work of
Urysohn [314] on the extension of continuous numerical functions. Apart from
the trivial case of functions of a real variable, the problem of extension to the
whole space of a continuous numerical function defined on a closed set, was
treated for the first time (for the case of the plane) by H. Lebesgue [196 d]j
before the definitive result of Urysohn, it had been solved for metric spaces
by H. Tietze [307]. The extension of this problem to the case of functions
with values in an arbitrary topological space acquired in these last years
a considerable importance in algebraic Topology. Recent works have as well
brought into the open that, in this type of question, the notion of normal space
is hard to handle, because it still offers too many "pathological" possibilitiesj
most of the time it is necessary to substitute for it the more restrictive notion
of a paracompact space, introduced by J. Dieudonne in 1944 [90 a]j in this
theory, the most remarkable result is the theorem due to A. H. Stone [300],
according to which every metrizable space is paracompact. 1
1 This theorem has allowed the provision of a more satisfying solution to the
problem of metrization than the criteria obtained around 1930 by the Russo-Polish
school ("Nagata-Smirnov criterion"). But it must be noted that until now these
criteria have hardly had any applications; as so often in the history of mathematics
it seems as if the problem of metrization had less importance because of its solution
than for the new notions whose development it would have brought.
166 16. METRIC SPACES.
We have already focused attention (see p. 155) on the important works of

the end of the XIXth century and of the beginning of the XXth century (E.
Borel, Baire, Lebesgue, Osgood, W. B. Young) on the classification of sets of
points in the spaces R n , and on the classification and characterisation of nu-
merical functions obtained by iterating, starting with continuous functions,
the process of passing to the limit (for sequences of functions). It rapidly be-
came apparent that metric spaces supplied a natural framework for research
of this kind, whose development after 1910 is mainly due to the Russian and
Polish schools. It is these schools that have between them brought to light the
fundamental role played in modern Analysis by the notion of thin sets, and
by the theorem on the countable intersection of open sets everywhere dense
in a complete metric space, proved first (independently) by Osgood [240] for
the numerical straight line and by Baire [11 b] for the spaces Rn.
On the other hand, in 1911, Souslin [289], correcting an error of Lebesgue,
showed that the continuous image of a Borel set is not necessarily Borel,
which led him to the definition and study of ·the larger category of sets,
since called "analytic" or "Souslin" i after the premature death of Souslin
this study was mainly undertaken by N. Lusin (whose ideas had inspired
the work of Souslin) and by Polish mathematicians (see [209] and [189 b)).
The actual importance of these sets relies mainly on their applications in the
theory of integration (where, thanks to their special properties, they allow
constructions that would be impossible on arbitrary measurable sets), and in
modern potential theory, where the fundamental theorem on the capacity of
Souslin sets, proved recently by G. Choquet [63], has already shown itself to
be rich in varied applications.
17. INFINITESIMAL CALCULUS.
In 1604, at the apogee of his scientific career, Galileo, believes he has proved
that, in rectilinear movement where the speed grows proportional to the dis-
tance covered, the law of movement will be just the one (x = ct 2 ) that he
had discovered in the falling of weights ([122 b], v. X, pp. 115-116). Between
1695 and 1700, there is no volume of Acta Eruditorum published monthly
at Leipzig, where there do not appear memoirs from Leibniz, the Bernoulli
brothers, the marquis de I'Hopital, dealing with, to all intents and purposes with
the notation of which we still make use, the most varied problems of dif-
ferential calculus, integral calculus and the calculus of variations. It is thus
almost exactly during the interval of a century that infinitesimal calculus
was wrought or, as was eventually said by the English, Calculus at its best
("calculus"); and nearly three centuries of constant use have not completely
blunted this incomparable instrument.
The Greeks neither had nor imagined anything like it. If they knew, no
doubt, if only to refuse to use it, an algebraic calculus, that of the Babylo-
nians, of which part of their Geometry is perhaps just a transcription, it is
strictly in the domain of geometric invention that what is perhaps their most
brilliant mathematical creation is registered, their method for treating prob-
lems that for us would tie in to the integral calculus. Eudoxus, treating the
volume of the cone and the pyramid, gave the first models of it, which Euclid
has more or less faithfully transmitted to us ([107], book XII, prop. 7 and 10).
But above all, it is to these problems that most of the work of Archimedes
was devoted [5 b and c); and by a remarkable piece of fortune, we are in a
position to read still in their original text, in the sonorous dorian dialect in
which he had so carefully composed them, most of his writings, and up to
the one, found again recently, where he sets out the "heuristic" procedures
by which he was led to some of his most beautiful results ([5 b], v. II, pp.
425-507). For it is there that there is one of the weaknesses of the "exhaus-
tion" of Eudoxus: an irreproachable method of proof (having assumed certain
postulates), it is not a method of discovery; its application relies necessar-
ily on advance knowledge of the result to be proved; also, says Archimedes,
"of the results whose proofs Eudoxus was the first to discover, concerning the
cone and the pyramid ... , not a small part is due to Democritus, who was
the first to state them without proof (loc. cit., p. 430). This circumstance
168 17. INFINITESIMAL CALCULUS.
makes it particularly difficult to analyse in detail the work of Archimedes,

an analysis which, truth to tell, seems not to have been undertaken by any
modern historian; for because of this fact we are ignorant to what point he
was conscious of the lines of relationship which unite the different problems
which he treats (links that we will express by saying that the same integral
recurs in many places, under varied geometric aspects), and what importance
he might have attributed to them. For example, let us consider the following
problems, the first solved by Eudoxus, the others by Archimedes: the volume
of the pyramid, the area of a segment of the parabola, the centre of gravity
of the triangle, and the area of the spiral of Archimedes so-called (p = cw
in polar co-ordinates); they all depend on the integral I z 2 dz, and, without
in any way distancing ourselves from the spirit of the method of exhaustion,
they can all be reduced to the calculation of "Riemann sums" of the form
En an2 • It is in this way in fact, that Archimedes deals with the spiral ([5
b), v. II, pp. 1- 121), by means of a lemma that reduces to writing
N N
N3 < 32:n2 = N 3 +N2 + 2: n< (N + 1)3.
n=l n=l
As for the centre of gravity of the triangle, he proves (by exhaustion,

by means of a decomposition into parallel strips) that it can be found on
each median, hence at their meeting point ([5" b), v. II, pp. 261-315). For
the parabola he gives three procedures: one, heuristic, meant only to "give
some likelihood to the result' , reduces the problem to the centre of gravity of
the triangle, by an argument from statics during which hedoee not hesitate to
consider the segment of the parabola as the sum to infinity of segments of
straight lines parallel to the axis ([5 b), v. II, pp. 435-439); another method
relies on an analogous principle, but is set out in full rigour by exhaustion ([5
b), v. II, pp. 261-315); a last proof, extraordinarily ingenious but ofless scope,
gives the area sought as a sum of a geometric series by means of particular
properties of the parabola. Nothing indicates a relationship between these
problems and the volume of the pyramid; it is even specified ([5 b), v. II,
p. 8) that the problems relating to the spiral have "nothing in common"
with certain others relative to the sphere and the paraboloid of revolution, of
which Archimedes had the opportunity of speaking in the same introduction
and amongst which there is to be found one (the volume of the paraboloid)
which reduces to the integral I zdz.
As can be seen from these examples, and apart from the use of particular
contrivances, the principle of exhaustion is the following: by a decomposition
into "Riemann sums" , upper and lower bounds are obtained for the quantity
under consideration, bounds that are compared directly with the expression
given for the quantity, or else with corresponding bounds for an analogous
problem which has already been solved. The comparison (which, because of
the inability to use negative numbers is necessarily done in two parts) is in-
troduced by the sacramental words: "if not, in fact, it would be either greater
17. INFINITESIMAL CALCULUS. 169
or less; assume, if possible, that it be greater, etc.; assume, if possible, that

it be smaller, etc." whence the name of the method "apagogic" or "by re-
duction to the absurd" ("01l"Q'}'w'}'7] d( a6VI/QTWI/") that was given to it by
the scholars of the XVIIth century. It is in an analogous form that the de-
termination of the tangent to the spiral is drawn up by Archimedes ([5 b], v.
II, pp. 62-76), an isolated result, and the only one that we are able to quote
as an ancient source for the "differential calculus" apart from the relatively
easy determination of tangents to conics, and a few problems of maxima and
minima. If in fact, in what concerns "integration", an immense field of re-
search was offered to Greek mathematicians, not only by the theory of areas
and volumes, but also by statics and hydrostatics, they hardly had, due to
the lack of dynamics, the opportunity of seriously tackling differentiation. It
is true that Archimedes gives a dynamic definition of his spiral; and, short of
knowing how he could have been led to the knowledge of its tangent, we have
the right to ask ourselves if he did not have some idea of the composition
of movements. But in that case would he not have applied such a powerful
method to other problems of the same kind? It is more likely that he must
have used some heuristic procedure of passing to the limit that the results
known to him concerning conics could have suggested; these, of course, are
of an essentially simpler nature, since one can construct the points of in-
tersection of a straight line and a conic, and in consequence determine the
condition for coincidence of these points. As to the definition of the tangent,
this is conceived of as a straight line which, in the neighbourhood of a certain
point of the curve, leaves the curve entirely on t~e same side; the existence of
it is assumed, and it is also assumed that every curve is made up of convex
arcs; under these conditions, in order to show that a straight line is tangent
to a curve, certain inequalities must be proved, which of course is done with
the most complete accuracy.
From the point of view of rigour, the methods of Archimedes leave nothing
to be desired; and, in the XVIIth century, still, when the most scrupulous
mathematicians wish to put a result which is adjudged to be particularly
delicate entirely beyond doubt, it is an "apagogic" proof that they give of
it ([109), v. I, pp. 211-254; French translation, v. III, pp. 181-215 and [244],
v. VIII, pp. 249-282). As to their fruitfulness, the work of Archimedes is
sufficient testimony. But in order to have the right to see there an "integral
calculus" , it would be necessary to give in evidence, through the multiplicity
of the geometric appearances, some sketch of the classification of the problems
according to the nature of the underlying "integral". In the XVIIth century,
as we will see, the search for such a classification becomes little by little
one of the principal concerns of the geometers; if no trace of this is found
in Archimedes, is it not a sign that such speculations would have appeared
to him as exageratedly "abstract", and that he voluntarily, on the contrary,
at each opportunity, kept as near as possible to the specific properties of
the figure whose study he was pursuing? And must we not conclude that this
admirable work, from which the integral calculus, as admitted by its creators,
is entirely drawn, is in some sense the opposite of the integral calculus?
It is not with impunity, besides, that one can, in mathematics, allow
a ditch to be dug between discovery and proof. In favourable times, the
mathematician, without abandoning rigour, only has to write down his ideas
almost as he conceives of them; sometimes even he can hope to do it so that it
would be thus, at the cost of a felicitous change in the language and notations
assumed. But often he must resign himself to choosing between incorrect and
possibly fruitful methods of exposition, and correct methods that no longer
allow him to express his thought except by distorting it and at the cost of
a tiring effort. Neither one nor the other way is exempt from dangers. The
Greeks followed the second, and it is perhaps there, even more than in the
sterilising effect of the Roman conquest, that the reason for the surprising halt
in their mathematics almost immediately after its most brilliant flowering
must be sought. It has been suggested, without it being unlikely, that the
oral teaching of the successors of Archimedes and Apollonius could have
contained many a new result without their having thought it necessary to
inflict on themselves the extraordinary effort required for a publication which
conformed to the received canons. It is no longer such scruples in any case
that stopped the mathematicians of the XVIIth century, when, faced with
the new problems which were being stated in droves, they sought in assiduous
study of the writings of Archimedes the means to bypass it.
While the great classics of the Greek literature and philosophy were all
printed in Italy, by AIde Manuce and his followers, and almost all before 1520,
it is only in 1544, and with Hervagius at Basle, that the earliest edition of
Archimedes appears, both Greek and Latin [5 a], without any previous Latin
publication having appeared to prepare its way; and, far from the math~
maticians of the time (absorbed as they were by their algebraic researches)
having immediately felt its influence, we must await Galileo and Kepler, both
of them astronomers and physicists rather than mathematicians, for this in-
fluence to become manifest. From this moment, and unceasingly until about
1670, there is no name, in the writings of the founders of the infinitesimal
Calculus, which recurs more often than that of Archimedes. Many translate
and comment on him; all from Fermat to Barrow, quote him with envy; all
declare finding there at the same time a model and a source of inspiration.
It is true that these declarations, as we will see, must not all be taken
to the letter; there is to be found one of the difficulties that we come up
against in trying to get a true interpretation of these writings. The historian
must take account also of the organisation of the scientific world of the time,
very defective still at the beginning of the XVIIth century, whereas at the
end of the same century, by means of the creation of scholarly societies and
scientific periodicals, by means of the consolidation and development of the
universities, it ends up by resembling strongly what we know today. Deprived
of all periodicals until 1655, mathematicians did not have the choice, in order
to make their work known, of anything other than by way of letters, and the
printing of a book, most often at their own cost, or at the cost of a patron
if one could be found. The editors and printers capable of work of this sort
were rare, often rather uncertain. After the long delays and the innumerable
troubles that a publication of this kind implied, the author had most often
to face up to interminable controversies, provoked by adversaries who were
not always in good faith, and carried on sometimes in a surprising bitterness
of tone: for, in the general uncertainty in which even the principles of the
subject of the infinitesimal calculus was to be found, it was not difficult for
each person to find weak points, or at least obscure and contestable, in the
arguments of his rivals. It is understandable that under these conditions many
scholars keen on peace contented themselves with communicating to a few
chosen friends their methods and their results. Some, and especially certain
science amateurs, such as Mersenne in Paris, and later Collins in London,
kept up a vast correspondence in all countries, in which they communicated
extracts here and there, not without mixing in with these extracts stupidities
of their own vintage. Possessors of "methods" that, for lack of notions and
general definitions, they could not draw up in the form of theorems nor even
formulate with some accuracy, mathematicians were thus reduced to making
the attempt by means of large numbers of particular cases, and believed that
it was not possible to do better, in order to measure its power, than to throw
out challenges to their colleagues, accompanied sometimes by publication of
their own results in code. The studious youth journeyed, and more perhaps
than today; and the ideas of such a scholar were spread sometimes better as
a result of the journeys of his pupils that by his own publications, but not
without having there another cause of misunderstandings. Finally, the same
problems occurring necessarily to a large number of mathematicians, among
whom many very distinguished ones, who had only an imperfect knowledge
of the results the one of the others, claims for priority could not fail to arise
ceaselessly, and it was not rare that accusations of plagiarism would be added
on.
lt is therefore in the letters and private papers of the scholars of the time,
as much or even more than in their publications proper, that the historian
must seek his documents. But, whereas those of Huygens for example have
been kept and have been the object of exemplary publication [169 b], those of
Leibniz have only been published in a fragmentary manner so far, and many
others are lost without hope. At least the most recent research, based on the
analysis of manuscripts, has brought out, in a way that seems irrefutable, a
point that the partisan quarrels had somewhat obscured: it is that, each time
that one of the great mathematicians of that time gave an account of his own
work, of the evolution of his thought, of the influences that he came under
and those that he did not come under, he has done it in an honest and sincere
manner, and in all good faith;l these precious testimonies, of which we possess
a fairly great number, can thus be used in all confidence, and the historian
does not need in their case to transform himself into an examining magistrate.
For the remainder, most of the questions of priority that have arisen are
totally lacking in sense. It is true that Leibniz, when he adopted the notation
dz for the "differential", was ignorant of the fact that Newton, for about ten
years, had been using z for the "fluxion": but what would it have mattered if
he had known? To take a more instructive example, who is the author of the
theorem log x = I ~ , and what is the date thereof? The formula, as we have
just written it, is from Leibniz since both one and the other members are
written in his notation. Leibniz himself, and Wallis, attribute it to Gregoire
de Saint-Vincent. This latter, in his Opus Geometricum [135] (appeared in
1647, but drawn up, he says, long before), proves only the equivalent of
what follows: if I( a, b) denotes the area of the hyperbolic segment a :5 z :5
= =
b,O:5 y:5 A/x, the relation b'/a' (b/a)" implies I(a'/b') n./(a,b); to
which his pupil and commentator Sarasa adds almost immediately [269] the
remark that the areas I(a, b) can therefore "take the place of logarithms".
If he says no more, and if Gregoire himself had said nothing about it, is
it not because, for the majority of mathematicians of the time, logarithms
were "calculation aids" with no right to be quoted in mathematics? It is true
that Torricelli, in a letter of 1644 [208], speaks of his research on a curve
that we would write as y = ae-cs:, x ~ 0, while adding that where Napier
(whom he covers with praise besides) "was only after the arithmetical uses",
he himself "drew out of it a speculation on geometry"; and he had left a
manuscript about this curve evidently prepared for publication, but which
remained unpublished until 1900 ([310], v. I, pp. 335-347). Descartes had
besides encountered the same curve already in 1639 in connection with the
"problem of Debeaune" , and had described it without speaking of logarithms
([85 a], v. II, pp. 514-517). Whatever, J. Gregory, in 1667, gives, without
quoting anybody whatever, ([136 a], reproduced in [169 a], pp. 407-462), a
rule for calculating the areas of hyperbolic segments by means of (decimal)
logarithms: which implies at the same time a theoretical knowledge of the link
between the quadrature of the hyperbola and logarithms, and the numerical
knowledge of the link between "natural" and "decimal" logarithms. Is it
about this last point only that the claim of Huygens applies, who contests
immediately the novelty of the result of Gregory ([169 b], v. VI, pp. 228-
230)? It is that which is no clearer to us than to his contemporaries; these
in any case had the clear impression that the existence of a link between
logarithms and the quadrature of the hyperbola was something that had
been known for a long time, without their being able on this to refer to
anything other than epistolary allusions or to the book of Gregoire de Saint-
1 This is applicable, for example to Torricelli (see [244], v. VIII, pp. 181-194) and
to Leibniz [217]. That is not to say, of course, that a mathematician may Dot have a
false idea about the originality of his ideas; but it is Dot the greatest who are most
inclined to be at fault in this regard.
Vincent. In 1668, when Brouncker gives (with a polished proof of convergence,

by comparison with a geometric series) series for log 2 and log (5/4) ([38]:
reproduced in [218], v. I, pp. 213-218), he presents them as expressions of the
corresponding segments of a hyperbola, and adds that the numerical values
that he obtains are "in the same ratio as the logarithms" of2 and of 5/4. But
in the same year, with Mercator ([220], reproduced in [218], v. I, pp. 167-196)
or more exactly in the exposition given immediately by Wallis of the work
of Mercator ([326 b], reproduced in [218], v. I, pp. 219-226), the language
changes: since the segments of a hyperbola are proportional to logarithms, and
that it is well known that logarithms are not defined by their characteristic
properties except up to a constant factor, nothing prevents considering the
segments of a hyperbola as logarithms, qualified as "natural" (in opposition
to the "artificial" or "decimal" logarithms), or hyperbolic; this last step taken
(to which the series for log(1+z) contributes, given by Mercator), the theorem
log z = J ~ is obtained, up to notation, or rather it became a definition.
What to conclude, if not that it is by almost imperceptible transitions that
this discovery was made, and that a dispute about priorities on this matter
resembles strongly a quarrel between the violin and the trombone as to the
exact moment when a particular motif appears in a symphony? And truth to
tell, while at the same time other mathematical creations, the arithmetic of
Fermat, the dynamics of Newton, carried a strongly individual cachet, it is
very much of the gradual and inevitable development of a symphony, where
the "Zeitgeist", at the same time composer and conductor, holds the baton,
that we are reminded by the development of the infinitesimal calculus in the
XVIIth century: each undertakes his part with characteristic timbre, but no
one is master of the themes that he is creating for the listener, themes that
a scholarly counterpoint has almost inextricably entwined. It is thus under
the form of a thematic analysis that the history of this must be written; we
will be content here with a summary sketch, and which does not pretend to
a meticulous exactitude. 2 Here in any case are the principal themes that a
superficial examination brings out:
A) The theme of mathematical rigour, contrasting with that of the in-
finitely small, indivisibles or differentials. It has been seen that both hold an
important place with Archimedes, the first in all his work, the second only in
the treatise on his Method, that the XVIIth century did not know, 80 that,
if it had been transmitted and not reinvented, it could only have been by
philosophical tradition. The principle of the infinitely small appears besides
in two distinct forms depending on whether it is a case of "differentiation" or
of "integration". As for this one, let it be first a case of calculating a plane
2 In what follows, the attribution of a result to such and such an author, at such
and such a date, indicates only that this result was known to him at that date
(which has as often as possible been verified using the original texts); we do not
mean to affirm absolutely that this author did not know of it earlier, or that he did
not receive it from someone else; still much less do we wish to say that the same
result was not possibly obtained independently by others, either earlier or later.
area: it will be divided into an infinity of parallel strips infinitely small, by

means of an infinity of equidistant parallels; and each of these strips is a rect-
angle (even though none of the finite strips that are obtained by means of two
parallels at a finite distance apart would be a rectangle). In the same way, a
solid of revolution would be decomposed into an infinity of cylinders of the
same infinitely small height, by planes perpendicular to the axis;3 analogous
ways of speaking could be used when it is a case of decomposing an area into
triangles by means of concurrent straight lines, or to argue about the length
of an arc of a curve as if it were the case of a polygon with an infinity of sides,
etc .. It is certain that the rare mathematicians who possessed fully the abil-
ity to handle the methods of Archimedes, such as Fermat, Pascal, Huygens,
Barrow, could, in each particular case, have found no difficulties in replacing
the use of this language by rigorous proofs; also they often remark that this
language is only there for conciseness. "It would be easy', says Fermat, "to
give proofs in the manner of Archimedes . .. ,. this being said, it is sufficient
to have been warned once for all in order to avoid continual repetitions . .. "
([109], v. I, p. 257); in the same way Pascal: "thus one of these methods only
differs from another in the way of stating if' ([244], v. VIII, p. 352);4 and
Barrow, with his mocking conciseness: "longior discursus apagogicus adhiberi
possit, sed quorsum'l" (it would be possible to lengthen this by an apagogic
discourse, but to what end?) ([16 b], p. 251). Fermat is very careful even, it
would appear, not to bring forward anything that he could not justify thus,
and condemns himself by that to announcing no general result except by allu-
sion or in the form of a "method"; Barrow, although so careful, is somewhat
less scrupulous. As for the majority of their contemporaries, it can be said
at the very least that rigour is not their main concern, and that the name
of Archimedes is most often only a dissembling meant to cloak merchandise
of great price no doubt, but for which Archimedes would certainly not have
assumed responsibility. All the more so is it the· case where differentiation is
concerned. If the curve, when it is a case of its rectification, is assimilated to
a polygon with an infinity of sides, it is a case here of an "infinitely small"
arc of the curve which is assimilated to an "infinitely small" segment of a
straight line, either the chord, or a segment of the tangent whose existence
is assumed; or again it is an "infinitely small" time interval that is being
considered, during which (so long as it is a case only of the speed) the move-
ment "is" uniform; still bolder, Descartes, wishing to determine the tangent
3 See for example the exposition by Pascal, in the "letter to M. de Carcavy" ([244],
v. VIII, pp. 334-384). It will be noted that, thanks to the prestige of an incomparable
language, Pascal manages to create the illusion of perfect clarity, to the point that
one of his modern editors is in ecstasy over "the minutiae and the accuracy in the
exactitude of the proof"!
• But, in the Letter to Monsieur A. D. D. S. :" ... without stopping, nor lor the
methods of movement, nor for that of the indivisibles, but in following that of the
ancients, so that the matter could henceforth be firm and beyond dispute" ([244], v.
VIII, p. 256).
of a cycloid which does not come under his general rule, assimilates curves
rolling one on the other to polygons, so as to conclude that "in the infinitely
small" the movement can be assimilated to a rotation about a point of con-
tact ([85 a], v. II, pp. 307-338). Here again, a Fermat, who bases his rules for
tangents and for maxima and minima on such infinitesimal considerations, is
able to justify them in each particular case ([109], v. I, pp. 133-179; French
translation, v. III, pp. 121-156); cf. also ([109], v. II, passim, in particular pp.
154-162, and Supplement aux Oeuvres pp. 72-86); Barrow gives precise proofs
for a large part of his theorems, in the manner of the ancients, starting with
simple hypotheses of monotonicity and convexity. But the time was already
over for pouring new wine into old wineskins. In all that, as we know today,
it was the notion of limits that was being developed; and, if it is possible to
extract from Pascal, Newton and from others as well, statements that seem
very close to our modern definitions, it is only necessary to put them back in
their context to realise the irremovable obstacles that were in the way of a
rigorous exposition. When starting in the XVIIIth century some mathemati-
cians caught up by the need for clarity wished to put some order into the
confused heap of their riches, such indications, encountered in the writings
of their predecessors, were precious to them; when d'Alembert for example
explains that there is nothing else in differentiation other than the notion of
limit, and defines this with accuracy [75 b), it is possible to believe that he
was guided by the considerations of Newton on the "first and last reasons
of vanishing quantities" [233 b). But, so long as it is a case of the XVIIth
century, it must be realised that the way was not open for modern analy-
sis until Newton and Leibniz, turning their back on the past, accept that
they must seek provisionally the justification for their new methods, not in
rigorous proofs, but in the fruitfulness and coherence of the results.
B) The dynamic. Already Archimedes, we have seen, gave a dynamic def-
inition of his spiral; and in the Middle Ages a rudimentary theory of the
variation of quantities as a function of time is developing (but proof to the
contrary lacking, without infinitesimal considerations), and of their graphical
representation, which must perhaps have had its origins in Babylonian astron-
omy. But it is of the greatest importance for the mathematics of the XVllth
century that, from the beginning, the problems of differentiation arose, not
only in connection with tangents, but in connection with velocities. Galileo
however ([122 a and b)), seeking the law of velocities in the falling of weights
(after having obtained the law of distances x = at 2 , by means of an inclined
plane), does not proceed by using differentiation: he makes various hypothe-
ses about the velocity, first v = ~~ = ex ([122 b], v. VIII, p. 203), then later
v = ct (id., p. 208), and seeks to find again the law of distances by reasoning,
in a fairly obscure way, about the graph of the velocity as a function of time;
Descartes (in 1618) argues in the same way, about the law v = ct, but as a
true mathematician and with as much clarity as the language of indivisibles
can muster 5 ([85 a], v. X, pp. 75-78); with both, the graph of velocity (in a
straight line) plays the main role, and there is reason to ask to what point
they were aware of the proportionality between the distances covered and the
areas bounded by the axis of time and the curve of the velocity; but it is diffi-
cult to say anything on this point, although the language of Descartes seems
to imply knowledge of the fact in question (that certain historians wish to
put back to the Middle Ages [335]), whereas Galileo does not make any clear
remark about it. Barrow states it explicitly in 1670 ([16 b], p. 171); perhaps at
that time it was no longer a novelty for anyone, and Barrow does not present
it as such; but, no more for this result as for any other, is it appropriate to
give a date with too much accuracy. As for the hypothesis v = cz, considered
also by Galileo, he is happy (loc. cit.) to prove that it is not sustainable (or,
in modern language, that the equation ~ = cz has no solution ::/: 0 that is
zero for t = 0), by an obscure argument that Fermat later ([109], v. II, pp.
267-276) takes the trouble of developing (and which amounts just about to
saying that, 2z being a solution as well as z, z ::/: 0 would be contrary to
the obvious physical uniqueness of the solution). But this same law if= cz
which, in 1614, was used by Napier to introduce his logarithms, of which he
gives a dynamic definition [230 a], which, in our notation, would be written as
follows: if, on two straight lines, two bodies are in motion following the laws
= = =
~~ a, !fit -ay/r, Zo 0, Yo = r, then one says that z is the "logarithm"
of y (in modern notation, we have z = r log(r/y». It has been seen that the
curve which is a solution of ~ = .; appeared in 1639 with Descartes, who
described it dynamically ([85 a], v. II, pp. 514-517); it is true that he qualified
fairly disdainfully as "mechanics" all the non algebraic curves, and claimed to
exclude them from geometry; but happily this taboo, against which Leibniz,
much later, believes he still has to protest vigorously, was not observed by
his contemporaries, nor by Descartes himself. The cycloid, the logarithmic
spiral appear and are studied with eagerness, and their study is a powerful
help in the interlacing of geometric and dynamic methods. The principle of
composition of movements, and more precisely of velocities, was at the ba-
sis of the theory of movement of projectiles stated by Galileo in the chef-
d'oeuvre of his old age, the Discorsi of 1638 ([122 b], v. VIII, pp. 268-313)
a theory that contains thus implicitly a new determination of the tangent to
the parabola; if Galileo does not expressly state it, Torricelli on the contrary
([310], v. III, pp. 103-159) insists on this point, and even bases on this same
principle a general method of determination of tangents for curves which are
capable of a dynamic definition. It is true that he was forestalled in this,
by several years, by Roberval ([263], pp. 3-67) who says that he was led to
!) Descartes even adds an interesting geometric reasoning by which he deduces the
law x = at 3 from the hypothesis ~:= ct. By contrast, it is ironic that ten years
later, we see him tied up in his notes, and copying out for the use of Mersenne
an inexact argument about the same question, where the graph of velocity as a
function of time is confused with the graph 8.8 a function of distance covered ([85
a), v. I, p. 71).
this method by the study of the cycloid; this same problem of the tangent
to the cycloid gives besides the opportunity to Fermat of proving the power
of his method of differentiation ([109], v. I, pp. 162-166), whereas Descartes,
incapable of applying to it his algebraic method, invents for the occasion the
instantaneous centre of rotation ([86 a], v. II, pp. 307-338).
But, as the infinitesimal calculus is developed, dynamics ceases to be a
separate science. It is noticed more and more that in spite of Descartes, alge-
braic curves and functions do not have, from the "local" point of view which
is that of the infinitesimal calculus, anything that distinguishes them from
much more general functions; the functions and curves with a dynamic defini-
tion are functions and curves like the others, accessible to the same methods;
and the variable "time" is no more than a parameter, whose temporal aspect
is purely a matter of language. So with Huygens, even when it is a matter
of mechanics, it is geometry that dominates ([169 b], v. XVIII); and Leibniz
does not give to time any privileged place in his calculations. On the contrary
Barrow conceives of making, of the simultaneous variation of several quanti-
ties as functions of a universal independent variable conceived of as "time",
the foundation of an infinitesimal calculus with a geometric tendency. This
idea, which must have come to him as he sought to find again the method of
composition of movements that he knew existed only by hear-say, is stated
in detail, in very clear and very general terms, in the first three of his Lec-
tiones Geometricae [16 b]; and for example he proves there with care that, if
a moving point has as projections, on two rectangular axes AY, AZ, moving
points such that one is moving with a constant speed 0 and the other with a
speed v that grows with time, the trajectory has a tangent with slope equal
to v / 0, and is concave in the direction of increasing Z. In the following parts
of the Lectiones, he pursues these ideas very far, and although he puts a sort
of affectation in drawing them up almost end to end in a form that is as ge-
ometric and as sparingly algebraic as possible, it is permissible to see there,
with Jakob Bernoulli ([19 a], v. I, pp. 431 and 463), the equivalent of a good
part of the infinitesimal calculus of Newton and Leibniz. Exactly the same
ideas form the point of departure for Newton ([233 a], v. I, pp. 201- 244 and
[233 b]): his ''fiuents'' are the various quantities, functions of "time" which is
only a universal parameter and the "fluxions" are the derivatives with respect
to "time"; the possibility that Newton allows himself, of changing at need the
parameter, is equally present in the method of Barrow, although used by him
with less suppleness. 6 The language of fluxions, adopted by Newton and im-
8 The question of the relations between Barrow and Newton is controversial; see
[241) and [233 d). In a letter of 1663 (d. (262), vol. II, pp. 32-33), Barrow speaks of
his thoughts, already old, on the composition of movements, which have brought
him to a very general theorem on tangents (if it is that of the Lect. Geom., Leet. X
([16 b), p. 247), it is indeed 80 general that it has as a special case all that had been
done until then on the subject). On the other hand, Newton could have been a pupil
of Barrow in 1664 and 1665, but says that he obtained independently his rule for
deducing, from a relation between "fluents", a relation between their "fluxions". It
posed by his authority on English mathematicians of the following century,

represents thus the last outpost, for the period that has our attention, of the
dynamic methods whose true role was already finished.
C) Algebraic Geometry. This is a parasite theme, a stranger to our subject,
which is introduced because Descartes, by his systematic approach, claimed
to make of algebraic curves the exclusive object of geometry ([85 a], v. VI, p.
390); also it is a method of algebraic geometry, and not like Fermat a method
from the differential calculus, that he gives for the determination of tangents.
The results bequeathed by the ancients on the intersection of a straight line
and a conic, the thoughts of Descartes himself on the intersection of two
conics and the problems that reduce to that, were going to lead him quite
naturally to the idea of taking as criterion for contact the coincidence of the
two intersections: we know today that in algebraic geometry it is the correct
criterion, and of such great generality that it is independent of the concept
of limit and of the nature of the "base field". Descartes applies it first in
a manner that is hardly convenient, in seeking to make two intersections of
the curve under study and of a circle having its centre on Oz coincide in a
given point ([85 a], v. VI, pp. 413-424); his disciples, van Schooten, Budde,
substitute a straight line for the circle, and obtain in the form -F;/ F; the
slope of the tangent to the curve F(z, y) = 0, the "derived polynomials"
F;, F; being defined by their formal rule of formation ([198 d], v. I, pp. 147-
344 and [85 b], pp. 234-237); de Sluse also reaches this result at about the
same time ([198 d], pp. 232- 234). Of course the clear-cut distinctions that
we draw out here, and which alone give meaning to the controversy between
Descartes and Fermat, could in no way exist in the minds of mathematicians
of the XVIIth century: we have only mentioned them in order to make clearer
one of the more curious episodes in the history which concerns us, and to
note almost immediately after the complete eclipse of algebraic methods,
provisionally absorbed by differential methods.
D) Classification of problems. This theme, we have seen, seems absent
from the work of Archimedes, to whom it appears to be a matter of indiffer-
ence to solve a problem or to reduce it to a problem already treated. In the
XVIIth century, the problems of differentiation appear at first under three
distinct aspects: speed, tangents, maxima and minima. As for these last, Ke-
pler [179 a and b] makes the observation (that is already found with Oresmus
([335], p. 141) and which had not even escaped the Babylonian astronomers)
that the variation of a function is particularly slow in the neighbourhood
of a maximum. Fermat, already before 1630 ([109], v. II, pp. 71 and 113-
179), inaugurates in connection with such problems his infinitesimal method,
which in modern language reduces in fact to seeking the first two terms (the
constant term and the first order term) in the Taylor expansion, and to writ-
is possible that Newton had obtained from the teaching of Barrow the general idea
of quantities varying as a function of time, and of their speed of variation, notions
that his thoughts on dynamics (to which Barrow must have remained a complete
stranger) soon contributed by making them more precise.
ing that at an extremum the second is zero; he goes from there to extend his
method to the determination of tangents, and even applies it to the search for
points of inflexion. If one takes account of what has been said above in con-
nection with dyna.mics, it can be seen that the unification of the three types
of problems relative to the first differential was accomplished at a fairly early
stage. As for problems relative to the second differential, they only appear
quite late, and especially with the works of Buygens on the evolute of a curve
(published in 1673 in his Horologium Oscillatorium ([169 b], v. XVIII»; at
this time, Newton, with his fluxions, was already in possession of all the an-
alytical means necessary for solving such problems; and, in spite of all the
geometric talent that Buygens expends on it (and of which later differential
geometry would profit in its beginnings), they were hardly used for anything
else, during the period with which we are concerned, than to allow the new
analysis to become conscious of the power of its means.
As for integration, it had appeared to the Greeks as the calculation of
areas, of volumes, of moments, as the calculation of the length of a circle
and of areas of spherical segments; to which the XVIIth century adds the
rectification of curves, the calculation of the area of surfaces of revolution,
and (with the work of Buygens on the compound pendulum ([169 b], v.
XVIII» the calculation of moments of inertia. It was a case first of recognising
the link between all these problems. For the areas and the volumes, this
first and immense step forward is made by Cavalieri, in his Geometry of
indivisibles [57 a]. He announces there, and claims to prove, the following
principle more or less: if two plane areas are such that every parallel in a
given direction intersects them in segments whose lengths are in a constant
ratio, then these areas are in the same ratio; an analogous principle is stated
for the volumes intersected by planes parallel to a fixed plane where the areas
are in a constant ratio. It is likely that these principles were suggested to
Cavalieri by theorems such as that of Euclid (or rather Eudoxus) on the ratio
of volumes of pyramids with the same height, and that before stating them in
a general form, he first verified their validity with a large number of examples
taken from Archimedes. He "justifies" them by the use of a language, about
whose legitimacy we see him asking Galileo in a letter of 1621, whereas in
1622 already he uses it without hesitation ([122 b], v. XIII, pp. 81 and 86)
and of which here is the essential part. Let there be for example two areas,
one 0 $ z $ a,O $ Y $/(z), the other 0 $ z $ a,O $ y $ g(z); the sums
of the ordinates L:~:~ I(kaln), E~:~ g(kaln) are one to the other in a ratio
that, for n sufficiently large, is arbitrarily near to the ratio of two areas, and
it would even be not difficult to prove it by exhaustion for 1 and 9 monotonic;
Cavalieri goes to the limit, makes n = 00, and speaks of "the sum of all the
ordinates" of the first curve, which is to the analogous sum for the second
curve in a ratio rigorously equal to the ratio of the areas; in the same way
for the volumes; and this language is afterwards universally adopted, even
by authors, like Fermat, who have the clearest realisation of the precise facts
that it covers. It is true that subsequently many mathematicians, such as

Roberval ([163], pp. 3-67) and Pascal ([244], v. VIII, pp. 334-384), prefer to
see, in the ordinates of the curve whose "sum" is being taken, not segments
of a straight line like Cavalieri, but rectangles of the same infinitely small
height, which is not great progress from the point of view ofrigour (whatever
is said by Roberval), but perhaps prevents the imagination from going off the
rails too easily. In any case, and as it is a case only of ratios, the expression
"the sum of all the ordinates" of the curve y = fez), or in short "all the
ordinates" of the curve, is definitively, as it appears clearly for example in
the writings of Pascal, the exact equivalent of the f ydz of Leibniz.
From the language adopted by Cavalieri, the principles stated higher fol-
low inevitably, and imply immediately consequences that we will state in
modern notation, it being understood that there f fdz will only mean the
area bounded by Oz and the curve y = f(z). First of all, every plane area,
intersected by each straight line z = constant in segments the sum of whose
lengths is fez), is equal to f fdzj and it is the same with every volume in-
tersected by each plane z = constant in an area of value fez). What is more,
f fdz depends linearly on fj we have f(f+g)dz = J fdz+ J gdz, J cf(z)dz =
c f fdz. In particular all the problems of area and volume are reduced to
quadratures, that is to say to calculations of area of the form J fdzj and,
what is perhaps even more novel and important, two problems depending on
the same quadrature must be considered equivalent, and there is the means
in each case to decide if it is so. The Greek mathematicians never attained (or
perhaps never consented to attain) such a degree of "abstraction". Thus ([57
a), p. 133) Cavalieri "proves" without any trouble that two similar volumes
are in a ratio equal to the cube of the ratio of similarity, whereas Archimedes
only states this conclusion for quadrics of revolution and their segments, at
the end of his theory of solids ([5 b), v. I, p. 258). But to get there it was
necessary to throw Archimedean rigour overboard.
There was thus there the means of classifying problems, at least provi-
sionally, following the degree of real or apparent difficulty that arose with the
quadratures related to them. That is where the algebra of the time was of
use as a model: for in algebra also, and in the algebraic problems that were
arising in geometry, whereas the Greeks were only interested in the solutions,
the algebraists of the XVIth and XVIIth centuries began to turn their atten-
tion mainly to the classification of problems according to the nature of the
means employed for their solution, thus creating a prelude for the modern
theory of algebraic extensionsj and they had not only proceeded to a first
classification of problems according to the degree of the equation on which
they depended, but they had already stated for themselves difficult questions
about possibilities: the possibility of solving every equation by radicals (in
which some of them did not believe), etc.j they were preoccupied also with
reducing to a type of geometric form all the problems of given degree. In
the same way in the integral Calculus, the principles of Cavalieri put them
in a position to recognise immediately that many of the problems solved by

Archimedes reduce to quadratures f z" dz for n = 1,2,3; and he invents an
ingenious method for carrying out this quadrature for as many values of n as
desired (the method reduces to observing that one has f;a z"dz = c"a"+!
by homogeneity, and to writing
12a
o
zndz =1a
-a
(a + z)"dz = 1a +
0
[(a z)" + (a - z)"]dz,
whence, by expanding, a recurrence relation for the cn) ([57 a], p. 159 and
[57 b], pp. 269-273). But already Fermat had gone much farther, by proving
first (before 1636) that foa zndz = ~..:; for n a positive integer ([109], v. II,
p. 83), by means of a formula for the sums of powers of the first N integers
(a procedure imitated from the quadrature of the spiral of Archimedes), then
in extending the same formula to all rational n #: 1 ([109], v. I, pp. 195-
198); from this last result (communicated to Cavalieri in 1644) he only draws
up a proof much later, following his reading of the writings of Pascal on
integration 7 ([109], v. I, pp. 265-288; French translation v. III, pp. 216-240).
These results joined to geometric considerations that take the place of
change of variables and integration by parts, allow already the solution of
a large number of problems that reduce to elementary quadratures. Beyond
that, is met first the quadrature of the circle and that of the hyperbola: as
it is especially "indefinite integrals" with which they were concerned at that
time, the solution of these problems in modern terms, is supplied respectively
by the inverse circular functions and by the logarithm; these were given geo-
metrically, and we have seen how this last has been introduced little by little
into analysis. These quadratures are the subject of much work, by Gregoire
de Saint-Vincent [135], Huygens ([169 b], v. XI, pp. 271-337 and v. XII, pp.
91-180), Wallis (326 a], v. I, pp. 355-478), Gregory [136 a]; the first believes be
has succeeded in the quadrature of the circle, the last believes he has proved
the transcendence of 11"; with the ones and the others procedures of indefinite
approximation are developed for the circular and logarithmic functions, the
ones with a theoretical tendency, the others oriented towards numerical cal-
culation, which is going to end soon, with Newton ([233 a], v. I, pp. 3-26 and
29-199), Mercator ([220], reproduced in [218], v. I, pp. 167-196), J. Gregory
[136 d], then Leibniz [198 d], with general methods of expansion in series. In
any case, the conviction comes to light little by little of the "impossibility" of
the quadratures in question, that is to say of the non-algebraic character of
the functions that they define; and at the same time, it becomes the custom
1 It is remarkable that Fermat, 80 scrupulous, uses the additivity of the integral,

without a word of justification, in the applications that he gives of his general
results: does he base himself on the monotonicity by parts, implicitly assumed, of
the functions that he studies, from which condition it is indeed not difficult to
justify additivity by exhaustion'? or is he already, in spite of himself, carried along
by the language that he uses'?
to consider a problem solved as far as its nature allows, when it has been re-
duced to one of the "impossible" quadratures. It. is the case for example with
the problems of the cycloid, solved by means of circular functions, and of the
rectification of the parabola, reduced to the quadrature of the hyperbola.
The problems of rectification, of which we have just quoted two of the
most famous, had a particular importance, as making up a natural geometric
transition between differentiation, which they presuppose, and integration
which they come under; problems on the area of surfaces of revolution can
be associated with them. The ancients had only treated the case of the circle
and the sphere. In the XVIIth century, these questions only appear very late;
it appears that the difficulty, insurmountable for the time, of the rectification
of the ellipse (considered to be the simplest curve after the circle) had dis-
couraged effort. Dynamic methods give some access to these problems, which
allows Roberval ([263], pp. 363-399) and Torricelli ([310], v. III, pp. 103-159),
between 1640 and 1645, to obtain results on the arc of spirals; but it is only
in the years that precede 1660 that they become the order of the day; the
cycloid is rectified by Wren in 1658 ([326 a], v. I, pp. 533-541); soon after
the curve y3 = ax 2 is done by several authors ([326 a], v. I, pp. 551-553; [85
b) v. I, pp. 517-520; [109], v. I, pp. 211-255; French translation, v. III, pp.
181-215), and several authors also ([109], v. I, p. 199; [169 b], v. II, p. 334)
reduce the rectification of the parabola to the quadrature of the hyperbola
(that is to say to an algebraico-Iogarithmic function). This latter example is
the most important, because it is a particular case of the general principle
according to which the rectification of a curve y = f(x) is none other that the
quadrature of y =VI + (J'(X»2; and it is from precisely this principle that
Heurat deduces it. It is no less interesting to follow the groping of Fermat in
his old age, in his work on the curve y3 = ax 2 ([109], v. I, pp. 211-255; French
translation v. III, pp. 181-215); to the curve y = f(x) of arc 8 = g(x), he
associates the curve y = g(z), and determines the tangent to this one starting
from the tangent to the first one (in modern language, he proves that their
slopes f'(z),g'(x) are linked by the relation (g'(z»2 = 1 + (J'(z»2); one
can believe oneself very close to Barrow, and it would only be necessary to
combine this result with that of Heurat (which is more or less what Gregory
does in 1668 ([136 d], pp. 488-491» to obtain the relation between tangents
and quadratures; but Fermat states only that if, for two curves each with
reference to a system of rectangular axes, the tangents at the points with the
same abscissa always have the same slope, the curves are equal, or in other
words that the knowledge of I'(z) determines fez) (up to a constant); and he
justifies this assertion only by an obscure argument without any convincing
value.
Less than ten years later, the Lectiones Geometricae of Barrow [16 b]
had appeared. From the beginning (Lect. I), he states in principle that, in a
f;
rectilinear movement, the spaces are proportional to the areas vdt bounded
by the axis of time and the curve of the velocity. One would believe that he
is going to deduce from that, and from his dynamic method already quoted
concerning the determination of tangents, the link between the differential
conceived as the slope of the tangent, and the integral conceived as the area;
but there is none of that, and he proves later, in a purely geometric way ([16
b], Leet. X, §l1, p. 243) that, if two curves y = /(z), Y = F(z) are such
that the ordinates Yare proportional to the areas fG ydz, that is to say if
c.F(z) = I: /(z)dz, then the tangent to Y = F(z) intersects Oz at the point
with abscissa z - T determined by ylY = cIT; the proof besides is perfectly
precise, starting with the explicit hypothesis that fez) is monotonic, and
it is said that the direction of variation of fez) determines the direction of
concavity of Y = F(z). But it will be noted that this theorem is somewhat
lost amongst a crowd of others, many of which are very interesting; the reader
who has not been warned is tempted to see there only a means for solving
by quadrature the problem YIT = /(z)/c, that is to say a certain problem
of the determination of a curve starting from information on its tangent (or,
as we would say, a differential equation of a particular type); and that all the
more so as the applications of it given by Barrow are concerned above all with
problems of the same kind (that is to say with differential equations integrable
by "separation of variables"). The geometric language that Barrow imposes
on himself is here a cause why the link between differentiation and integration,
so clear as long as it was a case of dynamics, is somewhat obscured.
On the other hand, various methods had taken shape, to reduce problems
of integration the ones to the others, and to "solve" them or to reduce them
to "impossible" problems that had already been classified. In its simplest
geometric form, integration by parts consists in writing the area bounded by
Oz, Oy and an arc of the monotonic curve y = fez) joining a point (0,0) of
Oz to a point (0, b) of Oy as foG ydz = I: zdy; and it is frequently used in
an implicit way. With Pascal ([244], v. IX, pp. 17-18) appears the following
generalisation, already much better hidden: fez) being as above, let g(z)
be a function ~ 0, and let G(z) = f: g(z)dz; then one has foG yg(z)dz =
I: G(z)dy, which he proves ingeniously by evaluating in two ways the volume
of the solid 0 $ z $ 0,0 $ y $ /(z),O $ z $ g(z); the particular case
g(x) = x n , G(x) = ~~; plays an important role, both with Pascal (loc. cit.,
pp. 19-21) and with Fermat ([109], v. I, p. 271); this latter (whose work carries
the significant title of "Transmutation and emendation 0/ equations 0/ curves,
and its varied applications to the comparison 0/ curvilinear spaces between
them and with rectilinear spaces . .. ") does not prove it, no doubt because he
judges it useless to repeat what Pascal had just published. These theorems of
"transmutation", where we would see a combination of integration by parts
and changes of variables, take the place of this to some extent, which is only
introduced very late; it is in effect contrary to the way of thinking, still too
geometric and too little analytic, of the time, to allow the use of variables
other than those imposed by the figure, that is to say one or other of the
co-ordinates (or sometimes polar co-ordinates) then the arc ofthe curve. It is
thus that we find with Pascal ([244], v. IX, pp. 60-76) results that, in modern
= =
notation, are written, putting ~ cost,y sin t and, for particular functions
11 I(~)dz =1i
f(~):
I(z)ydt,
and, with J. Gregory ([136 d], p. 489), for a curve y = I(z) and its arc
= =
s, J yds J zdz, with z y';l + ,p. It is only in 1669 that we see Barrow
in possession of the general theorem for change variables ([16 b], pp. 298-
299); its statement, geometric as always, reduces to what follows: let z and
y be linked by a monotonic relation, and let p be the slope of the graph
of this relation at the point (z, y); then, ifthe functions I( z ), g(y) are such
that one has/(z)/g(y) = p for every corresponding pair of values (z,y), the
areas J l(z)dz,J g(y)dy, taken between corresponding limits, are equal; and
conversely, if these areas are always equal (I and 9 being implicitly supposed
to have constant sign), we have p = I(z)/g(y); the converse is naturally used
to apply the theorem to the solution of differential equations (by "separation
of variables"). But the theorem is only inserted by Barrow in an appendix
(Lect. XII, app. III, theor. IV), where, by making the observation that several
of his preceding results are only particular cases of it, he excuses himself as
having discovered it too late to make more use of it.
Thus, around 1670, the situation is as follows. It is known how to treat,
by uniform procedures, the problems that arise with the first derivative,
and Huygens has tackled geometric questions that arise with the second
derivative. It is known how to reduce all problems of integration to quadra-
tures; there are available various techniques, of a geometric aspect, to reduce
quadratures the one to the others, in badly classified cases, and it has be-
come customary, from this point of view, to handle circular and logarithmic
functions; there is a consciousness of the link between differentiation and inte-
gration; the "inverse method of tangents" is beginning to be tackled, a name
given at this time to problems that reduce to differential equations of the first
order. The sensational discovery of the series 10g(1 + z) = - E~(-zt /n by
Mercator has just opened up quite new perspectives for the application of
series, and mainly power series, to problems called "impossible". By contrast
the ranks of mathematicians are significantly thinned: Barrow has left the
chair of professor for that of preacher; Huygens apart (who has almost all
his mathematical work behind him, having already obtained all the principal
results of the H orologium Oscillatorium that he is setting himself to draw
up definitively), only Newton at Cambridge, and J. Gregory at Aberdeen are
active, whom Leibniz will join soon with the ardour of a neophyte. All three,
Newton from 1665 already, J. Gregory from the publication of Mercator in
1668, Leibniz from about 1673, devote themselves principally to the subject
in fashion, the study of power series. But, from the point of view of the clas-
sification of problems, the principal effect of the new methods seems to be
to obliterate all distinctions between them; and in effect Newton, more of
an analyst than an algebraist, does not hesitate to announce to Leibniz in

1676 ([198 d], p. 224) that he knows how to solve all differential equations,S to
which Leibniz responds ([198 d], pp. 248-249) that on the contrary it is a case
of obtaining the solution in a finite number of terms whenever it is possible
"presupposing the quadratures", and also of knowing if every quadrature can
be reduced to those of the circle and the hyperbola as had been noticed in
the majority of cases studied so far; he brings out again in this connection
that Gregory believed (with reason, as we know today) that the rectification
of the ellipse and the hyperbola is ineducible to "the qUadratures of the circle
and the hyperbola; and Leibniz asks to what point the method of series, such
as Newton uses it, can give an answer to these questions. Newton, on his
side ([198 d], pp. 209-211), declares that he is in possession of criteria, that
he does not indicate, for deciding, apparently by the examination of series,
about the "possibility" of certain quadratures (in finite terms), and gives an
example of a (very interesting) series for the integral f zO(1 + z)" dz.
The immense progress that has been realised in ten years can be seen;
questions of classification are stated in these letters in quite modern terms;
if one of those that Leibniz raises has been solved in the XIXth century by
the theory of abelian integrals, the other, about the possibility of reducing
a given differential equation to quadratures, is still open despite important
recent work. If it is thus, it is because already Newton and Leibniz, each on his
own account, have reduced to an algorithm the fundamental operations of the
infinitesimal calculus; it is sufficient to write, in the notations which one or the
other uses, a problem on quadratures or differential equations, in order for its
algebraic structure to appear immediately, freed from its geometric crust; the
methods of "transmutation" also can be written in simple analytical terms;
the problems of classification are stated in a precise way. Mathematically
speaking, the XVIIth century has reached its end.
E) Interpolation and the calculus of differences. This theme (from which
we will not separate the study of binomial coefficients) appears early and
continues throughout the century, for reasons that are both theoretical and
practical. One of the big tasks of the time is in fact the calculation of trigono-
metric, logarithmic, nautical tables made necessary by the rapid progress of
geography, navigation, theoretical and practical astronomy, physics, celestial
mechanics; and many of the most eminent mathematicians, from Kepler to
Huygens and Newton, take part, either directly, or by means of theoretical
research on the procedures for the most efficient approximations.
One of the first problems, in the use and even the construction of the ta-
bles, is that of interpolation; and, as the precision of the calculations grows, it
is noticed in the XVIIth century that the ancient procedure of linear interpo-
I During this exchange of letters, which is not done directly between the inter-
ested parties, but officially through the intermediary of the secretary of the Royal
Society, Newton "takes the date" by stating his method &8 follows: Saccdae 10effh
lSi ... rrr"".ttuu, an anagram in which the method of solution by a power series
with indeterminate coefficients is contained ([198 d], p. 224).
lation loses its validity as soon as the first differences (differences between the
successive values which occur in the table) cease to be effectively constant; so
Briggs for example is seen ([36), chap. 13) making use of differences of higher
orders, and even of fairly high order, in the calculation of logarithms. Later,
we see Newton ([233 a], v. I, pp. 271-282 and [233 b], book III, lemma 5; see
also [114]) and J. Gregory ([136 d], pp. 119- 120), each on his own account,
pursuing parallel researches on interpolation and on power series; both one
and the other end up, by methods which are different besides, on the one
hand with the formula for interpolation by polynomials, called "of Newton",
and on the other with the binomial series ([136 d], p. 131; [198 d], p. 180)
and with the principal expansions in series of classical analysis ([136 d]; [233
a], v. I, pp. 3-26 and 271-282 and [198 d], pp. 179-192 and 203-225); it is
hardly in doubt that these two lines of research reacted one on the other,
and were intimately linked in the mind of Newton with the discovery of the
principles of the infinitesimal calculus. With Gregory as with Newton a great
concern for numerical practice, the construction and use of tables, the numer-
ical calculation of series and integrals comes to light; in particular, although
no polished proof of convergence is found in their work, in the way of that of
Lord Brouncker quoted above, both constantly mention convergence of their
series from the practical point of view of their aptitude for calculation. It
is still thus that we see Newton, in reply to a question set by Collins to a
practical end ([262], v. II, pp. 309-310), applying to the approximate calcu-
lation of E:=l n~p' for large values of N, a particular case ofthe method of
summation of Euler-Maclaurin s~called.
The calculation of the values of a function starting from their differences
is also met early on, used as a practical procedure for integration, and even,
it might be said, for the integration of a differential equation. Thus Wright,
in 1599, having to solve, with nautical tables in view, a problem that we
would denote by -i = sec t = c!t' proceeds by adding the values of sec t,
by successive intervals of a second of arc ([338]; cf. [230 b], p. 97), naturally
obtaining to all intents and purposes a table for the values oflogtan(l + i);
and this coincidence, observed from the calculations of the first tables of
logtant, remained unexplained until the integration of sect by Gregory in
1668 ([136 c] and [136 d], pp. 7 and 463).
But these questions also have a purely th~retic and even arithmetic
aspect. Let us agree to denote by ilr Zn the sequence of successive differ-
ences of a sequence (Zn)nEN, defined by recurrence by means of ilzn =
Zn+l - zn,ilrz n = il(ilr-1z n ), and to denote by S'" the inverse operation
to il and its iterates, therefore stating Yn = SZn if 1/0 = =
0, ilYn Zn and
S'" Zn = S(S'"-lZn); we have
srz n = ~(n-p-1
L.J r-l
) Zp;
p=1
in particular, if Zn = 1 for all n, we have SZn = n, the sequences S2 Zn and

S3 Zn are those of the "triangular" and "pyramid" numbers already studied
by Greek arithmeticians, and in general we have
S'" Zn = ( ;) for n ~ r (and S'" Zn = 0 for n < r);

these sequences were introduced, from this point of view, in any case from the
XVIth century; they appear by themselves also in combinatorial problems,
which, either on their own, or in connection with probabilities, played a fairly
big role in the mathematics of the XVllth century, for example with Fermat
and Pascal, then with Leibniz. They also turn up in the expression for the
sum of the mth powers of the first N integers, whose calculation, as we have
seen, is at the basis of the integration of f zmdz for m an integer, by the
first method of Fetmat ([109], v. II, p. 83). It is thus that Wallis proceeds
in 1655 in his Arithmetica Infinitorum ([326 a], v. I, pp. 355-478), without
knowing of the work (unpublished) of Fermat, and without knowing either,
he says, of the method of indivisibles other than from the lecture of Torricelli;
it is true that Wallis, keen to reach the end, does not slow himself down by
meticulous research: once the result obtained for the first integer values of
m, he states it to be true "by induction" for all integers m, goes on correctly
from there to m = l/n for n an integer, then, by an "induction" even more
summary than the first, to m an arbitrary rational. But what is interesting
and original in his work, is that he progressively lifts himself from there to
the study of the "Eulerian" integral I( m, n) = f;
(1- z; t dz (whose value,
for m and n > 0, is r(m+ l)r(n+ 1)/r(m+n+ 1» and other such, draws
up, for m and n integers, the table of values of I/I(m, n) which is none other
than that of the integers ( m; n ), and, by methods almost identical to
those in use today for expounding the theory of the r function, ends up with
the infinite product for I (!,!) = ~ = (r (~»2; it is not difficult besides to
make the method correct by means of integration by parts and very simple
changes of variables, and by considering I(m, n) for all real values of m and
n, which he could hardly have thought of, but which the Newtonian analysis
would soon make possible. It is in any case the "interpolation" carried out by
Wallis of the integers ( m; n ) to non integral values of m (more precisely
to values of the form n = p/2, with p an odd integer) which provides a point
of departure for Newton when he starts out ([198 d], pp. 204-206), bringing
him, first to the study of a particular case (1- z2) p/ 2, to the binomial series,
from there to the introduction of zG (denoted thus) for all real a, and to
the differentiation of zG by means of the binomial series; all that without
great effort for obtaining rigorous proofs or even definitions; what is more,
a remarkable innovation, it is from the knowledge of the derivative of zG
that he deduces f zGdz for a #:- -1 ([233 a], v. I, pp. 3-26 and [198 d], p.
225). For the remainder, and although he was soon in possession of much
more general methods for expansions in power series, such as the method
of Newton's polygon so-called (for algebraic functions) ([198 d], p. 221) and
that of indeterminate coefficients, he returns often in what follows, with a
kind of predilection, to the binomial series and to its generalisations; and it
is from there, for example, that he seems to have drawn out the expansion of
J zQ(1 + z)" dz which was referred to above ([198 d], p. 209).
The evolution of ideas on the continent, meanwhile, is very different, and
much more abstract. Pascal had drawn close to Fermat in the study of bi-
nomial coefficients (from which he constructs what he calls the "arithmetic
triangle") and their use in the calculation of probabilities and in the calcula-
tion of differences; when he tackles integration, he introduces there the same
= J:
ideas. Like his predecessors, when he uses the language of indivisibles, he
conceives of the integral F(z) /(z)dz as the value of the ratio of the
"sum of all the ordinates of the curve"
to the "unit" N = 2: 0 < <N 1 for N = 00 ([244], v. VIII, pp. 352-355) (or,
when he abandons thisYanguage for the correct language of exhaustion, as
a limit of this ratio for N growing indefinitely). But, having problems about
moments in view, he observes that, when it is a matter of discrete masses lIi
spread out at equidistant intervals, the calculation of the total mass reduces
to the operation 811n defined above, and the calculation of the moment to the
operation 8 2 11n; and, by analogy, he iterates the operation J to form what he
calls the "triangular sum of the ordinates" , thus, in our language, the limits
of the sums N- 2 8 2 (J (N)), that is to say the integrals F2(Z) = folll F(z)dz;
a new iteration gives him the "pyramidal sums" F3(Z) = f: F2(Z)dz, lim-
its of N- ~ (J
3 tv)); the context besides is sufficient to show that, if he
stops there, it is not because of a lack of generality in his thought nor in his
language, but solely because he only expects to use these, whose systematic
employment is at the basis of a good part of his results, and of which he
proves immediately the properties that we would write as
11
F2(Z) = 10 (z - u)/(u)du, F3 = 211111
0 (z - u)2/(u)du
([244], v. VIII, pp. 361-367); all that without writing a single formula, but
in a language so transparent and so precise that one can immediately tran-
scribe it into formulae as has just been done. With Pascal as with his pre-
decessors, but in a much clearer and more systematic way, the choice of the
independent variable (which is always one of the co-ordinates, or the arc of
the curve) is implicit in the convention that fixes the equidistant subdivi-
sion points (although "infinitely near") of the intervals of integration; these
points, respectively, are, either on Oz, or on 011, or on the arc of the curve,
and Pascal takes care never to allow any ambiguity about this to remain
([244], v. VIII, pp. 368-369). When he has to change variables, he does it by
means of a principle which reduces to saying that the area f f(z)dz can be
written as S(f(Zi)tlzi), for every subdivision of the interval of integration
into "infinitely small" intervals tlZj, equal or not ([244], v. IX, pp. 61-68).
As can be seen, we are already very near Leibniz; and it is, it might be said,
a lucky break that this latter, when he wished to be initiated into modern
mathematics, met Huygens, who immediately put Pascal's writings into his
hands ([198 d], pp. 407-408); he was particularly well prepared for this by his
thoughts on combinatorial analysis, and we know that he made a deep study
of it, which is reflected in his work. In 1675, we see him transcribing Pascal's
theorem above in the form omn( zw) = z. omnw - omn(omn w), where omn w
is an abbreviation for the integral of w taken from 0 to z, for which Leibniz,
a few days later, substitutes f w (initial of "summa omnium w") at the same
time as he introduces d for the infinitely small "difference" , or, as he will soon
say, the differential ([198 d], pp. 147- 167). Conceiving of these "differences"
as quantities which are comparable amongst themselves but not with finite
quantities, he takes besides most often, explicitly or not, the differential dz of
the independent variable z as unity, dz = 1 (which amounts to identifying the
differential dy with the derivative t), and at first omits it from his notation
for the integral, which thus appears as f y rather than f ydz; but he does
not delay introducing this, and keeps to it systematically once he realises its
invariant character with respect to the choice of independent variable, which
dispenses with having this choice constantly in mind;9 and he shows no little
satisfaction, when he returns to the study of Barrow that he had neglected up
till then, in noting that the general theorem of change of variables, of which
Barrow makes such a big thing, follows on immediately from his own notation
([198 d], p. 412). In all this as it happens, he keeps very close to the calculus
of differences, from which his differential calculus can be deduced by going
to the limit which of course he would be hard put to justify rigorously; and
in what followed he voluntarily insists on the fact that his principles apply
without change to both one and the other. He quotes explicitly Pascal, for
example, when in his correspondence with Johann Bernoulli ([198 a], v. III,
p. 156), referring to his first researches, he gives a formula for the calculation
it by "passing to the limit" the formula y = Er (-1t -a.

of differences which is a particular case of that of Newton, and deduces from
~~ (where y is
a function which is zero for z = 0, and the ~ are its derivatives for the
value z of the variable) a formula equivalent to a similar one that Bernoulli
communicated to him ([198 a], v. III, p. 150 and [20 a], v. I, pp. 125-128), and
that this latter proves by successive integration by parts. This formula, as can
9 "I warn that care should be taken not to omit dx ... a mistake commonly com-
mitted, and which prevents going forward, because by that is taken away from these
indivisibles, such as dx here, their generality .. . from which are born innumerable
transfigurations and equipollences of figures." ([198 a], v. V, p. 233).
be seen, is very close to Taylor series; and it is even the argument of Leibniz,
going to the limit starting with the calculus of differences, that Taylor finds
again in 1715 to obtain "his" series [305],10 without besides making great use
of it.
F) One would have already seen, implicit in the evolution described above,
the progressive algebraisation of infinitesimal analysis, that is to say its reduc-
tion to an operational calculus furnished with a uniform system of notation
of an algebraic character. As Leibniz had indicated several times with perfect
clarity ([198 a], v. V, pp. 230-233), it was a case of doing for the new analysis
what Viete had done for the theory of equations, and Descartes for geometry.
In order to understand its necessity, just read a few pages of Barrow; at no
time is it possible not to have under one's eyes a figure, sometimes compli-
cated, described beforehand with meticulous care; no less than 180 figures
are needed for the 100 pages (Lect. V-XII) which form the essential part of
the work.
It could hardly have been a question of algebraisation, it is true, before
some unity had appeared amongst the multiplicity of geometric appearances.
Meanwhile Gregoire de St. Vincent [135] already introduces (under the name
f:
of "ductus plani in planum") a kind of law of composition which reduces to
the systematic use of integrals f( z )g( z )dz considered as volumes of solids
a :::; z :::; b,O :::; y :::; f(z),O :::; z :::; g(z); but he is far from drawing out
the consequences that Pascal later deduces, as has been seen, from study of
the same solid. Wallis in 1655, and Pascal in 1658, forge, each for his own
use, languages of algebraic character, in which, without writing any formula,
they draw up statements that can immediately be transcribed into formulae
of the integral calculus as soon as their mechanism has been understood.
The language of Pascal is particularly clear and precise; and, if it can not be
understood why he refused to allow himself the use of the algebraic notations,
not only of Descartes, but even of Vif~te, one can only admire the tour de
force that he accomplished, and which his mastery of language was the only
means of his being capable of doing.
But just let a few years go by, and everything changes. Newton first con-
ceives of the idea of replacing all the operations, of a geometric character,
of contemporary infinitesimal analysis, by a unique analytic operation, dif-
ferentiation, and by the solution of the inverse problem; an operation that
it is well understood the method of power series allowed him to carry out
10 For the calculus of differences, Taylor could naturally rely on the results of New-
ton, contained in a famous lemma of the Principia ([233 b], Book III, lemma 5) and
published more fully in 1711 ([233 a], v. I, pp. 271-282). As for the idea of passing
to the limit, it seems typically Leibnizian; and it would be difficult to believe in the
originality of Taylor on this point if there were not known from all periods many
examples of disciples ignorant of all except the writings of their master and patron.
Taylor quotes neither Leibniz nor Bernoulli; but the Newton-Leibniz controversy
was raging, Taylor was secretary of the Royal Society and Sir Isaac was its all
powerful president.
with extreme facility. Borrowing his language, we have seen, from the fiction
of a universal "temporal" parameter, he qualifies as ''fluents'' the quantities
varying as a function of this parameter, and as ''fluxions'' their derivatives.
He does not seem to have attached particular importance to the notations,
and his devoted supporters later even boast that the absence of a systematic
notation is an advantage; he nevertheless picks up the habit early on, for his
personal use, of denoting fluxion by a point, thus ~ by :i:, f,i by i, etc ..
As for integration, it appears that Newton, exactly like Barrow, never saw it
except as a problem (find the fluent knowing the fluxion, thus solve :i: = /(t»,
and not as an operation; also he has no name for the integral, nor, it seems,
I
standard notation (except sometimes a square /~t{ lor O/(t) for f /(t)dt).
Is it because he dislikes giving a name and a sym 0 to an object that is not
defined in a unique way, but only up to an additive constant?) Lacking a
text, the question can only be asked.
As much as Newton is empirical, concrete, circumspect in his greatest
boldness, so much is Leibniz systematic, generalisor, adventurous and some-
times rash innovator. From his youth, he had in mind the idea of a "char-
acteristic" or universal symbolic language, which would be to the whole of
human thought what algebraic notation was to algebra, where each name or
symbol was the key to all the qualities of the object symbolised, and that
could not be employed correctly without at the same time reasoning correctly
(see p. 6). It is easy to treat such a project as fanciful; it is not by chance
though that its author was the man himself who was soon to recognise and
isolate the fundamental concepts of the infinitesimal calculus, and endow it
with more or less definitive notations. We have already assisted above at the
birth of these, and observed the care with which Leibniz, who seems aware of
his mission, modifies them progressively until he ensures the simplicity and
above all the invariance that he is seeking ([198 a), v. V, pp. 220-226 and
226-233). What is important to note here, is, as soon as he introduces them
(without knowing anything yet of the ideas of Newton), the clear conception
of f and of d, of the integral and the differential, as inverse operators one of
the other. It is true that in proceeding in this way he can not avoid the ambi-
guity inherent in the indefinite integral, which is the weak point of his system,
over which he slides adroitly, like his successors. But what is striking, from
the first appearance of the new symbols, is to see Leibniz immediately busy
with the formulation of rules of use, asking himself if d(zy) = dzdy ([198 d],
pp. 165-166), and answering himself in the negative, to arrive progressively at
the correct rule ([198 a], v. V, pp. 220-226), which he was later to generalise
by his famous rule for cf'(zy) ([198 a), v. III, p. 175). Of course, at the time at
which Leibniz is groping thus, Newton knew for ten years already that z = zy
=
implies z xy + zy; but he never takes the trouble to say it, only seeing it
as a particular case, not worthy of being named, of his rule for differentiating
the relation F(z, y, z) = 0 between fluents. On the contrary, the principal
concern of Leibniz is not to make his methods useful for the solution of such
concrete problems, nor even to deduce them from rigorous and impregnable
principles, but above all to put in train an algorithm relying on the formal
handling of a few simple rules. It is in this spirit that he improves the alge-
braic notation by the use of parentheses, that he adopts progressively log z or
Ix for the 10garithm,11 and that he insists on the "exponential calculus" , that
is to say, the systematic consideration of exponentials, af/:, xf/: , xII, where the
exponent is a variable. Above all, while Newton does not introduce fluxions of
a higher order except strictly in proportion to the necessity in each concrete
case, Leibniz turns early towards the creation of an "operational calculus"
I;
by the iteration of d and of becoming aware little by little of the analogy
between the multiplication of numbers and the composition of operators in
his calculus, he adopts, by a fortunate boldness, the notation for exponents
to write the iterates of d, writing thus d" for the n-th iterate <(198 d], pp.
595 and 601,12 and [198 al, v. V, pp. 221 and 378) and even d- ,d- n for J
and its iterates ([198 a], v. III, p. 167); and he seeks even to give a meaning
to da for Q an arbitrary real ([198 a], v. II, pp. 301-302, and v. III, p. 228).
That is not to say that Leibniz is not also interested in the applications
of his calculus, knowing well (as Huygens repeats to him often ([198 d], p.
599» that they are its touch stone; but be lacks patience to go deeply into
them, and seeks there above all the opportunity for new general rules. It is
thus that in 1686 ([198 a], v. VII, pp. 326-329) he deals with the curvature
of curves, and with the osculating circle, to end up in 1692 ([198 a], v. VII,
pp. 331-337) with general principles on the contacts of plane curves;13 in
1692 ([198 a], v. V, pp. 266-269) and in 1694 ([198 a], v. V, pp. 301-306) he
sets down the basis for the theory of envelopes; concurrently with Johann
Bernoulli, he effects in 1702 and 1703 the integration of rational fractions
by decomposition into simple elements, but first of all in a formal manner
and without fully realising the circumstances that accompany the presence
of complex linear factors in the denominator ([198 a], v. V, pp. 350-366). It is
thus again that one day in August 1697, meditating in a carriage on questions
of the calculus of variations, he has the idea for the rule for differentiation
with respect to a parameter under the sign Ii and, enthusiastic, sends it
straightaway to Bernoulli ([198 a], v. III, pp. 449-454). But when he gets
11 But he does not have any symbol for the trigonometric functions, nor (for lack
of a symbol for e) for the "number whose logarithm is x".
12 " ••• it is just about as if, instead of roots and powers, one would like to substitute
letters, and instead 0/ xx, or x 3 , take m, or n, after hatJing declared that they must
be powers of the quantity x. Judge, Sirs, how that was embarrassing. It is the same
with dx or with ddx, and the differences are no less attachments of indeterminate
quantities in their places, than the powers are attachments of a quantity set apart.
It seems to me then that it is more natural to denote them in such a way that they
make known immediately the quantity 0/ which thell are attachments."
13 On that he commits first an unusual error, believing that the "circle that kisses"
(the osculating circle) has at the point of contact four points in common with the
curve; and he only surrenders with difficulty, later on, to the objections of the
Bernoulli brothers on that point ([198 a], v. III, pp. 187-188, 201-202 and 207).
there, the fundamental principles of his calculus have been secured for a long
time, and their use has started to spread: the algebraisation of infinitesimal
analysis is an accomplished fact.
G) The notion of junction is introduced and made precise in a multitude
of ways during the XVIIth century. All dynamics is based on an intuitive,
and in some way experimental, idea, of quantities varying with time, that
is to say functions of time, and we have already seen how we end up thus
at a function of one parameter, such as it appears with Barrow, and, under
the name of fluent, with Newton. The notion of "arbitrary curve" appears
often, but is rarely made precise; it may be that often it is thought of in a
dynamic form or in any case experimental form, and that without it being
judged necessary that a curve should be capable of a geometric or analytic
characterisation in order to be of use as an object of reasoning; it is so, in
particular (for reasons that we are better able to understand today) when
it is a case of integration, for example with Cavalieri, Pascal and Barrow;
this latter, reasoning about the curve defined by z = ct,lI = f(t), with the
hypothesis that -i is increasing, even says expressly that "it matters not"
that -i increases "regularly following an arbitrary law, or even irregularl7/'
([16 b], p. 191) that is to say, as we would say, were capable or not of an
analytic definition. Unfortunately this clear and fruitful idea, which would,
made appropriately precise, reappear in the XIXth century, could not fight
against the confusion created by Descartes, when this latter had, in the first
case, banned from "geometry" all curves not capable of a precise analytic
definition, and in the second case restricted only to algebraic operations the
admissible procedures of formation in such a definition. It is true that, on
this last point, he is not followed by the majority of his contemporaries; little
by little, and often by very subtle detours, various transcendental operations,
the logarithm, the exponential, the trigonometric functions, quadratures, the
solution of differential equations, passing to the limit, the summing of series,
acquired the right of being quoted, without it being easy in each case to
mark the precise moment when the step forward is being taken; and besides
the first step forward is often followed by a step back. For the logarithm,
for example, one must consider as important stages the apparition of the
logarithmic curve (,1 = =
a'" or 11 logz according to the choice of axes),
of the logarithmic spiral, the quadrature of the hyperbola, the expansion in
series of log(1 + z), and even the adoption of the symbollogz or Iz. In what
concerns the trigonometric functions, and even though in a certain sense they
go back to antiquity, it is interesting to note that the sinusoidal curve does
not appear at first as being defined by an equation 11 = sinz, but just, with
Roberval ([263], pp. 63-65), as a "companion of the roulette" (in fact, it is a
case of the curve
that is to say as an auxiliary curve whose definition is deduced from that of

the cycloid. To meet the general notion of analytic expression, we must go
to J. Gregory, who defined it in 1667 ([169 al, p. 413), as a quantity which

is obtained starting from other quantities by a succession of algebraic opera-
tions "or of every other imaginable operation"; and he tries to make precise
this notion in his preface ([169 a], pp. 408-409), by explaining the necessity of
adjoining to the five operations of algebra14 a sixth operation, which in none
other in the end than passing to the limit. But these interesting thoughts
are soon forgotten, submerged by the torrent of expansions in series discov-
ered by Gregory himself, Newton, and others; and the prodigious success of
this last method created an enduring confusion between functions that were
susceptible to analytic definitions, and functions expandable in power series.
As for Leibniz, he seems to keep to the Cartesian point of view, expanded
by the explicit adjunction of quadratures, and by the implicit adjunction of
the other operations familiar to the analysis of his time, summation of power
series, solution of differential equations. In the same way Johann Bernoulli,
when he wishes to consider an arbitrary function of z, introduces it as "a
quantity made up in any way starting from z and constants" ([198 al, v. III,
p. 150), specifying sometimes that it is a matter of a quantity made up "in an
algebraic or transcendental manner' ([198 a], v. III, p. 324): and, in 1698, he
agrees with Leibniz to give to 8uch a quantity the name "function of z" ([198
a], v. III, pp. 507-510 and 525-526).15 Already Leibniz had introduced the
words "constant", "variable", "parameter", and specified in connection with
envelopes the notion of a family of curves depending on one or more parame-
ters ([198 a], v. V, pp. 266-269). The questions about notation become precise
also in correspondence with Johann Bernoulli: this latter readily writes X, or
e, for an arbitrary function of z ([198 a], v. III, p. 531); Leibniz approves, but
also proposes ~e.l, ~1~.1 where we would write l1(z), h(z); and he proposes,
for the derivative : of a function z of z, the notation (lz (in contrast to dz
which is the differential) whereas Bernoulli writes Lb ([198 a], v. III, pp. 537
and 526).
Thus, with this century, the heroic era comes to an end. The new calculus,
with its notions and notations, is constituted, in the form that Leibniz gave
it. The first disciples, Jakob and Johann Bernoulli, vie in discoveries with the
master, exploring freely the rich territories to which he had shown the way.
The first treatise on differential and integral calculus was written in 1691 and
11 They consist of the four rational operations, and the extraction of roots of ar-
bitrary order; J. Gregory never ceased to believe in the possibility of solving by
radicals equations of all degrees.
15 Until then, and already in a manuscript of 1673, Leibniz had used this word u
an abbreviation to designate a quantity "fulfilling such or such a function" for a
curve, for example the length of the tangent or the normal (limited to the curve and
Ox), or the sub normal, the sub tangent, etc.•.. , thus in conclusion a function of
a point varying on the curve, with. a geometrico-differential definition. In the same
manuscript of 1673, the curve is assumed defined by a relation between :r: and fI,
"given by an equation" (that is to say, in our language, algebraic) (d. [217]).
1692 by Johann Bernoulli,16 for the use of a marquis who shows himself a
good pupil. It matters little besides that Newton decided finally, in 1693, to
publish parcimoniously a short glimpse of his fluxions ([326 a], v. II, pp. 391-
396); if his Principia have enough to supply the meditation of more than a
century, on the ground of the infinitesimal calculus he has been joined, and
on many points overtaken.
The weaknesses of the new system are besides visible, at least to our eyes.
Newton and Leibniz, abolishing at a stroke a tradition two millennia old,
gave the primary role to differentiation, and reduced integration to being
only its inverse; it will take the whole of the XIXth century, and a part of
the XXth century, to re-establish a fair equilibrium, by putting integration
as the basis of the general theory of functions of a real variable, and of
its modern generalisation (see p. 223). It is from this reversal of points of
view also that follows the excessive, and almost exclusive, role, taking place
already with Barrow, and especially starting with Newton and Leibniz, played
by the indefinite integral at the cost of the definite integral: there also the
XIXth century had to put matters back in their place. Finally the properly
Leibnizian tendency to a formal handling of symbols was to go on being
emphasised throughout the whole of the XVllIth century, well beyond what
could be allowed by the resources of the analysis of the time. In particular,
it must be recognised that the Leibnizian notion of a differential has, truth
to tell no meaning; at the beginning of the XIXth century, it fell into a
disrepute from which it has only recovered little by little; and, if the use of
first differentials ended up by being completely legitimised, the differentials
of higher order, although so useful, have not yet been really rehabilitated to
our day.
Whatever the case, the history of the differential and integral calculus,
starting with the end of the XVllth century, is divided into two parts. One
is concerned with the applications of this calculus, always richer, more nu-
merous and more varied. To the differential geometry of plane curves, to dif-
ferential equations, to power series, to the calculus of variations, which have
already been referred to above, have been joined the differential geometry
of ill-shaped curves, then of surfaces, multiple integrals, partial differential
equations, trigonometric series, the study of numerous special functions, and
many other types of problems. We only should be concerned here with work
which has contributed to clearing up, deepening and consolidating the very
principles of the infinitesimal calculus, in what concerns functions of a real
variable.
16 The part of this treatise which is concerned with. the integral calculus was pub-
lished in 1742 only ([20 a], v. III, pp. 385-558 and [20 b]); that which is concerned
with the differential calculus wu only found again and published recently [20 c]j it
is true that the marquis de I'H6pitai had published it in French, slightly modified,
under his own name, which is remarked on with some bitterness by Bernoulli in his
letters to Leibniz.
From this point of view, the great treatises of the middle of the XVII-
Ith century offer few novelties. Maclaurin in England 17 [214), Euler on the
continent ([108 a), (1), vv. X to XIII), remained faithful to the traditions of
which each one was the inheritor. It is true that the first tries hard to clarify
somewhat the Newtonian concepts18 whereas the second, pushing Leibnizian
formalism to an extreme, is content, like Leibniz and Taylor, to base the
differential calculus on a very obscure passage to the limit starting with the
calculus of differences, a calculus of which as it happens he gives a very
polished exposition. But above all Euler finishes the work of Leibniz by in-
troducing and ensuring the adoption of the notation still in use today for e, i
and the trigonometric functions, and spreading the notation 1f'. On the other
hand, and if most of the time he does not make any distinction between func-
tions and analytic expressions, he insists, in connection with trigonometric
series and the problem of vibrating strings, on the need not to limit on~
self to the functions thus defined (and that he qualifies as "continuous") but
to consider also, if the need arises, arbitrary, or "discontinuous", functions
given experimentally by one or more arcs of a curve ([108 a), (1), v. XXIII,
pp. 74-91). Finally, even though this is somewhat outside our framework, it
is not possible not to mention here his extension of the exponential function
to the complex domain, from which he obtains the famous formulae linking
the exponential to the trigonometric functions, as well as the definition of
the logarithm of complex numbers; from that is elucidated definitively the
famous analogy between the logarithm and the inverse circular functions, or,
in the language of the XVIIth century, between the quadratures of the circle
and of the hyperbola, observed already by Gregoire de St. Vincent, made
precise by Huygens and above all by J. Gregory, and which, with Leibniz and
Bernoulli, appeared in the formal integration of
1 i i
1 + z2 = 2( z + i) - 2( z - i)'
Meanwhile d' Alembert, the enemy of all mysticism in mathematics as
elsewhere, had, in remarkable articles ([75 a), articles DIFFERENTIEL and
LIMITE, and [75 b)), defined with the greatest clarity the notions of limit
and of derivative, and maintained strongly that in the end that is all the
"metaphysics" of the infinitesimal calculus. But this wise advice did not have
any immediate effect. The monumental work of Lagrange ([191], vv. IX-X)
represents an attempt to base analysis on one of the most arguable of the
Newtonian concepts, that which confuses the notions of arbitrary functions
and that of functions which can be expanded in a power series, and to draw
from that (by consideration of the coefficient of the term of the first order
11 Maclaurin was professor at Edinburgh in Scotland (translator's note).
18 They had great need, indeed, to be defended against the phllosophico-theologico-
humoristic attacks of the famoUB bishop Berkeley. According to him, those who
believe in fluxions should not find it very difficult to have faith in the mysteries of
religion: an argument ad hominem, which was not lacking in logic or in spice.
in the series) the notion of differentiation. Of course, a mathematician of

the quality of Lagrange could not fail to obtain in this case important and
useful results, as for example (and in a way which was in fact independent
of the point of departure that we have just indicated) the general proof of
the formula of Taylor with the expression for the remainder in the form of
an integral, and its evaluation by the theorem of the mean; in any case the
work of Lagrange is at the origin of the method of Weierstrass in the theory
of functions of a complex variable, as well as the modern algebraic theory
of formal series. But, from the point of view of its immediate objective, it
represents a retreat rather than progress.
With the teaching works of Cauchy, on the contrary ([56 a], (2), v. IV)
we find ourselves at last on solid ground. He defines a function essentially as
we do it today, even though in a language which is still rather vague. The
notion of limit, fixed once and for all, is taken as the point of departure;
those of continuous function (in the modern meaning) and of derivative are
immediately deduced, as well as their principal elementary properties; and
the existence of the derivative, instead of being an act of faith, becomes a
matter of study by the ordinary methods of analysis. Cauchy truth to tell, is
hardly interested in this; and on the other hand, if Bolzano, having reached on
his part the same principles, constructed an example of a continuous function
not having a derivative at any point [27 al, this example was not published,
and the question was only publicly settled by Weierstrass, in a work in 1872
([329 a], v. II, pp. 71-74).
As far as integration is concerned, the work of Cauchy represents a return

to the sane traditions of antiquity and the first part of the XVllth century, but
relying on technical means which are s~ill insufficient. The definite integral,
J:
passed over into second place for too long, becomes again the primary notion,
for which Cauchy ensures the definitive adoption of the notation J(z)dz
proposed by Fourier (instead of the awkward J J(z)dz [ : ~ : ] some-
times used by Euler); and, in order to define it, Cauchy returns to the method
of exhaustion, or as we would say, to "Riemann sums" (which would be better
called sums of Archimedes, or sums of Eudoxus). It is true that the XVllth
century did not deem it necessary to submit the notion of area to a critical ex-
amination, an idea which had appeared to-them to be at least as clear as that
of incommensurable real number; but the convergence of "Riemann" sums to
the area under the curve, so long as it is the case of a monotonic curve or a
piecewise monotonic curve, was a familiar idea to all the authors concerned
with rigour in the XVlIth century, such as Fermat, Pascal, Barrow; and J.
Gregory, particularly well prepared by his thoughts on the passage to the
limit and his familiarity with an already very abstract form of the principle
of "nested intervals", had even drawn up, it would appear, a careful proof,
which remained unpublished ([136 d], pp. 445-446), which could have been
of use to Cauchy almost without any change if he had known it. 19 Unfortu-
nately for him, Cauchy claimed to prove the existence of the integral, that is
to say the convergence of the "Riemann sums" , for an arbitrary continuous
function; and his proof, which would have become correct if it were based on
the theorem on uniform continuity of functions continuous in a closed inter-
val, is stripped of all convincing value for lack of this notion. Dirichlet does
not seem to have seen either the difficulty at the time when he drew up his
famous memoirs on trigonometric series, since he quotes there the theorem
in question as "easy to prove" ([92], v. I, p. 136); it is true that he only
applies it definitively to bounded piecewise monotonic functions; Riemann,
more circumspect, only mentions these latter when it is a matter of using his
necessary and sufficient condition for the convergence of "Riemann sums"
([259 a], pp. 227-271). Once the theorem on uniform continuity had been es-
tablished by Heine (cf. p. 145), the matter did not offer any more difficulties
of course; and it is easily dealt with by Darboux in 1875 in his memoir on
the integration of discontinuous functions [77], a memoir in which he meets
on many points with the important researches of P. du Bois-Reymond, which
appeared at about the same time. In the same way for the first time, but
this time definitively, the linearity of the integral of continuous functions is
proved. On the other hand, the notion of uniform convergence of a sequence
or series, introduced among others by Seidel in 1848, and put into promi-
nence in particular by Weierstrass (cf. p. 205) had allowed the construction
of a solid basis, under conditions that were a bit too restrictive it is true, for
the integration of series term by term, and for differentiation under the I
sign, while awaiting modern theories of which we do not have to speak here,
and which would clarify these questions in a manner which is provisionally
definitive.
We have thus attained the final stage of the classical infinitesimal calculus,
that which is represented by the great Treatises on Analysis of the end of the
XIXth century; from the point of view that concerns us, that of Jordan [174
c] occupies amongst them a pre-eminent place, for aesthetic reasons on the
one hand, but also because, if it constitutes an admirable setting out of the
results of classical analysis, it announces in many ways modern analysis and
prepares the way for it.
18 It is at lell.llt what is indicated by the resume given by Turnbull from the

manuscript.
18. ASYMPTOTIC EXPANSIONS.
The distinction between the "infinitely small" (or "infinitely great") of various
orders, appears implicitly from the first writings on differential Calculus, and
for example in those of Fermat; it becomes fully conscious with Newton and
Leibniz, with the theory of "differences of higher order"; and no time is lost
in observing that, in the simplest cases, the limit (or "true value") of an
expression of the form I(z)/g(z) , at a point where I and 9 both tend to
0, is given by the Taylor expansion of these functions in a neighbourhood
of the point under consideration ("I'Hopital's rule", due probably to Johann
Bernoulli).
Apart from this elementary case, the main problem of "asymptotic ex-
pansion" which presents itself to mathematicians already at the end of the
XVllth century is the calculation, exact or approximate, of sums of the form
L:~=l !(Ie), when n is very large; such a calculation is in effect necessary as
much for interpolation and the numerical evaluation of the sum of a series, as
in the Calculus of probabilities, where the ''functions of large numbers" such
as n! or ( : ) playa preponderant role. Already Newton, in order to obtain
approximate values of L::=1 ah when n is large, indicates a method that
reduces (in this particular case) to calculating the first terms of the Euler-
Maclaurin formula ([262], v. II, pp. 309-310). Towards the end of the century,
Jakob Bernoulli, in the course of his research on the Calculus of probabili-
ties, proposes determining the sums S.(n) = L:;=1 p., polynomials l in n for
which he discovers the general formation law (without giving a proof of it),
introducing thus for the first time, in the expression for the coefficients of
these polynomials, the numbers that bear his name, and the recurrence re-
lation that enables their calculation ([19 b], p. 97). In 1730, Stirling obtains
an asymptotic expansion for L:~=llog(z + ka), n growing indefinitely, by a
procedure for the calculation of the coefficients by recurrence.
From 1730 to 1745 is dated the decisive work of Euler on series and the
relevant questions. Setting Sen) = L:.=1 !(Ie), he applies Taylor's formula to
the function Sen), which gives him
dS 1 d2S 1 d's
= =
I(n) Sen) - Sen - 1) dn - 2! dn2 + 3! dns - ... ,
-,----
They are the primitives of the "Bernoulli polynomials" BJo(z).
1
200 18. ASYMPTOTIC EXPANSIONS.
an equation that he "inverts" by the method of indeterminate coefficients,

while looking for a solution of the form
Sen) = a J 4f d2 f
f(n)dn + f3f(n) + 'Y dn + c5 dn 2 + ... ;
he thus obtains step by step
Sen) = J fen) 1 4f 1 rf f 1 d5 f
f(n)dn + -2- + 12 dn - 720 dn 3 + 30,240 dn 5 - •••
without at first being able to determine the formation law for the coefficients
([108 a], (1), v. XIV, pp. 42-72 and 108-123). But around 1735, by analogy
with the decomposition of a polynomial into factors of degree one, he does
not hesitate to write the formula
1- sins =
sin a
(1-~) (1- ~~a) (1- _~s_a) (1-2~:a) (1- -2:+a)···

and in putting the coefficients of the expansions of the two members of the
whole series equal, he obtains in particular (for a = 1) the famous expressions
for the series 2::=1 nk by means of the powers2 of 1r (loc. cit., pp. 73-86).
A few years later, he realises at last that the coefficients of these powers of
~ are given by the same equations as those of his summation formula, and
recognises their link with the numbers introduced by Bernoulli, and with the
coefficients of the expansion in series of z/(e Z -1) (loc. cit., pp. 407-462).
Independently of Euler, Maclaurin had arrived at about the same time at
the same summing formula, by a somewhat less hazardous path, close to that
followed today: he iterates in effect the "Taylorian" formula which expresses
f(x) by means of the differences j<2Hl)(x + 1) - j<2Hl)(z), a formula that
he obtains by "inverting" the Taylor expansions of these differences by the
method of indeterminate coefficients ([214], v. II, pp. 672-675); he does not
notice besides the formation law for the coefficients, discovered by Euler.
all his formulae as expansions in series,

But Maclaurin, like Euler and all the mathematicians of his time, presents
whose convergence is not even studied.
It is not that the notion of convergent series was totally neglected at this time:
it is known from Jakob Bernoulli that the harmonic series is divergent, and
Euler had himself recorded this result while evaluating the sum of the first n
terms of this series by means of his summing formula ([108 a], (1), v. XIV,
2 In 1743, Euler, in order to reply to the various criticisms by his contempo-

raries gives a slightly more plausible derivation of the "Eulerian expansions" of
the trigonometric functiousj for example, the. exp~on as an infinite product ~f
sin x is taken from the expression sin x = -i:(e'S - e-"'%), and from the fact that e's
is the limit of the polynomial (1 + ~)" (loc. cit., pp. 138-155).
18. ASYMPTOTIC EXPANSIONS. 201
pp. 87-100 and 108-123); it is also Euler who remarks that the ratio of two
consecutive Bernoulli numbers grows indefinitely, and that it follows that an
entire series having these numbers as coefficients can not converge (IDe. cit.,
p. 357).3 But the tendency to a formal calculation is the stronger, and the
extraordinary intuition of Euler himself does not prevent him from lapsing
sometimes into the absurd, when he writes for example 0 =E!:-oo zn (IDe.
cit., p. 362).4
We have said elsewhere (see p. 153) how the mathematicians of the be-
ginning of the XIXth century, tired of this formalism without restraint and
without basis, brought Analysis back into the paths ofrigour. Once the notion
of a convergent series is made precise, the necessity appeared for simple crite-
ria providing a proof of the convergence of integrals and series by comparison
with known integrals or series; Cauchy gives a certain number of criteria in
his Analyse algebrique ([56 a], (2), v. III), whereas Abel, in a posthumous
memoir ([1], v. II, pp. 197-205), obtains logarithmic criteria of convergence.
Cauchy, on the other hand ([56 a], (1), v. VIII, pp. 18-25), elucidates the
paradox of series such as the Stirling series, obtained by the application of
the Euler-Maclaurin formula (and often called "semi-convergent series"): he
shows that if (because of the remark of Euler on the Bernoulli numbers) the
general term UA: (n) of such a series, for a Jized value of n, grows indefinitely
with Ie, it remains none the less that, for a Jized value of Ie, the partial sum
8A:(n) = E:=l uh(n) gives an asymptotic expansion (for n tending to +00) of
the function "represented" by the series, all the more accurate as Ie is larger.
In the majority of the calculations of classical Analysis, it is possible
to obtain a general formation law for asymptotic expansions of a function,
having an arbitrarily large number of terms; this fact contributed to creating
a lasting confusion (at least in the language) between series and asymptotic
expansions; so much so that H. Poincare, when he takes the trouble, in 1886
([251 a], v. I, pp. 290-296), of codifying the elementary rules of asymptotic
expansions (following the integral powers of l/z in the neighbourhood of
+00), uses still the vocabulary of the theory of series. It is only with the
appearance of asymptotic expansions coming from the analytic theory of
numbers that there was a clear distinction operating between the notion of
asymptotic expansion and that of series, by reason of the fact that, in the
majority of problems that this theory deals with, only a very small number
of terms (most often only one) in the sought for expansion can be obtained
explicitly.
3 As the series that Euler considers at this point is introduced in connection with
numerical calculation, he only takes the BUm of terma that are decreasing, and
beginning with the index where the terms start to grow, he replaces them with a
remainder of which he does not indicate the origin (the remainder of the Euler-
Maclaurin formula in its general form does not appear before Cauchy).
• It is ironic that this formula shonld follow, at a distance of a page, a passage
where Euler warns against the unconsidered use of divergent series!
202 18. ASYMPTOTIC EXPANSIONS.
These problems also made mathematicians familiar with the use of scales
of comparison other than those of powers of the variable (real or integral).
This extension goes back to the work of P. du .Bois-Reymond [94 a and b]
who, first, tackled systematically the problems of comparing functions in the
neighbourhood of a point, and, in very original works, recognised the "non-
Archimedean" character of the scales of comparison, at the same time as he
studied in a general way the integration and differentiation of the comparison
relations, and drew from this a large number of interesting consequences [94
b]. His proofs however lacked clarity and rigour, and it is to G. H. Hardy
[147] that the correct presentation of the results of du Bois-Reymond is due:
his main contribution consisted in recognising and proving the existence of a
set of "elementary functions", the functions (H), where the usual operations
of Analysis (notably differentiation) are applicable to comparison relations.
19. THE GAMMA FUNCTION.
The idea of "interpolating" a sequence (un) by the values of an integral

=
dependant on a real parameter A and equal to Un for A n, goes back to
Wallis (cf. pp. 187 fr.). It is this idea that was the main guide for Euler when,
in 1730 ([108 a], (1), v. XIV, pp. 1-24), he has the idea of interpolating the
sequence of factorials. He starts by remarking that n! is equal to the infinite
product n~1 (!tl) n '!n' that this product is defined for every value of n
(integral or not), and that in particular, for n = l it takes the value lv'i from
the formula of Wallis. The analogy of this result with those of Wallis leads him
then to take up again the integral I; ze(1-ztdz (n an integer, e arbitrary),
already considered by this latter. Euler obtains its value (e+1)(e;d) ... (e+n) by
the binomial expansion; a change of variable then shows him that n! is the
limit, for z tending to 0, of the integral I; (17"t dz, whence the "second
Eulerian integral" n! = I01 (log ~t dz; by the same method and the use of
the formula of Wallis, he obtains the formula I01 Vlog idz = iv'i. In his
later work, Euler returns frequently to these integrals; he discovers in this
way the relation of the complements ([108 al, (1), v. XV, p. 82 and v. XVII,
p. 342), the formula B(p,q) = r(p)r(q)/r(p+ q) ([108 al, (1), v. XVII, p.
355), and the particular case of the Legendre-Gauss formula corresponding
to z = 1 ([108 al, (1), v. XIX, p. 483); all of it of course without worrying
about questions of convergence.
Gauss continued the study of the r function in connection with his re-
search on the hypergeometric function, of which the function r is a limit case
([124 a], v. III, pp. 125-162); it is during this research that he obtains the
general formula for multiplication (already noted by Legendre not long before
=
for p 2). The subsequent work on r has mainly been concerned with the
extension of this function to the complex domain. It is only recently that it
has been noticed that the logarithmic convexity property characterised r(z)
(in the real domain) up to a factor amongst all the solutions ofthe functional
equation f(z+ 1) = zf(z) ([26], pp. 149-164); and Artin has shown [7 d] how
all the classical results about r(z) can be simply linked to this property.
20. FUNCTION SPACES.
We know that the notion of an arbitrary function did not emerge much before
the beginning of the XIXth century. All the more 80 the idea of studying
in a general way sets of functions, and furnishing them with a topological
structure, did not appear before Riemann (see p. 141) and does not begin to
be put to use before the end of the XIXth century.
However, the notion of convergence of a sequence of numerical functions
was used in a more or less conscious way since the beginnings of the infinites-
imal Calculus. But it was only a matter of simple convergence and it could
not be otherwise before the notions of convergent series and of continuous
functions had been defined accurately by Bolzano and Cauchy. This latter did
not see at the first attempt the distinction between simple convergence and
uniform convergence, and believed it possible to prove that every convergent
series of continuous functions has as sum a continuous function ([56 a], (2),
vol. III, p. 120). The error was almost immediately uncovered by Abel, who
proved at the same time that every entire series is continuous in the interior of
its convergence interval, by means of the argument that has become a classic
which uses essentially, in this particular case, the idea of uniform convergence
([1], v. I, pp. 223-224). It only remained to disengage this latter in a general
way, which was done independently by Stokes and Seidel in 1847-48, and by
Cauchy himself in 1853 ([56 a], (1), vol. XII, p. 30).1
Under the influence of Weierstrass and of Riemann, the systematic study
of the notion of uniform convergence and of connected questions is developed
in the last third of the XIXth century by the German school (Hankel, du
Bois-Reymond) and especially the Italian school: Dini and Arzela. specify the
necessary conditions for the limit of a sequence of continuous functions to
be continuous, whereas Ascoli introduces the fundamental notion of equicon-
tinuity and proves the theorem characterising compact sets of continuous
functions [to] (a theorem popularised later by Montel in his theory of "nor-
mal families" I which are none other than relatively compact sets of analytic
functions) .
1 In a work dated 1841, but published only in 1894 ([329 al, v. I, pp. 67-74),
Weierstrass uses with perfect clarity the notion of uniform convergence (to which
he gives this name for the first time) for power series of one or several complex
variables.
206 .20. FUNCTION SPACES.
Weierstrass himself discovered on the other hand ([329 a], v. III, pp. 1-
37) the possibility of approximating uniformly by polynomials a continuous
numerical function of one or several real variables on a bounded set, a result
that aroused immediately a lively interest, and led to numerous "quantita-
tive" studies that remain outside the point of view we follow at present.
The modern contribution to these questions consisted above all in giving
them the whole range of which they are capable, by bringing them into play
for functions whose set of definition and set of values are no longer restricted
to R or to spaces of finite dimension, and in placing them thus in their natural
framework, with the help of general topological concepts. In particular, the
theorem of Weierstrass, which had already shown itself to be a tool of the
first order in classical Analysis, could, in these latter years, be extended to
much more general cases by M. H. Stone: developing an idea introduced by
H. Lebesgue (in a proof of the theorem of Weierstrass), he highlighted the
important role played in the approximation of continuous numerical functions
by lattices (approximation by "lattice polynomials"), and showed on the other
hand how the generalised theorem of Weierstrass implies immediately a whole
series of analogous approximation theorems, that are thus grouped in a much
more coherent way [301 c].
21. TOPOLOGICAL VECTOR SPACES.
The general theory of topological vector spaces was founded during the pe-
riod which goes from 1920 to 1930 approximately. But it had been prepared
for a long time before by the study of numerous problems of Functional
Analysis; and its history cannot be retraced without indicating, at least sum-
marily, how the study of these problems gradually brought mathematicians
(especially from the beginning of the XXth century) to become aware of the
common ancestry of the questions under consideration, and of the possibility
of formulating them in a much more general way and of applying to them
uniform solution procedures.
It can be said that the analogies between Algebra and Analysis, and the
idea of considering functional equations (that is to say where the unknown is a
function) as "limit cases" of algebraic equations, go back to the beginnings of
infinitesimal Calculus, which in a kind of way answers this need to generalise
"from the finite to the infinite". But the dire!=t algebraic ancestor of the
infinitesimal Calculus is the calculus of finite differences (cf. pp. 185 ff.), and
not the solution of general linear systems; and it is not before the middle of the
XVIIIth century that the first analogies between this latter and the problems
of the differential Calculus are manifested, in connection with the equation of
vibrating cords. We will not go into the detail of the history of this problem
here; but we must pick up the appearance of two fundamental ideas, which
are found again constantly in what follows, and which both appear to be due
to D. Bernoulli. The first consists in considering the oscillation of the cord
as a "limit case" of the oscillation of a system of n point masses, as n tends
to infinity; it is known that, for n finite, this problem would a little bit later
give the first example of the search for eigenvalues of a linear transformation
(cf. p. 88); there correspond to these numbers, in the "passage to the limit"
being considered, the frequencies of the "proper oscillations" of the cord,
observed experimentally since long before, and whose theoretic existence had
been established (notably by Taylor) at the beginning of the century. This
formal analogy, although fairly rarely mentioned in what followed ([302 b],
p. 390), seems never to have been lost sight of during the XIXth century;
but, as we will see later, it did not acquire its full importance until about
1890-1900.
208 21. TOPOLOGICAL VECTOR SPACES.
The other idea of D. Bernoulli (perhaps inspired by experimental facts) is

the "principle of superposition" , according to which the most general oscilla-
tion of the cord must be capable of being "decomposed" into the superposi-
tion of "proper oscillations" , which, mathematically speaking, means that the
general solution of the equation of vibrating cords must be capable of being
expanded as a series En Cn¢>n(Z, t), where the ¢>n(z, t) represent the proper
oscillations. It is known that this principle was to let loose a long quarrel
on the possibility of expanding an "arbitrary" function as a trigonometric
series, a quarrel that was only settled by the work of Fourier and of Dirich-
let in the first third of the XIXth century. But even before this result was
reached, other examples had been met of expansion in series of "orthogonal" 1
functions: spherical functions and Legendre polynomials, as well as different
systems of the form (ei~ .. 8:), where the An are no longer multiples of the same
number, and which were introduced from the XVIIIth century in oscillation
problems, as well as by Fourier and Poisson during their researches on the
theory of heat. Around 1830, all the phenomena observed in these various
special cases are systematised, by Sturm [302 a and b] and Liouville [204 a
and b] in a general theory of oscillations, for functions of one variable: they
consider the differential equation
dY )
d ( p(z) dz
dz + Ap(z)y = 0 (p(z) > O,p(z) > 0) (21.1)
with boundary conditions
{ y'(a) - h1y(a) (21.2)

y'(b) + h2 y(b)
and prove the following fundamental results:
1) the problem only has a solution ::F 0 when A takes one of the values
from a sequence (An) of numbers> 0, tending to +00;
f:
2) for each An, the solutions are multiples of the same function Vn, that
=
f:
can be assumed to be "normalised" by the condition pv!dz 1, and we
have PVmvn dz = 0 for m:F nj
3) every function f, twice differentiable in [a, b], and satisfying the
f:
boundary conditions (21.2), is expandable as a uniformly convergent series
= =
f:
fez) En cnvn(z), where en pfvndzj
4) we have the equality pf dz = En c! (already proved by Parseval
2
in 1799 - in a purely formal way, besides - for the system of trigonometric
functions, and from which flows immediately the "Bessel inequality" stated
by this latter (still for trigonometric series) in 1828).
Half a century later, these properties are completed by the work of Gram
[133] who, following the researches ofTchebychef, brings to light the relation
between the expansions in series of orthogonal functions and the problem
1 This term does not appear however before the works of Hilbert.
21. TOPOLOGICAL VECTOR SPACES. 209
of the "best quadratic approximation" (issuing directly &om the "method

of least squares" of Gauss, in error theory): this latter consists, given a fi-
J:
nite sequence of functions (."'ltSiSn, of finding, for a function /, the linear
combination Ei OitPi for which the integral p(J - E. OitPi)2dz attains its
minimum. In principle it is a case there only of a basic linear algebra problem,
but Gram solves it in an original way, by applying to the tPi the process of
"orthonormalization" generally known by the name of Erhard Schmidt. Go-
ing on next to the case of an infinite orthogonal system (~n), he sets himself
the question of knowing when the "best quadratic approximation" JAn of a
function / by linear combinations of the first n functions of the sequence,
tends to 0 when n tends to infinityj2 he is thus led to define the notion of a
complete orthonormal system, and recognises that this property is equivalent
to the non-existence of functions #: 0 orthogonal to all the ~n. Be even seeks
to elucidate the concept of "mean quadratic convergence", but, before the
introduction of the fundamental notions of measure theory, he could hardly
obtain any very specific results in this direction.
In the second half of the XIXth century, the main effort of the analysts
is mainly towards the extension of the Sturm-Liouville theory to functions of
several variables, to which led notably the study of partial differential equa-
tions of elliptic type from mathematical Physics, and the boundary problems
that are naturally associated with them. Interest is concentrated principally
on the "vibrating membranes" equation
L~(u) == Llu+ Au =0 (21.3)
where the solutions are sought that are zero on the contour for a fairly regular
domain Gj and it is only little by little that the considerable analytic diffi-
culties presented by this problem were overcome, a problem to which it was
not thought p088ible to apply the methods that had succeeded for functions
of a single variable. Let us remind ourselves of the main stages towards the
solution: the introduction of the "Green's function" of G, whose existence
was proved by Schwarzj the proof, also due to Schwarz, of the existence of
the smallest eigenvalue; finally, in 1894, in a famous memoir ([251 a], v. IX,
pp. 123-196), H. Poincare succeeded in proving the existence and essential
properties of all the eigenvalues, by considering, for a given "second member"
/, the solution u,\ of the equation L,\(u) = / which is zero on the contour,
and in proving, by a clever generalisation of the method of Schwarz, that u~
is a meromorphic function of the complex variable A, having only real simple
poles An, which are precisely, the sought for eigenvalues.
This research is closely linked to the beginnings of the theory of linear
integral equations, which was to contribute no doubt most to the coming of
modern ideas. We will limit ourselves here to giving a few short indications
2 It must be noted that, in all this study, Gram does not Hmit himself to the
f:
consideration of continuous functions, but insists on the importance of the condition
p/2dz < +00.
on the development of this theory. This type of functional equation, having

first appeared sporadically in the first half of the XIXth century (Abel, Li-
ouville), had acquired importance since Beer and C. Neumann had reduced
the solution of "Dirichlet's problem" for a fairly regular domain G, to the
solution of an "integral equation of the second type"
u(Z) + 1 6
K(z, y)u(y)dy = /(z) (21.4)
for an unknown function Uj an equation that C. Neumann had succeeded

in solving by means of a procedure of "successive approximations" in 1877.
Driven no doubt as much by the algebraic analogies already mentioned as by
the results that he had just obtained on the vibrating membranes equation,
H. Poincare, in 1896 ([251 a], v. IX, pp. 202-272), had the idea of introducing
a variable parameter ~ in front of the integral in the preceding equation, and
affirms that, as for the vibrating membranes equation, the solution is then a
meromorphic function of ~j but he does not succeed in proving this result,
which was only established (for a continuous "kernel" K and a finite interval
[a, b)) by I. Fredholm four years later [116]. This latter, more consciously
perhaps even than his predecessors, lets himself be completely guided by the
analogy of (21.4) with the linear system
n 1
2:(61'9 + ~aI'9)z9 = bl' (1 ~ p ~ n) (21.5)
9=1
in order to obtain the solution of (21.4) as a quotient of two expressions con-

structed on the model of determinants that occ~r in the formulae of Cramer.
It was not besides a new idea: from the beginning of the XIXth century, the
method of "indeterminate coefficients" (consisting of obtaining an unknown
function assumed expandable in series En CntPn, where the tPn are known
functions, by calculating the coefficients cn ) had led to "linear systems in an
infinity of unknowns"
00
2: aijZj = bi(i = 1,2, ...). (21.6)

j=l
Fourier, who comes across such a system, "solves" it still like a mathematician
of the XVIIIth century: he suppresses all the terms having an index i or j
greater than n, solves explicitly the finite system thus obtained, by means of
Cramer's rule, then "passes to the limit" by making n tend to +00 in the
solution! When later it was no longer sufficient to play such lazy games of
pass the parcel, it is still by means of the theory of determinants that the first
attempts to attack the problem were madej starting in 1886 (following the
work of Hill), H. Poincare, then H. von Koch, had built a theory of "infinite
determinants" which allows the solution of certain types of systems (21.6)
following the classical model; and if these results were not directly applicable
to the problem Fredholm aimed at, at least it is certain that the theory
of von Koch, in particular, was of use as a model for the formation of his
"determinants" .
It is at this moment that Hilbert enters the scene and gives a new im-
pulsion to the theory [163 b]. He starts by completing the work of Fredholm
in achieving effectively the passage to the limit that leads from the solution
of (21.5) to that of (21.4); but he adds to it immediately the correspond-
ing passage to the limit for the theory of real quadratic forms, to which the
types of integral equations with symmetric kernel (that is to say such that
K(y, z) = K(z, y» were leading naturally, by far the most frequent in math-
ematical Physics. He reaches thus the fundamental formula that generalises
directly the reduction of a quadratic form to its axes
l1' K(., t)'(B).(t)dsdt = j;, ~ (1' ~'(B)'(B)dB) ,, (21.7)
the ~n being the eigenvalues (necessarily real) of t&e kernel K, the tPn form-
f:
ing the orthogonal system of corresponding eigenfunctions, and the second
member of the formula (21.7) being a convergent series for z2(s)dz ~ 1.
He shows also how every function "representable" in the form I(z) =
J: f:
K(z, y)g(y)dy allows the "expansion" E:O=1 tPn tPn(y)/(y)dy, and car-
rying on the analogy with the classical theory of quadratic forms, he indicates
a procedure for the determination of the ~n by a variational method, which
is none other than the extension of the well-known extremal properties of the
axes of a quadric ([163 b], pp. 1-38).
These first results of Hilbert were almost immediately taken up by E.
Schmidt, in a simpler and more general form, avoiding the introduction of
the "Fredholm determinants" as well as the passage from finite to infinite,
and already very near an abstract statement, the fundamental properties of
linearity and of positivity of the integral being visibly used only in the proofs
[274 a]. But already Hilbert had reached conceptions which are much more
general still. All the preceding work brought out the importance of functions
that are square integrable, and the Parseval formula established a tight link
between these functions and the sequences (cn) such that En c! < +00. It is
no doubt this idea that guides Hilbert in his memoirs of 1906 ([163 b], chap.
XI-XIII) where, taking up the old method of "indeterminate coefficients",
he shows that the solution of the integral equation (21.4) is equivalent to a
system of an infinity of linear equations
00
zp + 1:kp9Z9 = 6p (p = 1,2, ...) (21.8)

9=1
for the "Fourier coefficients" zp = f:
u(t)wp(t)dt of the unknown func-
tion u with respect to a given complete orthonormal system (wn) (with
b" =I: f(t)w,,(t)dt and Ie", =I: I:

K(s, t)w,,(s}w, (t)dsdt). AJJ well, the only
solutions of (21.8) to be considered from this point of view are those for which
:.:!
En < +00; also it is to this type of solution that Hilbert systematically
limits himself; but over against that he relaxes the conditions imposed on
the "infinite matrix" (Ie",) (which, in (21.8), is such that E"
Ie;, < +(0).
From that moment, it is clear that the "Hilbert space" of sequences Z = (zn)
of real numbers such that En z!
< +00, although not explicitly introduced,
underlies all the theory, and appears &8 a "passage to the limit" starting from
Euclidean space of finite dimension. Over and above that, what is particu-
larly important for subsequent developments, Hilbert is led to introduce in
this space, not only one, but two distinct notions of convergence (correspond-
ing to what has been called the weak topology and the strong topology8),
as well as a "principle of choice" which is none other than the property of
weak compactness of the unit ball. The new linear algebra that he develops
in connection with the solution of the systems (21.8) rests entirely on these
topological notions: linear maps, linear forms and bilinear forms (associated
with linear maps) are classified and studied according to their "continuity"·
properties. In particular, Hilbert discovers that the success of Fredholm's
method rests on the notion of "complete continuity", that he brings out by
formulating it for bilinear forms l and studying it deeply; we can not give
here more details about this important notion, nor on the admirable and
deep work where Hilbert inaugurates the spectral theory of symmetric bilin-
ear forms (bounded or not).
The language of Hilbert still remains classical, and, throughout the
" Grundziige" , he never ceases to have in view the applications of the theory,
of which he develops numerous examples (taking up about half the volume).
The following generation will already adopt a more abstract point of view.
Under the influence of ideas of Frechet and of F. Riesz on general topology
(see p. 142), E. Schmidt [274 b] and Frechet himself introduce deliberately,
in 1907-1908, the language of Euclidean geometry into "Hilbert space" (real
or complex); it is in these works that is found the first mention of the norm
(with the actual notation II:.:ID, the triangle inequality that it satisfies, the
fact that Hilbert space is "separable" and complete; moreover, E. Schmidt
proves the existence of the orthogonal projection on a closed linear variety,
which allows him to give a simpler and more general form to Hilbert's theory
of linear systems. In 1907 also, Frechet and F. Riesz remark that the space of
a The Calculus of variations had already led in a na.tural way to considering diJ£er-
ent notions of convergence on the lame set of functioDl (depending on whether one
insisted only on the uniform convergence of functioDl, or the uniform conversence of
functions and a certain number of their derivatives); but the modes of conversence
defined by Hilbert were of a type quite new at that time.
t It mUlt be noted that, until about 1935, by "continuous" function is always
meant in practice a map mapping every convergent series to a conversent series.
,; For Hilbert, a bilinear form B(z,,) is completely continuous if, when the se-
quences (z .. ), (If..) tend weoA:l, to z and , respectively, B(z .. " .. ) tends to B(z,,).
square summable series has a fully analogous "geometry"; an analogy that is

explained perfectly when, some months later, F. Riesz and E. Fischer prove
that this space is complete and isomorphic to "Hilbert space", at the same
time bringing out in a startling way the value of the tool newly created by
Lebesgue. From that moment the essential points of the theory of Hilbert
spaces can be considered as acquired; among more recent progress, mention
should most notably be made of the axiomatic presentation of the theory
given around 1930 by M. H. Stone and J. von Neumann, as well as the cast-
ing off of the restrictions of "separability", which is effected around 1934, in
the works of Rellich, Lowig, and F. Riesz [260 g).
However other streams of ideas were coming, in the first years of the XXth
century, to reinforce the tendency that was leading to the theory of normed
spaces. The general idea of a "functional" (that is to say a function with
numerical values defined on a set whose elements are themselves numerical
functions of one or several real variables) was brought out in the last decades
of the XIXth century, linked to the calculus of variations, on the one hand,
the theory of integral equations on the other. But if it is mainly to the Ital-
ian school, around Pincherle and especially Volterra, that is due the bringing
to light of this notion, as well as the more general idea of "operator", the
work of this school remained often of a passably formal nature and attached
to problems of a particular type, lacking a sufficiently deep analysis of the
underlying topological concepts. In 1903, Hadamard inaugurates the modern
theory of "topological" duality, by seeking the most general continuous linear
''functionals'' on the space C(I) of numerical functions on a compact interval
1 (a space furnished with a topology of uniform convergence), and in charac-
terising them as limits of sequences of integrals z - I, kn(t)z(t)dt. In 1907,
Frechet and F. Riesz show in the same way that, on a Hilbert space, contin-
uous linear forms are the "bounded" forms inttoduced by· Hilbert; then, in
1909, F. Riesz puts into definitive form Hadamard's theorem, by expressing
all continuous linear functionals on C(I) by a Stieltjes integral, a theorem
that would later become the point of departure for the modem theory of
integration (see p. 226).
The following year, it is still F. Riesz [260 c) who makes new and important
progress in the theory by introducing and studying (copied from the theory of
Hilbert space) the spaces LP (1) of functions that are p-power summable in an
interval 1 (for an exponent p such that 1 < p < +00), a study that he follows
three years later [260 e] with analogous work on the spaces of sequences
U(N); these researches, as we will see later, were greatly to contribute to
clarifying the ideas on duality, because of the fact that here were met for the
first time two spaces which were dual and not naturally isomorphic.6
e Although the duality between Ll and L oo is implicit in most of the works on the
Lebesgue integral at this time, it is only in 1918 that H. Steinhaus proved that every
CODUnuoulinear form on Ll(/) (I a finite interval) is ofthe form,; ..... II/(t),;(t)4t,
where / E Loo(/).
From that moment, F. Riesz was thinking about an axiomatic study en-
compassing all these results ([260 c], p. 452); and it seems that only the scru-
ples of an analyst concerned not to distance himself too much from classical
mathematics kept him from writing his famous memoir of 1918 on Fredholm
theory in this form [260 f]. He considers there in principle the space C(l)
of functions continuous on a compact intervalj but, after having defined the
norm of this space, and having remarked that C(I), together with this norm,
is complete, he never uses again in his arguments any thing other than the
axioms of normed complete spaces. 7 Without going into a detailed exami-
nation of this work here, let us mention that it is there that is to be found
for the first time defined in a general way the notion of a completely con-
tinuous linear map (by the property of transforming a neighbourhood into a
relatively compact set)j8 and, by a chef-d'oeuvre of axiomatic analysis, the
whole of Fredholm's theory (in its qualitative aspect) is reduced to a single
fundamental theorem, namely that every normed locally compact space is
finite dimensional.
The general definition of normed spaces was given in 1920-22 by S. Ba-
nach, H. Hahn and E. Helly (this latter only considering spaces of sequences
of real or complex numbers). In the ten years that followed, the theory of
spaces is developed mainly around two questions of fundamental importance
for applications: the theory of duality and the theorems that are attached to
the notion of Baire "category".
We have seen that the idea of duality (in the topological sense) goes
back to the beginning of the XXth centuryj it underlies Hilbert's theory
and occupies a central place in the work of F. Riesz. This latter observes, for
example, already in 1911 ([260 d], pp. 41-42), that the relation 1/(z)1 ~ Mlizil
(taken as the definition of "bounded" linear fundionals in Hilbert space) is
equivalent to the continuity of / when one is in the space C(l), and that by an
argument of fully general character. In connection with the characterisation
of continuous linear functionals on C(l), he remarks also that the condition
for a set A to be dense in C(l) is that there does not exist any Stieltjes
measure J.l # 0 on I that is "orthogonal" to every function of A (generalising
thus the Gram condition for complete orthonormalsystems)j he notes finally,
in the same work, that the dual of the space L oo is "bigger" than the space
of Stieltjes measures ([260 d], p. 62).
7 F. Riesz besides remarks explicitly that the application of his theorems to con-
tinuous functions is only there as a "touch stone" for much more general concepts
(~260 f], p. 71).
In his works on the LP spaces, F. Riesz had defined completely continuous maps
as being those that transform every weakly convergent sequence into a strongly
convergent one; which (taking into account the weak compactness of the unit ball
in LP for 1 < p < +00) is equivalent, in this case, to the preceding definition;
furthermore, F. Riesz had indicated that, for the space L2, his definition was equiv-
alent to that of Hilbert (by translating it from the language of linear maps into
that of bilinear forms ([260 c], p. 487».
On the other hand, in his work on the spaces £1'(1) and L"(N), F. Riesz
succeeds in modifying the method for the solution of linear systems in Hilbert
space, given by E. Schmidt [274 b], in such a way as to make it applicable
to more general cases. The idea of E. Schmidt consisted in determining an
"extremal" solution of (21.6) by seeking the point of the closed linear variety
represented by the equations (21.6), whose distance to the origin is mini-
mal. By using the same idea, F. Riesz shows that a necessary and sufficient
condition that there exists a function z E L"(a, b) satisfying the equations
1& (ri(t)z(t)dt =bi (i =1,2, ...) (21.9)
(where the (ri belong to L9 (with ; +t = 1», and such that as well
J: Iz(t)IPdt ::5 M", is that, for all finite sequences (~ihSiSn of real numbers,
one has
t, ~'6'1 "M. (J.' t, l>.a'(t)I'dt) ./, (21.10)
In 1911 [260 d], he treats in an analogous way the "problem of generalised

moments" , consisting of solving the system
1& (ri(t)de(t) = b (i = 1,2, ...)

i (21.11)
where the (ri are continuous and the unknown is a Stieltjes measure e;9
and it is visible here that the problem can be stated by saying that it is a
case of determining a continuous linear functional on C(I) by its values on
a sequence of given points in this space. It is also in this form that Helly
treats the problem in 1912, - obtaining the conditions of F~ Riesz by a fairly
different method and of wider applicabilitylO - and that he takes it up again
in 1921, under much more general conditions. Introducing the notion of norm
(on spaces of sequences) as we have seen above, he remarks that this notion
generalises that of the "gauge" of a convex body in space of n dimensions,
used by Minkowski in his famous work on the "geometry of numbers" [221 a
and b]. In the course of this work, Minkowski had also defined (in Rn) the
9
la, h[ is ]0, +oo[ or ]-00, +00[,
e
and where (ri(t) = "j
The classical "problem of moments" corresponds. to the case when the interval
IS well there is imposed on
the measure the condition that it is positive (F. Riesz indicates in his memoir
of 1911 how his general conditions must be modified when solutions of this kind
are sought). Among the various methods of solution of the classical problem of
moments we must notice particularly that of M. Riesz. which combines elegantly
the general ideas of functional Calculus and the theory of functions of a complex
variable to obtain explicit conditions on the hi [261].
10 Like F. Riesz ([260 d]. pp. 49-50). Belly uses in this proof a "choice principle"
which is none other, of course, than the weak compactness of the unit ball in the
space of Stieltjes measures; F. Riesz had also made use of the analogous property
in the L" (1 < p < +00).
notions of support hyperplane and of "support function" [221 b), and proved
the existence of a support hyperplane at all boundary points of a convex
body ([221 a], pp. 33-35). Helly extends these notions to a space of sequences
E, furnished with an arbitrary norm; he establishes a duality between E and
the space E' of sequences u = (Un) such that, for all Z =(zn) E E, the
series (tAnzn) should be convergent; (tA, z) designating the sum of this series,
he defines in E' a norm by the formula sUP#o I(u, z}l/l\zl\, which gives the
support function in finite dimensional spaces. l l The solution of a system
(21.6) in E, where each of the sequences tAl = (a'J)J~l is assumed to belong
to E', reduces, as Helly shows then, to solving successively the following two
problems: 10 find a continuous linear form L on the normed space E', such
that L(tAi) = bi for every index i, which, as he indicates, leads to conditions
of type (21.10); 20 seek if such a linear form can be written u t-+ (u, z) for
an z E E. This last problem, as Helly observes, does not necessarily have a
solution even when L exists, and he limits himself to giving some sufficient
conditions that imply the existence of the solution z E E in certain particular
cases [156].
These ideas acquire their definitive form in 1927, in a fundamental mem-
oir of H. Hahn [142] whose results are found again (independently) by S.
Banach two years later [14 c]. The procedure of Minkowski-Helly is applied
by Hahn to an arbitrary normed space, and therefore gives to the dual the
structure of a (complete) normed space; which allows Hahn immediately to
consider successive duals of a normed space, and to state in a general way
the problem of reflexive spaces, foreseen by Helly. But above all the crowning
problem of the extension of a continuous linear functional while preserving
its norm is definitively solved by Hahn in a completely general way, by a
transfinite induction argument on the dimension - thus giving one of the
first examples of an important application of the axiom of choice to Func-
tional Analysis. 12 To these results, Banach adds a thorough study of the
relations between a continuous linear map and its transpose, extending to
general normed spaces results known until then only for the spaces V [260
c], by means of a deep theorem on the weakly closed subsets of a dual; these
results are expressed besides in a more striking way by using the notion of
quotient space of a normed space, introduced a few years later by Hausdorff
and Banach himself. Finally, it is again Banach who discovers the link b~
tween the weak compactness of the unit ball (observed in many particular
cases, as we have pointed out above) and reflexivity, at least for spaces of
countable type ([14 a], p. 189). The theory of the duality of normed spaces
can, from this moment, be considered as settled in its major aspects.
11 To obtain a norm in this way, it must be assumed that the relation (a, z) = 0
for all II: e E implies a == 0, .. besides Helly remarks explicitly.
12 Banach had already used an analogoU8 argument in 1923 [14 b], in order to define
an invariant measure on the plane (defined for all bounded subsets).
At the same time some theorems of paradoxical aspect were clarified,

the first examples of which go back to the neighbourhood of 1910. Hellinger
and Toeplitz had in effect proved in substance that year, that a sequence of
bounded bilinear forms Bn (z, y) on a Hilbert space, whose values Bn (a, b)
for every given pair (a, b) are bounded (by a number dependant a priori on
a and b), is in fact uniformly bounded on every ball. Their proof proceeds
by contradiction and consists in constructing a particular pair ( a, b) violating
the hypothesis, by an induction method known since by the name of "method
of the sliding hump" , and which is still in use in many analogous questions.
Already in 1905, Lebesgue had besides used an analogous procedure to prove
the existence of continuous functions whose Fourier series diverges at certain
points; and, the same year as Hellinger and Toeplitz, he applied the same
method to prove that a weakly convergent series in L 1 is bounded in the
norm. 13 These examples are multiplied in the years that follow, but without
the introduction of any new ideas until 1927, the date when Banach and
Steinhaus (with the partial collaboration of S. Saks) link these phenomena to
the notion of thin sets and to the theorem of Baire on complete metric spaces,
obtaining a general statement that covers all the previous particular cases
[15]. The study of questions of "category" in normed complete spaces besides
leads Banach, at the same time, to numerous other results on continuous
linear maps; the most remarkable and no doubt the deepest is the theorem of
the "closed graph" which, like the Banach-Steinhaus theorem, showed itself
to be a tool of the first order in modern Functional Analysis [14 c].
The publication of the treatise of Banach on "Linear Operators" [14 a]
marks, one could say, the beginning of the adult age for the theory of normed
spaces. All the results of which we have been speaking, as well as many
others, are set out in this volume, in a way that is still a bit disorganised,
but accompanied with many striking examples taken from varied domains of
Analysis, and which seemed to forecast a brilliant future for the theory. As it
happened, the work had considerable success, and one of its most immediate
effects was the quasi-universal adoption of the language and notations used
by Banach. But, in spite of a large amount of research undertaken for 40
years on Banach spaces ([203 bis]), if one makes an exception of the theory of
Banach algebras and its applications to commutative and non-commutative
harmonic analysis, the almost total absence of new applications of the theory
to the big problems of classical Analysis has somewhat disappointed the hopes
based upon it.
It is rather in the sense of an expanding and a more thrusting axiomatic
analysis of the concepts relative to normed spaces that the most fruitful devel-
opments have occurred. Although the functional spaces met since the begin-
13 Let us also note the analogous (easier) theorem proved by Landau in 1907 and
which served as the point of departure for F. Riesz in his theory of LI' spaces: if
*
the series with general term UnZn converges for all sequences (Zn) E Lq(N), the
sequence (Un) belongs to LI'(N) (with ~ + = 1).
ning of the XXth century arose for the most part furnished with a "natural"
norm, it had not happened without some exceptions being noticed. Around
1910, E. H. Moore had proposed generalising the notion of uniform con-
vergence by replacing it with the notion of "relative uniform convergence",
where a neighbourhood of 0 is made up of the functions f satisfying a rela-
tion If(t)1 $ fg(t), 9 being a function everywhere> 0, which could vary with
the neighbourhood. It had on the other hand been observed, before 1930,
that notions such as simple convergence, convergence in measure for measur-
able functions, or compact convergence for entire functions, are not capable
of being defined by means of a norm; and in 1926, Frechet had noted that
vector spaces of this nature can be metrisable and complete. But the theory
of these more general spaces was only to develop in a fruitful way in combi-
nation with the idea of convexity. This latter (that we saw appearing with
Helly) was an object of study for Banach and his pupils, who recognised the
possibility of interpreting thus in a more geometric way numerous statements
of the theory of normed spaces, preparing the way for the general definition of
locally convex spaces, given by J. von Neumann in 1935. The theory of these
spaces, and notably the questions dealing with duality, have been especially
developed during the last ten years. What must be noted in this context, is
on the one hand, the progress in simplicity and in generality made p08Sible
by the setting up of the fundamental notions of general Topology, carried
out between 1930 and 1940; on the other hand, the importance taken by the
notion of bounded set, introduced by Kolmogoroffand von Neumann in 1935,
and whose fundamental role in duality theory has been brought to light by
the work of Mackey [213 a and b] and of Grothendieck [138 band c]. Finally
and especially, it is certain that the main impulsion that motivated this re-
search came from new p08Sibilities for applications to Analysis, in domains
where Banach theory was inoperative: the theory of sequence spaces must
be mentioned in this context, developed by Kothe, Toeplitz and their pupils
since 1934 in a series of memoirs [184], the recent setting up of the theory of
"analytic functionals" of Fantappie, and above all the theory of distributions
of L. Schwartz [280], where the modern theory of locally convex spaces found
a field of applications that is without doubt a long way from being exhausted.
22. INTEGRATION IN LOCALLY
COMPACT SPACES.
The development of the modern notion of integral is tightly linked to the

evolution of the idea of function, and to a deep study of the numerical func-
tions of real variables, which has been taking place since the beginning of
the XIXth century; It is known that Euler already conceived of the notion
of function in a fairly general way, since for him a given "arbitrary" curve
intersected in a single point by every parallel to the axis 011 defined a func-
tion 11 = /(11:) (cf. p. 196); but, like the majority of his contemporaries, he
refused to allow that such functions could be expressed "analytically". This
point of view was to change hardly at all until the work of Fourier; but the
discovery, by this latter, of the possibility of representing discontinuous func-
tions as sums of trigonometric series,l was to exercise a decisive influence
on subsequent generations. Truth to say, the proofs of Fourier totally lacked
in rigour, and their domain of validity did not appear clearly; however the
integral formulae
=-11+11' q,(z) cosnzdz, b = -11+lI' q,(z) sin nzdz (n

an
11" _II'
n
-lI'
'If
~ 1) (22.1)
giving the coefficients in the expansion of q, as a Fourier series, had an intu-

itively obvious meaning as 800n as q, is assumed to be continuous and piece-
wise monotonic. 2 Also it is at first to these functions that Dirichlet limits
himself, in the famous memoir ([92], v. I, pp. 117-132) where he established
the convergence of Fourier series; but already, at the end of his work, he is
concerned with the extension of his results to wider classes of functions. It is
1 It is not a case besides of "discovery" except in a totally relative sense: Euler
knew already about expansions in trigonometric series of non periodic functions
such as :z; or :z;2, and the formulae (22.1) are to be found in a work of Clairvaux al-
ready in 1754 and with Euler in a memoir of 1777. But where the XVIIIth century,
due to the lack of a clear conception of wha.t is meant by an expansion in series,
neglected such results and kept intact the belief in the impossibility of obtaining
such expansions for "discontinuous" functions, Fourier, on the contrary, proclaims
that these expansions are convergent ~hatever the given curve may be which cor-
responds to 4>{.z), whether it can /.Ie assigned an analytic equation, or whether it does
not depend on any regular law" ([112], v.l, p. 210).
2 For Fourier, the integral is still defined by a.ppealing to the notion of area; the
analytic definition of the integral does not appear, let us remember, until Cauchy
(d. p. 197).
220 22. INTEGRATION IN LOCALLY COMPACT SPACES.
known that it is on this occasion that Dirichlet, making the ideas of Fourier
precise, defines the general notion of function such as we understand it to-
day; the first point to clarify was naturally to know in which cases it was still
possible to attach a meaning to the formulae (22.1). "When the solutions for
the continuity [of q,] are infinite in number . .. " says Dirichlet (loc. cit., pp.
131-132), "it is necessary that then the function q,(z) should be such that, if
one denotes by a and b two arbitrary quantities between -1r and +1r, it is
always possible to put between a and b other quantities rand s close enough
so that the function remains continuous in the interval r to 8. The necessity
for this restriction will be felt by considering that the different terms of the
series [of Fourier] are definite integrals and in going back to the fundamental
notion of integrals. It will be seen then that the integral of a function doe,
not mean anything except in as much as the function satisfies the condition
previously stated."
In modern terms, Dirichlet seems to believe that integrability is equivalent
to the fact that the points of discontinuity make up a sparse set; he points
out besides, a few lines later, the famous example of the function equal to
c for z rational, and to a different value d for z irrational, and affirms that
this function "could not be substituteif' in the integral. He announced besides
subsequent work on this subject, but this work was never published,3 and for
25 years, no one seems to have sought to advance along this path, perhaps
because the consideration of such "pathological" functions seemed at the time
completely lacking in interest; in any case, when Riemann, in 1854 ([259 a],
pp. 227-264), takes up the question (always in connection with trigonometric
series4 ) he experiences the need to justify his work: "Whatever our ignorance
concerning the way in which the forces and the states of matter vary with time
and place in the infinitely small, we can nonetheless take it as certain that the
functions to which the researches of Dirichlet do not apply, do not occur in
natural phenomena. However', he continues, "it appears that these cases not
treated by Dirichlet deserve attention for two reasons. Firstly, as Dirichlet
himself remarks at the end of his work, this subject is in a very close relation
to the principles of the infinitesimal calculus, and can be of use to bring more
clarity and certainty to these principles. From this point of view, his Stud1l
has an immediate interest. In the second place, the application of Fourier
series is not limited to research in physics; they are at present applied also
with success in a domain of pure mathematics, number theory, and there it
seems that they are precisely the functions whose expansion in trigonometric
3 According to certain indications (fairly obscure) from Lipschitz [205 a], Dirich-
let might have believed that if the set of points of discontinuity was sparse, the
"derivative" is finite, and would have in all cases limited his investigations to the
case where this is so.
, From Dirichlet and Riemann to our days, we will see this close association be-
tween integration and what we now call "harmonic analysis" being pursued, which
provides in some wa.y a. touch stone.
22. INTEGRATION IN LOCALLY COMPACT SPACES. 221
series has not been studied 6, Dirichlet, that are 0/ importance" ([269 a], pp.
237-238).
The idea of Riemann is to start from the approximation procedure for the
integral, brought back to respectability by Cauchy, and to determine when
the "Riemann sums" of a function /, in a bounded interval [a, b], tend to a
limit (the maximal length of the intervals in the subdivision tending to 0);
a problem of which he obtains without trouble the solution in the following
form: for every Q > 0, there is a subdivision of [a, b] into partial intervals
of sufficiently small maximal length so that the sum of the lengths of the
intervals of this subdivision, where the oscillation of / is > Q is arbitrarily
small. He shows as well that this condition is satisfied, not only for continuous
and piecewise monotonic functions, but also for functions that may have an
everywhere dense set of points of discontinuity.1S
The memoir of Riemann was not published until after his death, in 1867.
But this time, the times were more favourable for this kind of research, and
the "Riemann integral" took its place naturally in the stream of ideas that
was leading then to a sustained study of the "continuum" and of functions of
real variables (Weierstrass, Du Bois-Reymond, Hankel, Dini) and was to end
up, with Cantor, at the blossoming of set theory. The form given by Riemann
to the integrability condition suggested the idea of "measure" for the set of
points of discontinuity of a function in an interval; but nearly 30 years were
to pass by before a fruitful and convenient definition of this notion would be
given.
The first attempts in this direction are due to Stolz, Harnack and Cantor
(1884-1885); the first two, in order to define the "measure" of a bounded
subset E of R, consider sets F ::> E which are finite unions of intervals, take
for each F the sum of the lengths of the corresponding intervals, and say that
the "measure" of E is the lower bound of these numbers; whereas Cantor,
starting from the beginning in the space Rn, considers for a bounded set
E and for p > 0 the neighbourhood yep) of E constructed of points whose
distance to E is ~ p, and takes the lower bound of the "volume" of V(p).6
With this definition, the "measure" of a set is equal to that of its closure,
whence in particular it is possible that the "measure" of the union of two sets
with no point in common can be strictly less that the sum of the "measures"
of these two sets. No doubt in order to alleviate this last difficulty, Peano
[246 a] and Jordan ([174 c], v. I, pp. 28-31), a few years later, introduce,
alongside the "measure" of Cantor peA) of a set A contained in a block I, its
"interior measure" 1'(1) - 1'(1 - A), and call "measurable" the sets A (now
II On the other hand, H. J. Smith gave, already in 1875, the first example of a
function which is not integrable in the &elISe of Riemann, and whose set of points
of discontinuity is sparse ([287], v. II, pp. 86-100).
8 Cantor does not give a precise definition of this "volume" and limits himself to
saying that it can be calculated by a multiple integral ([47], pp. 229-236 and 257-
258). It is easy to see that his definition is equivalent to that of Stolz-Harnack, by
an application of the Borel-Lebesgue theorem.
called "quarriable") for which these two numbers coincide. The union of two
quarriable sets A, B with no point in common is then quarriable and has
as "measure" the sum of the "measures" of A and B; but an open bounded
set is not necessarily quarriable, and neither is the set of rational numbers
contained in a bounded interval, which removed much of the interest in the
notion of Peano-Jordan.
It is to E. Borel [32 a] that the credit for having known how to discern the
faults of the previous definitions and for having seen how it was possible to
remedy them is due. It was known since Cantor that every open set U in R
is the union of a countable family of its "components" , pairwise disjoint open
intervals; instead of seeking to approach U "from the outside" by enclosing
it in a finite sequence of intervals, Borel, relying on the preceding result,
proposes taking as the measure of U (when U is bounded) the sum of the
lengths of its components. Then he describes very summarily7 the class of sets
(also called "Borel") that can be obtained, starting from the open sets, by
iterating indefinitely the operations of countable union and of "difference"
A - B, and indicates that, for these sets, a measure can be defined that
possesses the fundamental property of complete additivity: if a sequence (An)
is made up of pairwise disjoint Borel sets, the measure of their union (assumed
bounded) is equal to the sum of their measures.
This definition was to inaugurate a new era in Analysis: on the one hand,
in tandem with the contemporary work of Baire, it became the point of
departure for a whole series of researches of a topological nature on the
classification of sets of points (see p. 165); and above all, it was to be of use
as the basis of the extension of the notion of integral, created by Lebesgue in
the first years of the XXth century.
In his thesis [196 a], Lebesgue starts by making precise and developing the
succinct indications of E. Borel; imitating the method of Peano-Jordan, the
"exterior measure" of a bounded set A C R is defined as the lower bound of
the measures of the open sets containing A; then, if I is an interval containing
A, the "interior measure" of A is the difference between the exterior measures
of I and of I - A; thus is obtained a notion of a ."measurable set" which only
differs from the initial "constructive" definition of Borel by the adjunction
of a subset of a set of measure zero in the sense of Borel. This definition
integral J:
extended immediately to the spaces Rn; the old conception of the definite
f(t)dt of a bounded function ~ 0 as the "area" bounded by the
curve y = f(x), the straight lines x = a, x = band y = 0, supplied thus
an immediate extension of the Riemann integral to all the functions f for
which the measure of the preceding set was defined. But the originality of
7 Measure is still not for Borel, at that time, anything other than a technical means
for the study of certain series of rational functions, and he underlines himself that,
for the goal that he proposes for himself, the usefulness of measure is due above all
to the fact that a set of non zero measure is not countable ([32 al, p. 48).
Lebesgue does not reside so much in the idea of this extension,s than in
his discovery of the fundamental theorem on the passage to the limit in the
integral thus conceived, a theorem which appears in his work as a consequence
of the complete additivity of the measure;9 he realises immediately all its
importance, and makes it the key stone of the didactic expose of his theory
that he gives, already in 1904, in the famous "Lessons on integration and the
quest for primitive functioni' [196 C].10
We cannot describe here in detail the innumerable advances that the
results of Lebesgue were to bring about in the study of the classical problems
of infinitesimal Calculus. Lebesgue himself had already, in his thesis, applied
his theory to the extension of the classical notions of length and area to more
general sets than the usual curves and surfaces; concerning the considerable
development of this theory over half a century, we send the reader back to
the recent expose by L. Cesari [59]. Let us mention also the applications
to trigonometric series, developed by Lebesgue almost immediately after his
thesis [196 b], and which were to open new horizons for this theory, whose
exploration is far from being over in our day (see [345]). Finally and especially,
the definition of the spaces LP and the Fischer-Riesz theorem ([111], [260 a
and c]; cf. p. 213) brought to light the role that could be played in Functional
Analysis by the new notion of integral; a role that could only grow with
the subsequent generalisations of this notion, of which we shall speak in a
moment.
Beforehand, we will stop a little longer with one of the problems to which
Lebesgue devoted the most effort, the link between the notions of integral and
of primitive. With the generalisation of the integral introduced by Riemann
the question that arose naturally was to know if the classical correspondence
between integral and primitive, valid for continuous functions, still subsisted
in the more general case. But it is easy to give examples of fucntions I,
integrable in the Riemann sense, and such that I: I(t)dt does not have a
derivative (nor even a derivative on the right or on the left) at certain points;
8 Independently of Lebesgue, W. H. Young had had the same idea. for semi-
continuous functions [339 a.].
9 The particular case of this theorem, where we have the case of a sequence of
functions integrable in a compact interval in the Riemann sense, uniformly bounded,
and whose limit is integrable in the Riemann sense, had been proved by Arzela. [9
aJ-
1 Among the most important consequences of this theorem in the general theory
of integration, Egoroff's theorem on the convergence of sequences of measurable
functions [99] must be mentioned in particular, making precise earlier remarks of
Borel and Lebesgue. On the other hand, measura.ble (numerical) functions had first
been defined by Lebesgue by the property that, for such a function f, the reciprocal
image by f of every interval of R is a measurable set. But from 1903, Borel and
Lebesgue had drawn attention to the topological properties of these functions; they
were put in their definitive form by Vitali, who, in 1905 [320 a], was the first to
formulate the property of measurable functions known ordinarily under the name
of "Lusin's theorem" (who found it again in 1912).
conversely, Volterra had shown, in 1881, that a function F(z) may have a
bounded derivative in an interval I, but be non integrable (in the Riemann
sense) in I. By an analysis of great subtlety (where the theorem on the passage
= J:
to the limit in the integral is far from being sufficient), Lebesgue succeeds
in showing that, if I is integrable (in his sense) in [a,6], F(z) I(t)dt
has almost everywhere a derivative equal to I(z) [196 c]. Conversely, if a
function 9 is differentiable in [a, 6] and if its derivative g' = I is 6ountletl, I
is integrable and we have the formula g(z) - g(d) = J:
I(t)dt. But Lebesgue
notes that the problem is much more complex when g' is not bounded; g' is
not necessarily integrable in this case, and the first problem is therefore to
characterise the continuous functions 9 for which g' exists almost everywhere
and is integrable. By limiting himself to the case where one of the derived
numbers l l of 9 is everywhere finite, Lebesgue showed that 9 is necessarily
a function with bounded variation. 12 Finally he establishes the converse of
this last result: a function with bounded variation 9 has almost everywhere
a derivative, and g' is integrable; but it is no longer necessarily true that
g(z) - g(a) = 1" g'(t)dt; (22.2)
the difference between the two parts of this relation is a function of bounded
variation which is not constant and with zero derivative almost everywhere (a
"singular" function). It remained to characterise the functions with bounded
variation 9 such that the relation (22.2) held. Lebesgue established that these
functions (called "absolutely continuous" by Vitali, who made a detailed
study of them) are those that have the following property: the total variation
of 9 in an open set U (sum of the total variations of 9 in each of the connected
components of U) tends to 0 with the measure of U.
We will see below how, in a weakened form, these results would later
acquire a much more general scope. In their initial form, their field of appli-
cation remained fairly restricted, and did not go beyond the framework of
the "fine" theory of functions of a real variable, of which we will not study
here the subsequent development; we will be content with mentioning the
deep work of Denjoy and his followers and successors (Perron, de la Vallee-
Poussin, Khintchine, Lusin, Banach, etc. ); the reader will find a detailed
expose in the book of S. Saks [268].
11 The derived numbers on the right of 9 at a point :r: are the two limits
limh_O SUPh>O(g(x + h) - g(x»/h,limh_O infh>o(g(x + h) - g(x»/h. The derived
numbers on the left are defined similarly.
12 These functions had been introduced by Jordu, in connection with the rectifi-
cation of curves [174 c]; he showed that one can give two equivalent definitions as
follows: a) / is the difference between two increasing functioDS; b) for every subdi-
vision of the interval [a, 6~'Y a finite sequence of increasing points (Xi)O<i<." with
a = Xo, 6 = Xn, the sum ~_1 I/(xi) - /(:l:i-l)1 is bounded by a number Indepen-
dent of the subdivision un er consideration. The upper bound of these sums is the
total variation of / in [a, 6].
One of the essential advances brought about by the Lebesgue theory con-
cerns multiple integrals. This notion was introduced about the middle of the
XVIIIth century, and first in the form of an "indefinite integral" (by analogy
with the theory of the integral of functions ofa single variable, I I I(z,y)dzdy
denotes a solution of the equation tIll = I(z,y»; but already from 1770, Eu-
ler had a very clear conception of the double integral extended to a bounded
domain (bounded by arcs of analytic curves), and wrote down correctly the
formula for evaluating such an integral by means of two simple integrals in
succession ([108 a], (I), v. XVII, pp. 289- 315). It was not difficult to justify
this formula starting from "Riemann sums" , so long as the function being in-
tegrated was continuous, and the domain of integration not too complicated;
but as soon as one wanted to tackle more general cases, the procedure of Rie-
mann ran into serious difficulties (/(z,y) may be integrable in the Riemann
sense, without I dz I I(z,y)dy having a meaning when the simple integrals
are taken in the Riemann sense). These difficulties vanish when we pass to
the definition of Lebesgue; already this latter had showed in his thesis that,
when I(z, y) is a bounded "Baire function", it is the same for the functions
y 1-+ I(z,y) (for all z) and z 1-+ I I(z, y)dy, and we have the formula
ff I(z,y)dzdy = f f
dz I(z,y)dy (22.3)
(integral taken in the rectangle). A little later, Fubini [121] brought an im-
portant complement to this result by proving that, if it is only assumed that
I is integrable, then the set of z such that yl-+ I(z,y) is not integrable is of
zero measure, which allowed the extension of the formula (22.3) to this case.
Finally, in 1910 [157 e], Lebesgue tackles the extension to multiple inte-
grals of his results on the derivatives of simple integrals. He is thus brought
to associate with a function I, integrable on all compact subsets of R n , the
function of a set F(E) = IE I(x)dx, defined for all integrable subsets E of
R n , which generalises the concept of "indefinite integral"; and he observes
on this occasion that this function possesses the following two properties: 10
it is completely additive; 20 it is "absolutely continuous" in the sense that
F(E) tends to 0 with the measure of E. The essential part of the memoir of
Lebesgue consists in proving the converse of this proposition. 1s But he does
not stop there, and in the same direction, signals the possibility of generalis-
ing the notion of function with bounded variation, by considering functions
of a measurable set F(E), completely additive and such that En IF(En)1
remains bounded for every countable partition of E into measurable subsets
En. And, if he limits himself in fact to not considering such functions except
on the set of blocks of R n , it is quite clear that there only remained one step
to take to end up with the general notion of measure that J. Radon is going
13 The main tool, in this proof, is a covering theorem, proved sometime before by
Vitali [320 b], a.nd which hat! remained fundamental in this type of question.
to define in 1913, gathering into the same synthesis the Lebesgue integral
and the Stieltjes integral, of which we must now speak.
In 1894, T. Stieltjes published, under the title "Research on continuous

fractioni' [297], a very original memoir where, starting from a question which
is very restricted in appearance, were to be found stated and solved, with a
rare elegance, problems of a quite new nature in the theory of analytic func-
tions and that of functions of a real variable. 14 In order to represent the limit
of a certain sequence of analytic functions, Stieltjes had been brought, among
others, to introduce on the straight line, the concept of a positive "mass dis-
tribution", a familiar notion for a long time in the physical sciences, but
which until then had never been considered in mathematics except under re-
strictive hypotheses (in general, the existence of a "density" at every point,
varying in a continuous way); he remarks that giving such a distribution is
equivalent to that of an increasing function t,6(z) which gives the total mass
contained in the interval with ends 0 and z for z > 0, and this mass hav-
ing changed sign for z < 0, the discontinuities of t,6 corresponding to masses
"concentrated at a point" .15 Stieltjes then forms, for such a mass distribu-
tion in an interval [a,6], the "Riemann sums" Ei 1«(i)(4>(Zi+1) - 4>(Zi» and
shows that, when 1 is continuous in [a,6], these sums tend to a limit that he
denotes J: l(z)dt,6(z). Only needing to integrate continuous functions (and
even differentiable functions) Stieltjes did not push further forward with the
study of this integral 16 and for about ten years this notion does not seem
tohave attractedattention.17 But in 1909, F.Riesz [260 d],solving a problem
stated a few years earlier by Hadamard (cf. p. 213), proved that the Stieltjes
integrals 1 1-+ J: Idt,6 are the most general continuous linear functionals on
the space C(I) of numerical functions continuous on I = [a,6] (C(I) being
furnished with the uniform convergence topology1s); and the elegance and
simplicity of this result caused almost immediately several generalisations of
a It is there among others that is formulated and solved the famous "problem of
moments" (d. p. 215).
15 Stieltjes still does not make any distinction between the various types of inter-
vals having the same ends a, b, which leads him to conceive that at the points of
discontinuity c of q" part of the mass concentrated at c belongs to the interval of
origin c, and the other part to the interval of end c, according to the value of q,(c).
16 The first appearance must however be noted here, with Stieltjes, of the idea of
"convergence" of a sequence of measures ([297], p. 95; it is a case in fact of the
,trong limit).
17 It acquires however importance with the development by Hilbert and his school,
of the spectral theory of operators, starting in 1906. It is on this occasion that
Hellinger, around 1907, defined integrals such as that which he denotes (d.l)2,J
and which appear at first more general than those of Stieltjes; but in fact, Hahn
showed, already in 1912, that they reduce to this latter.
18 It is also in this work that the notion appears of the IWen./c limit of a sequence of
measures ([260 d], p. 49).
it. The most successful was that of J. Radon, in 1913 [256]: combining the
ideas of F. Riesz and of Lebesgue, he showed how an integral could be defined
by the procedures of Lebesgue, starting with an arbitrary "completely addi-
tive function of a set" (defined on measurable sets for the Lebesgue measure)
instead of starting with the Lebesgue measure. In the notion of "Radon mea-
sure" on R n, thus defined, that of function with "bounded variation" is found
to be absorbed: the decomposition of such a function as a difference of two
increasing functions is a particular case of the decomposition of a measure
as a difference of two positive measures; in the same way, the "measure with
base 1-''' corresponds to the notion of an "absolutely continuous" function,
and the decomposition of an arbitrary measure into a measure with base I'
and a measure foreign to 1-', to the Lebesgue decomposition of a function
with bounded variation as the sum of an absolutely continuous function and
a "singular" function. As well, Radon showed that the "density" with respect
to I-' of a measure with base I' exists still when I' is a measure having as base
the Lebesgue measure, by using a previous idea of F. Riesz (taken up again
and popularised later by J. von Neumann among others), which consists in
constructing an image of the measure I' by a map (J of R n into R, chosen so
that (J(I-') is the Lebesgue measure on R.
Almost immediately after the appearance of the memoir of Radon, Frechet
remarked that nearly all the results of this work could be extended to the case
where the "completely additive functions of a set", instead of being defined
on the measurable sets of R n , are defined for certain subsets of an arbitrary
set E (these subsets being such that the operations of countable union and
of "difference" still give sets for which the function is defined). However, the
expression of a measure with base I' in the form g.JJ relied, with Lebesgue
and Radon, on arguments using in an essential way the topology of R n (and
we have seen that the proof of Radon only applies if I-' is a measure with base
the Lebesgue measure); it is only in 1930 that O. Nikodym [235] obtained
this theorem in its general form, by a direct argument (notably simplified a
few years later by J. von Neumann, thanks to the use of the properties ofthe
spaces L2 ([324 g], pp. 127-130».
With the memoir of Radon, the general theory of integration could be
considered as completed in its main lines; as subsequent substantial acquisi-
tions, it is only possible to mention the definition of the infinite product of
measures, due to Daniell [76 b], and that of the integral of a function with
values in a Banach space, given by Bochner in 1933 [24 a], and which was
a prelude to the more general study of the "weak integral" developed a few
years later by Gelfand [125 a], Dunford and Pettis ([95] and [96]). But it
remained to popularise the new theory, and to make of it a mathematical in-
strument in general use, while the majority of mathematicians, around 1910,
still saw in the "Lebesgue integral" only an instrument of great precision,
delicate handling, destined only for researches of extreme subtlety and of an
extreme abstraction. That was the work of Caratheodory, in a book which
remained a classic for a long time [49) and which enriched Radon's theory
with numerous original remarks.
But it is with this book also that the notion of integral, which had been in
the front line of the concerns of Lebesgue (as was sufficiently shown by the ti-
tles of his thesis [196 a) and of his main work on these questions [196 c» yields
the field for the first time to that of measure, which had been for Lebesgue
(as before him with Jordan) an auxiliary technical means. This change in
point of view was due no doubt, with Caratheodory, to the excessive impor-
tance that he seems to have attached to up-dimensional measures" .19 Since
then, the authors that have treJ.Lted integration are divided between these
two points of view, not without involving themselves in debates which have
caused a lot of ink to flow if not a lot of blood. One group have followed
CaratheodorYi in their exposes ever more abstract and more axiomatised,
measure, with all the technical refinements to which it lends itself, not only
plays the dominant role, but also tends to lose contact with the topological
structures to which it is in fact linked in the majority of problems where
it is involved. Other exposes follow more or less closely a method already
indicated in 1911 by W. H. Young, in a memoir unfortunately little noticed
[339 b), and developed since by Daniell. The first, dealing with the Lebesgue
integral, parted company with the "Cauchy integral" of continuous functions
with compact support, assumed known, in order to define successively the
upper integral of lower semi-continuous functions, then of arbitrary numeri-
cal functions, whence a definition' of integrable functions,~oq,elled on that of
Lebesgue for sets, by purely "functional" means. Daniell, in 1918 ([76 ali d.
[207]) extended this expose, with some variants, to functions defined on an
arbitrary seti in the same stream of ideas (and in close link with the methods
used in spectral theory before Gelfand), we must also point out the memoir
of F. Riesz [260 h] which puts into an elegant and concise form the few results
of the theory of ordered spaces that playa role in the theory of Integration.
Rather than in works of exposition, more or less pleasant to read, but
whose substantial content could not vary much, it is on the side of applica-
tions that progress arising from the theory of Integration since 1920 must be
sought.: the theory of probability (at other times the pretext for guessing and
paradoxes, and become a braneh of the theory of Integration since its
111 It is a case there of the generalisation of the "length of a plane curve" to arbitrary
values n and p of the dimension of the ambient apace and of the dimension of the
space being studied; it is assumed of course that we have 0 ~ p ~ n, but it is
not always assumed that p is an integer. This question has been the object of the
work of numerous authors since Minkowaki, Caratheodory and Hausdorff; Lebesgue
himself, who tackles some particular cases in his thesis, seems not to have seen there
other than an opportunity to put to the test the power of the tools that he had
just forged.
axiomatisation by Kolmogoroff [183], but an autonomous branch with its

own methods and problems); ergodic theory; spectral theory and harmonic
analysis, since the discovery by Haar of the measure that bears his name, and
the movement of ideas provoked by this discovery, have made of the integral
one of the most important tools in the theory of groups.
23. HAAR MEASURE. CONVOLUTION.
The notions of length, area and volume among the Greeks are essentially
based on their invariance under displacements: "Things which coincide
(et/JOtPl'fieoVTOt) are equal" (Bud. BI., Book I, "Common notions" 4); and it is
by an ingenious use of this principle that all the formulae are obtained giving
the areas or volumes of the classical "figures" (polygons, conics, polyhedra,
spheres, etc.), sometimes by a procedure of finite decomposition, sometimes
by "exhaustion". 1 In modern language, it can be said that what was done by
the Greek geometers, is to prove the existence of ''{unctions of sets" which
are additive and invariant under displacements, but defined only for sets of
a very particular type. The integral calculus can be considered as replying
to the need for enlarging the domain of definition of these functions of sets,
and, from Cavalieri to H. Lebesgue, it is this preoccupation that will be in
the forefront of the research of the analysts; as for the property of invariance
under displacements, it becomes a secondary consideration, having become
a trivial consequence of the general formula for change of variables in double
or triple integrals and because of the fact that an orthogonal transformation
has determinant equal to :1:1. Even in the non-Euclidean geometries (where
however the group of displacements is different), the point of view remains
the same: in a general way, Riemann defines the infinitesimal elements of
area or volume (or their analogues for dimensions ~ 3) starting with a ds 2 by
means of the classical Euclidean formulae, and their invariance under trans-
formations that leave invariant the ds 2 is thus almost a tautology.
It is only around 1890 that other less immediate extensions of the notion
of measure invariant under a group appear, with the development of the
theory of the integral invariants, notably by H. Poincare and E. Cartan;
1 It can be shown that if two polygons P, pI have the same area, there are two
polygons R ::> P, R' ::> pI which can each be decomposed into a finite number of
polygons Ri (resp. RD (1 :s; i :s; m) without any interior point in common, such
that Ri and R~ can be obtained one from the other by a displacement (depending
on i), and such that R (resp. R') are the union of a finite family of polygons Sj
(resp. Sj) (0 :s; i :s; n) without any interior points in common, with So = P,
S~ = pI, and Sj being obtained from S; by a displacement for 1 :s; j :s; n. On the
other hand, M. Dehn has proved [81] that this property is not valid for the volume
of polyhedra, and that the procedures of exhaustion used since Eudoxus were in
consequence inevitable.
232 23. HAAR MEASURE. CONVOLUTION.
H. Poincare only foresees groups with one parameter operating on a part of

space, whereas E. Cartan is mainly interested in groups of displacements, but
operating in other spaces than those in which they are defined. For example,
he determines thus among others ([52 a], v. Ill, pp. 265-302) the invariant
(under a troup of displacements) measure in the space of straight lines in R2
or in RSj further, he points out that in general the integral invariants for a
Lie group are none other than particular differential invariants, and that it is
thus possible to determine all of them by the methods of Lie. It seems however
that no one thought to consider or to use a measure invariant on the group
itself before the fundamental work of A. Hurwitz in 1897 [168]. Seeking to
construct polynomials (on R n) invariant under the orthogonal group, Hurwitz
starts from the remark that, for a finite group of linear transformations, the
problem is solved immediately by taking the mean of the transforms B.P of
an arbitrary polynomial P by all the elements B of the grOUpj which gives
him the idea of replacing, for the orthogonal group, the mean by an integral
relative to an invariant measure; he gives explicitly the expression for this
latter by means of the parametric representation by the angles of Euler,
but observes immediately (independently of E. Cartan) that the methods of
Lie supply the existence of an invariant measure for all Lie groups. Perhaps
because of the decline of the theory of invariants at the beginning of the XXth
century, the ideas of Hurwitz had hardly any immediate reaction, and would
not be considered valuable until after 1924, with the extension to compact
Lie groups, by I. Schur and H. Weyl, of the classical theory of Frobenius
(p. 121) on the linear representations of finite groups. The first limits himself
to the case of the orthogonal group, and shows how the method of Hurwitz
allows the extension of the classical relations of orthogonality of characters;
an idea that H. Weyl combines with the work of E. Cartan on semisimple Lie
algebras to obtain the explicit expression for the characters of the irreducible
representations of compact Lie groups and the complete reducibility theorem
[331 b], then, by a bold extension of the notion of "regular representation",
the famous theorem of Peter-Weyl, a perfect analogy of the decomposition
of the regular representation into its irreducible components in the theory of
finite groups [332].
One year previously, O. Schreier had founded the general theory of topo-
logical groups [276 a], and from that moment it was clear that the arguments
of the memoir of Peter-Weyl would remain valid as such for every topological
group on which could be defined an "invariant measure". Truth to tell, the
general notions of topology and measure were still at this time in full forma-
tion, and neither the category of topological groups on which one could hope
to define an invariant measure, nor the sets for which this "measure" would
be defined, seemed clearly delimited. The only evident point was that one
:2 The invariant measure on the space of straight lines in the plane had already been
essentially determined in connection with the problems of "geometric probability",
notably by Crofton, whose work E. Cartan probably did not know at that time.
23. HAAR MEASURE. CONVOLUTION. 233
could not hope to extend to the general case the infinitesimal methods prov-
ing the existence of an invariant measure on a Lie group. But, another stream
of ideas, issuing from work on the Lebesgue measure, was leading precisely
to more direct methods of attack. Hausdorff had proved, in 1914, that there
does not exist an additive function on sets not identically zero defined for all
subsets of R3 and invariant under displacements, and it was natural to find
out if this result was still valid for R and R2: a problem that was solved by
S. Banach in 1923 in a surprising way, by showing on the contrary that in
these two cases such a "measure" well and truly existed [14 b]j his procedure,
very ingenious, relied already on a construction by transfinite induction and
on the consideration of "means" ~ E~=l I( Z + Q~) of translates of a function
by elements of the group.s It is analogous ideas that allowed A. Haar, in
1933 [139], to make the decisive step by proving the existence of an invariant
measure for locally· compact groups with a countable base of open sets: in-
spired by the method for the approximation of a volume, in classical integral
Calculus, by a juxtaposition of congruent cubes with arbitrarily small sides,
he obtains, with the help of the diagonal procedure, the invariant measure as
the limit of a sequence of "approximating measures", a procedure that still
is essentially the one used today. This discovery had a very big repercussion,
in particular because it allowed J. von Neumann to solve immediately, for
compact groups, Hilbert's famous "5th problem" on the characterisation of
Lie groups by purely topologic;al properties (to the exclusion of all previously
given differential structure). But it was noticed immediately that, in order to
be able to use the invariant measure in an efficacious way, it was not enough
only to know of its existence, but also to know that it was unique up to a
factorj this point was first proved by J. von Neumann for compact groups, by
using a method for the definition of the Haar measure by "means" of contin-
uous functions, analogous to those of Banach [324 e]j then J. von Neumann
[324 f) and A. Weil [330 cl, by different methods, obtained simultaneously
the uniqueness in the case of locally compact groups, A. Weil indicating at
the same time how the procedure of Haar could be extended to general lo-
cally compact groups. It is also A. Weil (Ioe. cit.) who obtained the condition
for the existence of a relatively invariant measure on a homogeneous space,
and showed finally that the existence of a "measure" (endowed with reason-
able properties) on a separated topological group, implied ipso facto that the
group is locally precompact. These works completed essentially the general
theory of Baar measurej the only more recent addition that needs quoting
is the notion of quasi-invariant measure, which hardly emerged until around
1950, linked with the theory of representations of locally compact groups in
Hilbert spaces.
3 J. von Neumann showed, in 1929, that the deep reason for the difference in
behaviour between Rand R2 on the one hand, and the R n for" ~ 3 on the other,
must be sought for in the commutativity of the group of rotations in the space R2.
The history of the convolution product is more complex. Already from

the beginning of the XIXth century, it is noticed that if, for example, F(:1:, t)
is an integral of a partial differential equation in :1: and t, linear and with
constant coefficients, then
1+00
-00 F(:z: - B, t)/(B)dB
is also an integral of the same equation; Poisson, among others, already before
1820, uses this idea to write the integrals of the heat equation in the form
[:00 exp (_ (:1: ~/)2) I(s)ds. (23.1)
A little later, the expression

1
-2
1+11' sin 2nr (:1: -
• ~-t
t)
I(t)dt (23.2)
11" _II' sIn -2-
for the partial sum of a Fourier series and the study, made by Dirichlet, of the
limit of this integral when n tends to +00, gives the first example of "regulari-
sation" 11-+ Pn *1 on the torus T (in actual fact by a. sequence of non-positive
"kernels" Pn, which complicates considerably its study); under the name of
"singular integrals", the analogous integral expressions will be a. favourite
subject for the analysts of the end of the XIXth century and the beginning of
the XXth century, from P. du Bois-Reymond to H. Lebesgue. On R, Weier-
strass uses the integral (23.1) for a proof of his theorem on approximation
by polynomials, and gives in this connection the general principle of regular-
isation by a sequence of positive "kernels" Pn of the form :z: 1-+ cn P(n:1:). On
T, the most famous example of a regularisation by positive kernels is given
a little later by Fejer, and from that moment, it is the standard procedure
which will be at the basis of the majority of "summation methods" of series
of functions.
However, this work, because of the lack of symmetry of the roles that are
played by the "kernel" and the regularised function, hardly made apparent
the algebraic properties of the convolution product. It is to Volterra. especially
that is owed the stressing of this point. He studies in a general way the
"composition" F * G of two functions of two variables
(F * G)(:1:, y) = 1" F(:1:, t)G(t, y)dt
that he sees as a generalisation, by "passing from the finite to the infinite" ,

of the product of two matrices [322 a]. He distinguishes very early on the case
("of the closed cycle" so called because of its interpretation in the theory of
heredity) where F and G depend only on y - :1:; it is then the same with
= =
H F * G, and if we set F(:1:, y) = I(y - :1:), G(:1:, y) g(y - :1:), we have
23. HAAR MEASURE. CONVOLUTION. 235
H(z,y) = h(y- z),

with
h(t) = 1t I(t - s)g(s)ds
so that, for t ;::: 0, h coincides with the convolution of functions /1, g1 equal
respectively to f and 9 for t ~ 0, and to 0 for t < O.
Meanwhile, the algebraic formalism developed by Volterra did not bring
out the links with the group structure of R and the Fourier transform. We do
not need to write the history of this latter here; but it is appropriate to note
that starting with Cauchy the analysts who deal with the Fourier integral
a.re mainly concerned with finding wider and wider conditions for the valid-
ity of the different formulae of "inversion" , and neglect somewhat its algebraic
properties. It is certainly not possible to say as "much of the work of Fourier
himself (or of tha.t of Laplace on the analogous integral ft e-·
lO t I(t)dt); but
these transformations had been introduced essentially in connection with lin-

ear problems, and it is therefore not very surprising that for a long time it had
not been thought worth considering the product of two Fourier transforms
(with the exception of the products of trigonometric series or of entire series,
but the link with the convolution of discrete measures could obviously not
have been noticed in the XIXth century). The first mention of this product
and of the convolution on R ~ probably to be found in a memoir of Tcheby-
chef [306], in connection with questions about the calculation of probabilities.
Indeed, in this theory, the convolution JA * II of two "probability laws" on R
(positive measures of total mass 1) is none other than the "product" proba-
bility law of JA and II (for the sum of the corresponding "random variables").
Of course, with Tchebychef, it is still only a matter of the convolution of
probability laws having a density (with respect to the Lebesgue measure),
hence of the convolution of functions; besides it only occurs with him in an
episodic way, and it will be thus in the few rare works where it appears before
the period 1920-1930. In 1920, P.-J. Daniell, in a note rarely consulted [76 c],
defines the convolution of two arbitrary measures on R and the Fourier trans-
form of such a measure, and observes explicitly that the Fourier transform
takes the convolution to the ordinary product; a formalism that, starting in
1925, is going to be intensively used by the probabilists, following P. Levy
especially. But the fundamental importance of the convolution in the theory
of groups is only fully recognised by H. Weyl in 1927; he realises that, for a
compact group, the convolution of functions plays the role of multiplication in
the group algebra of a finite group, and allows him as a consequence to define
the "regular representation"; at the same time, he finds in the regularisation
the equivalent of the unit element of the algebra of a finite group. It remained
to make the synthesis of all these points of view, which is accomplished in
the book of A. Weil [330 c], a prelude to subsequent generalisations that will
constitute, on the one hand the normed algebras of I. Gelfand, and on the
other the convolution of distributions.
The Haar measure and convolution have rapidly become essential tools in
the tendency to algebraisation that distinguishes 80 strongly modem Analy-
sis; we will have to mention numerous applications of it in subsequent notes.
We will limit ourselves here to pointing out that one which concerns the
"variation" of closed subgroups (and notably discrete subgroups) of a locally
compact group. This theory, starting with a result of K. Mahler in the Ge-
ometry of numbers, was inaugurated in 1950 by C. Chabauty, and has just
been considerably developed and deepened by Macbeath and Swierczkowski
[212].
24. INTEGRATION IN NON LOCALLY
COMPACT SPACES.
If the study of the links between topology and measure theory goes back to
the beginnings of the modern theory of functions of real variables, it is only
very recently that integration in discrete topological spaees has been set up
in a general way. Before giving the history of the work which preceded the
actual synthesis, we will recollect some of the steps in the evolution of the
ideas concerning the relations between topology and measure.
For Lebesgue, it is only a question of integrating the functions of one or
several real variables. In 1913, Radon defined general measures on R n and
the corresponding integrals; this theory is expounded in detail in the work
[82] of Ch. de la Vallee Poussin and relies in a co~stant way on the topological
properties of Euclidean spaces. A bit later, in 1915, Frechet defines in [115
c] "abstract" measures on a set furnished with a a-algebra and the integrals with
respect to these measures; he notes that it is possible to establish thus the
main results of Lebesgue's theory without using any topological means. He
justifies his undertaking with the following words, taken from the introduc-
tion to [115 d), first part: "That for example in a space with an infinity of
co-ordinates where various applications of Analysis had led to various non
equivalent definitions of a convergent sequence, one of these definitions is re-
placed by another, nothing will be changed in the properties of the families
and additive functions of sets in these spacei'. The research of Frechet is
completed by Caratheodory, to whom is due the important theorem on the
extension of a function of sets into a measure. The beginning of the book of
Saks [268] offers a condensed exposition of this point of view.
The discovery of Haar measure on locally compact groups (pp. 231 ff.)
and the numerous applications that it receives immediately, then the work of
Weil and Gelfand in Harmonic Analysis, lead in 1940 to a deep modification
of this point of view: in this kind of question, it is most convenient to con-
sider a measure to be a linear form on a space of continuous functions. This
method forces a restriction to compact or locally compact spaces, but it is
not a hindrance for almost the totality of the applications; even better, the
introduction of Harmonic Analysis on the p-adic groups and the adele groups
by J. Tate and A. Weil allowed a spectacular renewing of analytic Number
theory.
238 24. INTEGRATION IN NON LOCALLY COMPACT SPACES.
It is from quite another direction that the necessity comes to enlarge this
point of view by the consideration of measures on topological spaces which are
not locally compact: little by little, Probability Theory leads to the study of
such spaces and supplies numerous non trivial examples. Perhaps the reason
for the late influence of these developments on measure theory must be sought
in the relative isolation of Probability Theory, which remained on the margin
of traditional mathematical disciplines until recent times.
MEASURES ON SEQUENCE SPACES.
One of the most developed branches of classical Probability Theory is that

of limit theorems (the law of large numbers, tendency towards the Gauss-
Laplace law, ... )j it is a case of a deepening of the notion of statistical reg-
ularity manifested by phenomena bringing into play very large populations.
The correct mathematical formulation of these problems requires the intro-
duction of measures on the space of sequences; these spaces, which constitute
the most obvious generalisation of spaces of finite dimension, are the favourite
subject of the researches on "General Analysis" undertaken around 1920 by
Frckhet, Levy, Lusin, .... It is in any case not fortuitous that Khintchine and
Kolmogoroff, the creators of the new methods in Probability Theory, are both
disciples of Lusin, and that Levy very soon turned to probabilistic problems:
these constituted the touch stone of the new methods.
The first implicit occurrence of a measure on a sequence space appears
in the work devoted by E. Borel in 1909 to countable probabilities [32 b].
A very original idea of Borel consisted of the application of probabilistic
results that he had just obtained to the proof of properties possessed by
the decimal expansion of nearly every real number contained between 0 and
1. This application rests on the following fundamental remark: let us define
every real number contained between 0 and 1 by the sequence of digits in its
expansion in a given base q (q ~ 2); if one takes at random successively the
different digits from a number :1:, independently the ones from the others and
with an equal probability l/q for 0,1, ... , q - 1, the probability that :I: is to
be found in an interval of [0, 1[ is equal to the length of this interval.
In 1923, Steinhaus [293] establishes these results rigorously and describes
the precise mathematical model of the unbounded sequence of selections of
the kind considered by Borel: let us take q = 2 to simplify matters and
denote by I the set with two elements {O, I}; we furnish I with the measure
=
p. defined by p.(0) p.(I) = !; the elements of the product space IN are the
sequences ~ = (~(n))nEN of numbers equal to 0 or 1 and the map 4J : ~ 1-+
Ln>o ~(n).2-n-l is, up to a countable set, a bijection of IN on the interval
[0,1]; what is more, 4J- 1 transforms the Lebesgue measure on [0,1] into the
measure P on IN the product of the measures I' on each of the factors. In fact
Steinhaus does not have at his disposal a construction for product measures;
24. INTEGRATION IN NON LOCALLY COMPACT SPACES. 239
he uses the existence of the quasi-bijection tP to construct the measure P on

IN starting from the Lebesgue measure on [0, I}, then he gives an axiomatic
characterisation of P. The isomorphism thus obtained allows the translation
of the language of probability into that of measure and to apply the known
theorems about the Lebesgue integral.
In the same work, Steinhaus considers the random series En>o Un.O n ,
where the signs Un = ±1 are chosen at random independently the ones from
the others and with the same probability ij between 1928 and 1935, he stud-
ies numerous other random series. On their side, Paley, Wiener and Zygmund
consider random Fourier series l of the form E~oo an exp(211"i(nt + 4)n»j the
"amplitudes" On are fixed, and the "phases" 4)n are independent random vari-
ables uniformly spread over [0,1]. If the analytic difficulties vary enormously
from problem to problem, the translation in terms of measure theory is the
same in all cases and represents an extension of the case treated by Borel and
Steinhausj it is a matter of constructing a measure on R N, the product of a
family of measures all identical to one particular positive measure J.& of mass
1 on Rj for example, the preceding random Fourier series correspond to the
case where J.& is the Lebesgue measure on [0, I}.
To construct such product measures, two methods can be used. The first
is a direct method, set up for the first time by Daniell [76 b} in 1918j it is
found again in 1934 by Jessen [173} who will make a detailed study of the
case where J.& is the Lebesgue measure on [0, I} .. The second method is the
search for tricks analogous to those of Steinhaus in order to reduce to the case
of the Lebesgue measure on [0, l}j this way of proceeding had the advantage
of convenience as long as there is not at our disposal a complete account of
the general theory of measure, for it allows the use without new proofs of the
Lebesgue theorems. 2
THE THEORY OF BROWNIAN MOVEMENT.
This theory occupies an exceptional place in contemporary scientific devel-

opment because of the constant and fruitful exchange which it witnesses
between physical problems and "pure" mathematics. The study of brownian
movement, discovered in 1829 by the botanist Brown, has been carried on
intensively in the XIXth century by numerous physicists,S but the first sat-
isfactory mathematical model was invented by Einstein only in 1905. In the
simple case of a particle moving along a straight line, the fundamental hy-
1 For an account of random Fourier series, see [176}.
2 Wiener also takes care on many occasions (d. for example (243), chap. IX) to show
that the measure of the brownian movement is isomorphic to the Lebesgue measure
on [0, I}. The possibility of such tricks finds its explanation in a general theorem of
von Neumann who gives an axiomatic characterisation of measures isomorphic to
the Lebesgue measure on [0, I].
3 A very lively account of this history will be found in [229}.
potheses of Einstein are formulated thus: if z(t) is the abscissa of the particle
at time t, and if to < tl < ... < tn-l < tn, the successive displacements
X(ti) - X(ti-l) (for 1 $ i $ n) are independent gaussian random variables. It
is not the place to evoke here in detail the important experimental work of
J. Perrin which motivated Einstein's theory: for our purposes, it is sufficient
to remember only a remark of Perrin, according to which the observation
of the trajectories of brownian movement suggested irresistibly to him "the
functions without derivative of the mathematicians". This remark was the
initial spark for Wiener.
Quite another stream of ideas draws its origins from the kinetic theory
of gases, developed between 1870 and 1900 by Boltzmann and Gibbs. Let us
consider a gas made up of N molecules of mass m at (absolute) temperature
T and let us denote by Vl, ••• , V N the velocities of the N molecules of the
gasj the kinetic energy of the system is equal to
m
"i(Vl
2
+ ... + VN)
2
= 3NkT (24.1)
where k is Boltzmann's constant. According to the ideas of Gibbs, the multi-
tude of collisions between molecules does not allow the precise determination
of the velocities of the molecules, and it is convenient to introduce a proba-
bility law P on the sphere S of the space with 3N dimensions defined by the
equation (24.1). The "microcanonical" hypothesis consists in assuming that
P is the measure of mass 1 invariant under rotation on the sphere S. Besides,
Maxwell's law of velocities states that the law of probability of the compo-
nent of the velocity of a molecule has a Gaussian measure of variance 2kT/m.
E. Borel seems to have been the first to remark in 1914 that Maxwell's law
is a consequence of the hypotheses of Gibbs and of properties of the sphere
when the number of molecules is very large. He considers a sphere S in
Euclidean space of large dimension and the measure P of mass 1 invariant
under rotation on Sj using the classical methods of approximation based on
the Stirling formula, he shows that the projection of P on a co-ordinate axis
is approximately Gaussian. These results are made precise a little later by
Ga.teaux and Levy [201 a]. Given an integer m ~ 1 and a number r> 0, let
us denote by Sm,r the set of sequences of the form (Xl, .•• , X m , 0, 0, ...) with
x~ + ... + z~ = r2 j let us denote also by O'm,r the measure of mass 1 invariant
under rotation on Sm,r. Stated in modern language, the result of Gateaux
and Levy is the following: the sequence of measures O'm,l tends strictly to the
unit mass at the origin (0,0, ...) and the sequence of measures O'm,.;m tends
strictly to a measure r of the form
co
dr(zlt Z2, .•.) = II d'Y(zn)
n=l
('Y is the Gaussian measure with variance 1 on R).
The preceding measure r plays the role of a Gaussian measure in infinite
dimensions. It appears strongly that Levy had confusedly hoped to define
in an intrinsic manner a Gaussian measure on all Hilbert spaces of infinite

dimension. In fact, as was shown by Levy and Wiener, the measure r is
invariant in a certain sense4 under the automorphisms of 12; unfortunately,
the set P of square summablesequences (Xl, X2,"" x n , ...) is of measure zero
for r. It is known today that we must be content with a Gaussian premeasure
on a Hilbert space of infinite dimension. 5
To Wiener is owed the essential progress: if there is no reasonable Gaussian
measure on a Hilbert space of infinite dimension, it is possible to construct
by means of the primitive operation a measure W on a space of continuous
functions starting with a Gaussian premeasure. We shall explain succinctly
the initial construction of w by Wiener [336]; it is directly influenced by
the relation r = lilllm_oo (Tm.rm
of Gateaux and Levy. For every integer
m ~ 1, let us denote by Hm the set of functions on T = ]0,1] which are
constant on each of the intervals] i;;;l,~] (for k =
1,2, ... , m), and 1I'm
the measure of mass 1 invariant under rotation on the Euclidean sphere of
radius 1 in Rm. Let 1m be the isomorphism of Hm on R m which associates
with each function taking the value ai on the interval ] i,:;;l,~] the vector
(all a2 - a1, ... , am - am-I) (whence the name of "differential space" dear
to Wiener); let us denote by Wm the measure on Hm image of 1I'm under
f;;/. Wiener defines the measure W being sought as the limit of the measures
W m . Precisely, let us denote by H the set ofregular functions on T, with the
uniform convergence topology (we have Hm C H for every integer m ~ 1);
for every uniformly continuous function F bounded on H, the limit A {F} =
lilllm_oo fH F(x)dwm(x) exists; Wiener then obtains certain majorations
by a subtle analysis of the fluctuations of the items in play, and, taking up
again the arguments of compactness brought out by Daniell, he shows that
we are in a situation for the application of Daniell's extension theorem. We
conclude the existence of a measure w carried by"C(T) and such that A{F} =
fC(T) F(x)dw(x). Wiener can then show that the measure w corresponds to
the hypotheses of Einstein,6 and his estimates allowed him to give a precise
• Precisely, the following result holds. Let U be an automorphism of the Hilbert
space 12 and (Urnn) the matrix of U. Let E be the vector space of all real sequences
(:en)n>1 and F the subspace of E made up of the sequences (:en)n~1 for which the
series Ln~1 UmnXn c~nverges for all m ~ 1. The formula (UX)m = En~l UmnXn
defines a linear map U of F into E, the measure r is concentrated on F and we
have U(r) = r.
6 This notion was introduced under the name of "weak canonical distribution" by
I. Segal [281]. To this author is owed a detailed study of the Gaussian premeasures,
and their application to certain problems of the quantum theory of fields.
6 This is translated by the formula
fC(T) f(x(tt}, . .. , x(tn»dw(x) = (211')-n/2
n n
1=1
(t i -
t i-I )-1/2 f ..•
ff( Xl,··. ,x n ) exp (-~
1 ",n
L.J'.l
(";-";_1)2)
I;-I;_J
dXl ..•
dXn
where f is an arbitrary bounded continuous function on R n and where we have
o = to < tl < ... < tn ... ::; 1
meaning to the remark of Perrin on functions without a derivative: the set of

functions satisfying a Lipschitz condition of order i, is negligible for w (on
the contrary, for every a with 0 < a < i, nearly every function satisfies a
Lipschitz condition of order a).
We know today numerous constructions for the Wiener measure. Thus,
Paley and Wiener use random Fourier series ([243], chap. IX): to every real
sequence a = (an)n~1 and every integer m ~ 0, let us define the function
Im,a on ]0, 1] by
2",+1
Im,a(t) = al t + 2 L: lk al:-l sin 'II'kt;
1:=2 11'
it can be shown that, for r -almost all sequences a, the sequence of functions
Im,a tends to a continuous function la and that w is the image of r by the
map (defined almost everywhere) a 1-+ la. Later, Levy gave in [201 b and
c] another construction. Finally Kac, Donsker and ErdOs show around 1950
how to replace in Wiener's initial construction the spherical measures 1I'm on
R m by more general measures. Their results establish a solid link between
Wiener's measure and the limit theorems of Probability Theory; they will
be completed and systematised by Prokhorov [254] in work to which we will
return later.
This is not the place to analyse the numerous and important probabilistic
works caused by Wiener's discovery; today, the brownian movement appears
only as one of the most important examples of a Markov process. We will
only mention the application made by Kac of Wiener's measure to the solu-
tion of certain parabolic partial differential equations; it is a matter there of
an adaptation of the ideas of Feynman in quantum field theory - another
example of this reciprocal influence between mathematics and the problems
of physics.
PROJECTIVE LIMITS OF MEASURES.
This is the case of a theory that was developed especially in view of the needs
of Probability Theory. The problems concerning a finite sequence of random
variables Xl, ... , Xn are solved in principle when the law Px ofthis sequence
is known: it is a positive measure of mass 1 on Rn, such that the probability
of obtaining simultaneously the inequalities al :5 Xl :5 bl, ... , an :5 Xn :5 bn
is equal to Px(C) where C is the closed box [al,bl] x ... x [an,b n] of Rn.
(we have a convention that zO = 0). Wiener, trained in analytic rigour by Hardy,
and justifiably wary with regard to the foundations of Probability Theory at that
time, takes care not to use either the terminology or the probabilistic results. As
a result his memoirs are full of formidable formulae of which the preceding one is
a sample; this peculiarity is one of the factors that slowed down the diffusion of
Wiener's ideas.
In practice, the measure Px has discrete support or else admits a density

with respect to Lebesgue measure. When it is the case of an infinite sequence
(Xn)n~l ofrandom variables, the law Pn of the partial sequence (XII ... , Xn)
is known in general for every integer n ~ Ii these given laws satisfy a com-
patibility condition that expresses the fact that the sequence (Pn)n~l is a
projective system of measures. Until around 1920, one defined in a more or
less implicit manner the probabilities of events linked to the infinite sequence
by a "natural" passing to the limit starting with probabilities in the finite
case; thus it will be assumed that the probability that a game stops is the
limit, for n tending to infinity, of the probability that it stops in at most n
steps. Naturally, such a theory is hardly coherent, and nothing excludes the
presence of "paradoxes", a same probability receiving two distinct estima-
tions according to whether it is evaluated by one or other of two procedures
each as "natural" as the other.
Steinhaus [293] seems to have been the first to feel the necessity of con-
sidering (for the case of the toss of a coin) not only the projective system
(Pn)n~l but its limit. Shortly before, in 1919, Daniell [76 d] had proved the
existence of such projective limits in general, 1 but this result seems to have
remained unknown in Europe. It is found again in 1933 by Kolmogoroft'in the
work [183] where this author formulates the axiomatic conception of Prob-
ability Theory. The proofs of Daniell and Kolmogoroft' use a compactness
argument that rests on Dini's theorem.
The Daniell-Kolmogoroft' theorem leaves nothing to be desired in the case
of random sequences (Xn)n>l, but the study of random functions undertaken
starting in 1935 by Kolmogoroft', Feller and Doob conceals difficulties of quite
another order. Let us consider for example an interval T of R, which rep-
resents the set of instants of observations of a "stochastic process" j the set
of possible trajectories is the product space R T , considered as a projective
limit of partial products R H, where H runs through the set of finite subsets
of T; one obtains in general a projective system of measures (PH). Kolmogo-
roft"s theorem does indeed provide a measure on R T, but it is defined on a
family that is notably smaller than the Borel family.s A variant of Kolmogo-
roft"s construction, which provides a measure on a topological space, is due
to Kakutani [177], and has been rediscovered many times since: one consid-
ers PH as a measure on RH carried by RH;9 the compact space E = RT is
a projective limit of the finite products RH and a measure P on E can be
7 Daniell deals with the case of measures on a product nn>11n of compact inter-
vals of R, but his method extends immediately to the case cil' an arbitrary product
of compact spaces.
8 Kolmogorotr's measure is only defined for Borel sets in R T of the form A x R T-D
where D is a countable subset of T, and A is a Borel subset of R D; from this,
Kolmogorotr's theorem for an arbitrary product RT is an immediate consequence
of the case for countable products.
9 It would be possible to replace R by any compact space containing R as a dense
subspace.
defined as a projective limit of the JlH. But this procedure has a severe incon-
venience; the elements of RT do not possess any regularity property allowing
the eontinuation of the probabilistie study of the proeess - or even simply
the elimination of the parasitic ·values ±oo introduced by the compactifica-
tion R of R. It can be remedied by restricting the measure JI of RT to a
partieular subspace (for example C(T) in the case of brownian movement);
the fundamental difficulty arises from the fact that a functional space, even
of the usual type, is not necessarily JI-measurable in R T, and even the choice
of the functional space can be in question. 1o
A decisive step was accomplished in 1956 by Prokhorov in a work [254]
which exercised a determining influence on the theory of stochastic proeesses.
By putting into a convenient axiomatic form the methods used by Wiener
in the article analysed above, he establishes a general existence theorem for
projective limits of measures on functional spaces.
A more restrieted class of projective systems was introduced by Bochner
[24 b] in 1947; it is a case of projective systems made up of real vector spaces
offinite dimension and surjective linear transformations. The projective limit
of such a system is identified in a natural way with the algebraic dual E* of a
real vector space E supplied with a weak topology 0'( E* , E); a corresponding
projective system of measures has a limit which is a measure I' defined for a
family which is notably smaller than the Borel family of E*. Bochner char-
acterised completely sueh "premeasures" by their Fourier transform, which
is a function on E. But this result is hardly usable in the absence of a topol-
ogy on E, in which case the possibility of considering JI as a measure on the
topological dual E' of E must be examined. In an independent way, R. Fortet
and E. Mourier, while seeking to generalise to random variables with values
in a Banach spaee certain classical results of Probability Theory (the law of
large numbers, the central limit theorem) brought out also the fundamen-
tal role played by the Fourier transform in these questions. But substantial
progress was only made in 1956 when Gelfand [125 c] suggested that the
natural framework for the Fourier transform is not that of Banach spaces or
Hilbert spaces, but that of nuclear Fl"echet spaces. He conjectured that every
continuous function of positive type on such a space is the Fourier transform
of a measure on its dual, a result established soon after by Minlos [222]. Its
importance comes above all from the fact that it is applicable to distribution
spaces, and that the quasi-totality of functional spaces are Borel subspaces
of the B,face of distributions (which thus constitutes a much better setting
than R ).11 The theory of random distributions is an area in full expansion,
and we will be content with referring the reader to the work of Gelfand and
Vilenkin [126].
10 For a detailed discussion of the problem of construction of measures for functional
spaces, and the methods used before Prokhorov, see J. L. Doob [93].
11 The exposition by X. Fernique [110] can be consulted, which also contains nu-
merous results on strict convergence.
The results that we have just mentioned on projective limits use the ex-
istence of topologies on the base spaces. It can be asked if there exists an
analogous theory in the case of "abstract" measures. Von Neumann proved
already in 1935 the existence of product measures in all cases, but the dis-
covery of a counterexample by Jessen and Andersen [290] ruined the hope
that every projective system of measures admits a limit. Two palliatives were
discovered: in 1949, C. lonescu-Tulcea established the existence of countable
projective limits, granted the existence of suitable decompositions,12 a very
interesting result for the study of Markov processesj besides, it became clear
that the topology of the spaces does not come in except by means of the set of
compact subsets. It was therefore natural to seek to axiomatise this situation
inside an abstract theory, by means of the notion of a compact class of sub-
sets of a set. This work was done in 1953 by Marczewski (who establisheed
by this means a theorem on abstract projective limits) and Ryll-Nardzewski
(who worked on the decomposition of measures).13
MEASURES ON GENERAL TOPOLOGICAL SPACES AND STRICT

CONVERGENCE.
The study of the links between topology and measure theory was especially
thought of as the study of regularity properties of measures, and in particular
that of "exterior" regularity and of "interior" regularityj14 interior regularity
is equivalent to exterior regularity on a locally compact space countable at
infinity. The construction that Lebesgue gives of the measure of sets on the
straight line brings out these two kinds of regularity, and the property of
exterior regularity of measures on a Polish space seems to have had public
notoriety around 1935. But it is only in 1940, in an article whose diffusion
was slowed down by the war, that A. D. Alexandroff [3] brought out the role
of interior regularity and showed that this is possessed by the measures on a
Polish spacej this result was found again later by Prokhorov [254] and is often
attributed mistakenly to this author. It only appeared very recently that this
property extended to sublinian spacesj because of this, the importance of
these spaces increased greatly, all the more so that it became known that their
12 It appears that it is the absence of a suitable theory of decompositions that

marks the limit of the theory of "abstract" measures. This difficulty reappears in
an insistent way in Probability Theory in connection with conditional probabilities.
13 For an account of this theory, one can refer to [249].
14 An "abstract" measure JJ on the Borel family of a discrete topological space is
said to be exterior regular if the measure of every Borel set is the lower bound of
the measures of the open sets that contain it; the measure JJ is said to be interior
regular if the measure of every Borel set is the upper bound of the measure of its
compact subsets.
theory could be done without a metrisability hypothesis, and that the quasi-
totality of functional spaces were sublinian (and even most often lusinian).15
The definition of a mode of convergence (weak or strict) for measures is
done in the most convenient way by putting in duality the space of measures
with a space of continuous functions. Generalising an ancient result of F.
Riesz, A. A. Markhoff established in 1938 a bijective correspondence between
the positive functionals on C(X) and the regular measures on a compact space
X. In the work [3] already quoted, A. D .. Alexandroff extends these results
to the case of a completely regular space: he introduces a hierarchy on the set
of positive linear forms on the space C6(X) of bounded continuous functions
on a completely regular space X,16 he defines strict convergence of bounded
measures and proves among others the following two theorems:
a) if X is Polish, the set of linear forms on C6(X) corresponding to mea-
sures is closed in the weak convergence of sequences;
b) if a sequence of bounded measures has a strict limit, "there is no mass
fleeing to infinity" (it is a weak form of the reciprocal of the theorem of strict
convergence of Prokhorov).
From this fusion of notions and theorems, Prokhorov will know how to ex-
tract important results for the theory of stochastic processes, and to present
them in a simple and striking form. In his great work of 1956 already quoted
[254], an important part is devoted to bounded positive measures on a Polish
space; in generalising a construction of Levy, he defines on the set of posi-
tive measures of mass 1 a distance which makes it into a Polish space, then
he establishes an important compactness criterion for strict convergence. In-
dependently of Prokhorov, Le Cam [197] has obtained a certain number of
compactness results for the strict convergence of measures; he puts no metris-
ability hypotheses on the spaces that he considers, and his results reduce to
previous theorems of Dieudonne in the locally compact case.
1:; In order to solve certain probabilistic difficulties (particularly the links between
different notions of stochastic independence or dependence) several authors intro-
duce restricted classes of "abstract" measures: the "perfect" spaces of Kolmogoroff-
Gnedenko, the "lusinian" spaces of Blackwell, the "Lebesgue" spaces of Rokhlin. In
fact (at least granted a. fairly wea.k counta.bility hypothesis), all these definitions give
cha.racterisa.tions of "a.bstract" measures isomorphic to a. positive bounded measure
on a. sublinia.n space. [249] ca.n be consulted on this subject.
16 He distinguishes by mea.ns of a decreasing order of genera.lity the O'-measures
("abstract" measures on the Borel fa.mily of X), the T-measures (exterior regular
measures) a.nd the stiff measures (interior regular measures). When X is Polish,
these three notions coincide. The terminology itself is due to MacShane a.nd Le
Ca.m [197]. An account of the work arising from this classification will be found in
[316].
25. LIE GROUPS AND LIE ALGEBRAS.
I. GENESIS.
The theory, which has been called for almost a century the "theory of Lie
groups" , was essentially set up by one mathematician: Sophus Lie.
Before starting on its history, we will summarise briefly various earlier
researches that prepared its development.
a) Transformations (Klein-Lie, 1869-1872).
Around 1860, the theory of permutation groups of a finite set is developing

and begins to be used (Serret, Kronecker, Mathieu, Jordan). On the other
hand, the theory of invariants, then in full flight, familiariseS mathematicians
with certain infinite sets of geometric transformations closed under composi-
tion (notably linear or projective transformations). But, before the work of
1868 of Jordan [174 b] on the "movement groups" (closed subgroups of the
groups of displacements in Euclidean space of 3 dimensions), it does not seem
as if any conscious link had been established between these two streams of
ideas.
In 1869, the young Felix Klein (1849-1925), a pupil of Plucker, becomes
the friend at Berlin of the Norwegian Sophus Lie (1842-1899), a few years
older, being brought together by their common interest in the "geometry of
straight lines" of Plucker and notably the theory of complexes of straight
lines (p. 133). It is around this period that Lie conceives of one of his most
original ideas, the introduction of the notion of invariant in Analysis and in
differential geometry; one of the sources of this is his observation that the
classical methods of integration "by quadratures" of differential equations all
rely on the fact that the equation is invariant for a "continuous" family of
transformations. It is from 1869 that is dated the first work (drawn up by
Klein) where Lie uses this idea; he studies there the "Reye complex" (8. set
248 25. LIE GROUPS AND LIE ALGEBRAS.
of straight lines intersecting the faces of a tetrahedron in 4 points having

a given cross-ratio) and the curves and surfaces having as tangents straight
lines of this complex ([202], vol. I, Abh. V, pp. 68-77): his method relies on
the invariance of the Reye complex under the commutative group with 3 pa-
rameters (a maximal torus of PGL( 4, e» leaving invariant the corners ofthe
tetrahedron. This same idea dominates the work written together by Klein
and Lie when they found themselves in Paris in the spring of 1870 ([182], v.
I, pp. 416-420); they essentially determine there the connected commutative
subgroups of the projective group of the plane PGL(3, e), and study the
geometric properties of their orbits (under the name of V curves or surfaces);
that gives them, by a uniform procedure, properties of varied curves, alge-
braic or transcendental, such as 11 = cx m or the logarithmic spirals. Their
testimony agrees in underlining the profound impression that was produced
on them by the theories of Galois and of Jordan (the commentary of Jor-
dan on Galois had appeared in Math. Annalen in 1869; in any case, Lie had
heard of the theory of Galois already in 1863). Klein, who in 1871, begins
to be interested in non-Euclidean geometries, sees there the beginning of his
research for a classification principle for all known geometries, research that
was to lead him in 1872 to the "Erlangen programme". On his side, Lie in
a letter of 1873 to A. Mayer ([202], vol. 5, p. 584), dates from his stay in
Paris the origin of his ideas on transformations groups, and in a work of 1871
([202]' vol. I, Abh. XII, pp. 153-214), he uses already the term "transforma-
tion group" and states explicitly the problem of the determination of all the
subgroups ("continuous or discontinuous") of GL(n, e). Truth to tell, Klein
and Lie must both have had difficulty in penetrating this new mathematical
universe, and Klein speaks of the ''Treatise'' of Jordan, newly appeared, as
a "book sealed with seven seals" ([182], v. I, p. 51); he writes elsewhere in
connection with ([182]' v. I, pp. 424-459): "It is 10 Lie that belongs all that is
concerned with the heuristic idea of a continuous group of operators, in par-
ticular all that touches on the integration of differential equations or partial
differential equations. All the notions that he developed later in his theory of
continuous groups were already to be found in embryo with him, but so little
elaborated however, that I had to convince him of many details, for example
at the beginning even the existence of the curves V, during the course of long
conversations" ([182], v. I, p. 415).
b)InJinitesimal transformations.
The conception of an "infinitely small" transformation goes back to the be-

ginnings of the infinitesimal Calculus; it is known that Descartes discovers the
instantaneous centre of rotation by assuming that "in the infinitely small"
every plane movement can be assimilated into a rotation; the elaboration
of analytic Mechanics, in the XVIIIth century, is entirely founded on simi-
lar ideas. In 1851, Sylvester, seeking to form invariants of the linear group
25. LIE GROUPS AND LIE ALGEBRAS. 249
GL(3, e) or of certain of its subgroups, gives to the parameters zJ occur-

ring in these matrices "infinitely small" increments of the form OIJdt, and
expresses that a function 1«zJ» is invariant by writing down the equation
/«Zj + OIjdt» = /«Zj»i this gives him a linear equation for 1 with partial
derivatives X/ = 0, where
X/= LOIJ:/, (25.1)

j zJ
X being thus a differential operator, "a derivative in the direction of directed
parameters 01;" ([304], vol. 3, pp. 326 and 327)i Sylvester seems to feel that
there is there a general principle of fairly wide scope, but does not seem to
have returned to the question. A little later, Cayley ([58l,-v. II, pp. 164-178)
proceeds in the sa~e way for invariants of SL(2, e) in certain representations
of this group and shows that it is the solution of two partial differential
equations of the first order X/ = 0, YI = 0, where X and Y are obtained as
above starting from "infinitely small" transformations
In modern terms, this is explained by the fact that X and Y generate the
Lie algebra .[(2, e)i besides Cayley calculates explicitly the bracket XY - Y X
and shows that it also comes from an "infinitely small" transformation.
In his memoir of 1868 on groups of movements [174 b], Jordan uses from
beginning to end the concept of "infinitely small transformation", but ex-
clusively from a geometric point of view. There is no doubt that it is with
him that the idea of a group with one parameter "generated" by an infinitely
small transformation appears: for Jordan, it is the set of transformations ob-
tained by "repeating suitably" the infinitely small transformation (loc. cit.
p. 243). Klein and Lie, in their memoir of 1871, use the same expression
"repeated infinitely small trans/ormation" ([182], v. I, pp. 424-459), but the
context shows that they mean by that an integral of a differential system.
If the group with one parameter that they consider is made up of trans-
formations :'/ = fez, y, t), rI = g(z, y, t), the corresponding "infinitely small
transformation" is given by
dz = p(z, y)dt, d1/ = q(z, 1/)dt
= =
where p(z, 1/) M(z, 1/, to), q(z, 1/) ~(z, 1/, to), where to corresponds to the
identical transformation of the group. As Klein and Lie know the functions
/ and 9 explicitly, they have no problem in checking that the functions
t ..... /(z, 1/, t) and t ..... g(z, 1/, t)
give in a parametric form the integral curve of the differential equation
q(e, TJ)de =pee, TJ)dTJ
going through the point (z,1/), but do not give any general reason for that;
besides they do not use this fact again in the rest of their memoir.
c) Contact transformations.
In the following two years, Lie seems to abandon the theory of transformation
groups (although he remains in very close contact with Klein, who publishes
in 1872 his "Programme") in order to study contact transformations, the
integration of partial differential equations of the first order and the rela-
tions between these two theories. We do not have to spell out. the history of
these questions here, and we will limit ourselves to mentioning a few points
that seem to have played an important role in the genesis of the theory of
transformation groups.
The notion of contact transformation gener-alises at the same time the
point transformations and the transformations by reciprocal polars. Grosso
modo, a contact transformation 1 in en is an isomorphism of an open set
o of the variety T (en) of cotangent vectors to en onto another open set
0' of T(C n ) transforming the canonical I-form of n
into that of n'. In
other words, if (Zi, ... 'Zn'P1 .... 'Pn) describes the canonical co-ordinates
of T'(C n ), a contact transformation is an isomorphism (Zi,Pi) t-+ (Xi, Pi)
satisfying the relation L~=l PidX, = L~=l Pidz i : Such transformations occur
in the study of partial differential equations of the form
Oz Oz )
F ( Z1, Z2, ... , Zn, OZ1 ' ••• , OZn = 0 (25.2)
Lie becomes familiar during the course of his research on these questions with
the handling of Poisson parentheses
(/ g) =
,
t (0/ ~ _~ 0/)
i=1 OZi OPi OZi 0Pi
(25.3)
and brackets2 [X, Y] = XY - Y X of differential operators of type (25.1); he

interprets the Poisson parenthesis (25.3) as the effect on / of a transforma-
1 It is a case here of "homogeneous" contact transformations. Previously, the con-
sideration of equations of type (25.2), but where z occurs in F, had led Lie to con-
sider contact transformations with 2n + 1 variables Z,Zl, ... ,Zn,P1, ... ,pn, where
it is a case of finding 2n + 2 functions Z, Pi, Xi~~ i ~ n) and p (this latter :F 0 at
all points) such that dZ - Li PidXi = p(dz - Ei Pidzi). This case which appears
to be more general is reduced easily in fact to the "homogeneous" case ([203], v. 2,
pp. 135-146).
2 These occurred already in the theory of Jacobi-Clebsch in "complete systems"
of partial differential equations of the first order X;I = 0(1 ~ ; ~ r), a notion
equivalent to that of "completely integrable system" of Frobenius! the fundamental
theorem (equivalent to the "Frobenius theorem") which characterises these systems
is that the brackets [Xi, Xi] must be linear combinations (with variable coefficients)
of the X".
tion of type (25.1) associated with g, and observes on this occasion that the
Jacobi identity for Poisson parentheses means that the bracket of differential
operators corresponding to g and h is associated with the parenthesis (g, h).
The search for functions g such that (F, g) = 0, which occurs in the method
of Jacobi for integrating the partial differential equation (25.2), becomes for
Lie that for an infinitesimal contact transformation leaving the given equa-
tion invariant. Finally, Lie is led to study the set offunctions (ujhSjSm of
the Zi and the Pi such that the parentheses (Uj, Uk) are functions of the Uh,
and calls these sets "groups" (already considered in substance by Jacobi).
II. CONTINUOUS GROUPS AND INFINITESIMAL TRANSFORMATIONS.
Suddenly, in the autumn of 1873, Lie takes up again the study of transforma-
tion groups and obtains decisive results. For as much as it is possible to follow
the unravelling of his thoughts in a few letters to A. Mayer from the years
1873-1874 ([202], vol. 5, pp. 585-608), he starts from a "continuous group" of
transformations on n variables
(25.4)
depending effectively3 on r parameters alJ ... , ar ; he observes that if the
transformation (25.4) is the identity for the values a~, ... , a~ of the parame-
ters, 4 then the Taylor expansions of the Zi, limited to the first order:
r
1i(zl, ... , Zn, a~+zl' ... ' a~+Zr) = Xi+ 2: ZkXki(ZI,"" zn)+ ... (1 $ i $ n)
k=1
(25.5)
give a "generic" infinitely small transformation depending linearly on the r
parameters Zj
dXi = (t
k=l
ZkXki(Xl, ... , Xn ») dt (1 $ i $ n). (25.6)
Proceeding as in his memoir with Klein, Lie integrates the differential system
3 Lie means by that that the Ii can not be expressed by means of less than ,.
functions of the ai, or equally that the Jacobian matrix (8/i/8ai) is of rank r "in
general" .
4 In his first notes, Lie believes himself able to prove a priori the existence of
the identity and of the inverse in all sets of transformations (4) closed under com-
position; he recognises later that his proof was incorrect, and Engel supplies him
with a counterexample reproduced in ([203], v. I, §44). However Lie shows how to
reduce the "continuous" systems (4) closed under composition to groupuscules of
transformations: such a system is of the form G 0 h, where G is a groupuscule of
transformations and h is a transformation of the system ([203], v. I, tho 26, p. 163,
and V. 3, tho 46, p. 572).
del _ _ den _
E tZtXu6,
( ... ,en ) - ... - E tZtXtn ((1, ... ,(n ) - dt, (25.7)
which gives him, for each point (Z1' ... , zr), a group with one parameter
(25.8)
such that gi(X1, ... ,Xn ,Zl, ... ,Zr,0) = Xi for every i. He shows in an inge-
nious way, using the fact that the transformations (25.4) make up a set closed
under composition, that the group with one parameter (25.8) is a subgroup of
the given group ([202], vol. 5, Abh. VII, pp. 32-63). The new idea, key to the
whole theory, is to proceed on to the second order in the Taylor expansions of
the functions (25.4). The thread of his argument is fairly confused and heuris-
tic ([202]' vol. 5, Abh. VII, pp. 32-63 and [202], vol. 5,pp. 600-601); it can be
=
set out as follows. For the Zj that are fairly small, one can put t 1 in (25.8),
and thus are obtained new parameters Z1, . .. ,Zr for the transformations of
the group (it is in fact the first appearance of the "canonical parameters").
By definition, we have with regard to (25.7)
8Ui ='~Zt
7ft " X ti ( Xl,·· .,Xn
I I )
,
t
from where
which gives
xi = Xi + (Et Zt X ti(X1, ... , Xn» t
from where, for t = 1, the Taylor expansions with respect to the parameters
zi
Let us write these relations in brief as x' = G(x, z) between vectors
X=(X1, ... ,Xn ), X'=(X~, ... ,X~), Z=(Zl, ... ,Zr);

the fundamental property of closure of the sets of these transformations under

composition is written as
G(G(z,u),v) = G(z,H(u,v» (25.10)
where H = (HI' ... ' H,.) is independent of Z; it is immediate that H(u,O) =
v, H(O, v) = v, whence the expansions
(25.11)
the terms not written down being non linear either in u or in v. Transforming
(25.10) with the help of (25.9) and (25.11), then comparing the terms in UhVI:
of the two members, Lie obtains the relations
~
L..J (aXl:i ()Xhi) = ~
XhjT - Xl:jT L..JC'h"X/i ( 1 $ h,k $ r, 1 $.. $ n ) .
j=1 zJ zJ '=1
(25.12)
His expertise with the theory of partial differential equations leads him to
write these conditions in a simpler form: following the model of (25.1), he
associates with each of these r infinitely small transformations obtained by
= =
putting ZI: 1, Zh 0 for h ::f: k in (25.6), the differential operator
{)f
= E Xl:i A"""":" ,
n
AI: (I) (25.13)
.=1 vZ.
and rewrites the conditions (25.12) in the form
[Ah' AI:] = E, C,hI: A " (25.14)
a keystone of his theory. Until then, he had used indiscriminately the terms
"infinitely small transformation" and "infinitesimal transformation" (e. g.
[202], vol. 5, Abh. I, pp. 1-4); the simplicity ofthe relations (25.14) leads him
to call the operator (25.13) the "symbol" ofthe infinitesimal transformation
dZi = X"idt (1 $ i $ n) ([202], vol. 5, Abh. III, pp. 42-75) and very rapidly,
it is the operator (25.13) itself that he will call "infinitesimal transformation"
([202], vol. 5, Abh. III, pp. 42-75 and [202], vol. 5, p. 589).
He then becomes aware of the tight links which unite the theory of "con-
tinuous groups" with his previous research on contact transformations and
partial differential equations. This link fills him with enthusiasm: "Myoid
work was so to speak all ready in advance to found the new theory of groups
of transformationj' he wrote to Mayer in 1874 ([202], vol. 5, p. 586).
In the following years, Lie pursued the study of transformation groups.
Apart from the general theorems summarised here (§ III), he obtains a cer-
tain number of more particular results: the determination of transformation
groups of the straight line and of the plane, subgroups of small codimension
in projective groups, groups with at most 6 parameters, etc .. For all that
he does not abandon differential equations. In fact, it even appears that for
him, the theory of transformation groups was to be an instrument for in-
tegrating differential equations, where the transformation group would play
a role analogous to that of the Galois group of an algebraic equation. 5 Let
us note that this research leads him likewise to introducing certain sets of
transformations with an infinity of parameters, which he calls "infinite and
continuous groups,,;6 he keeps the name "finite and continuous groups" for
the transformation groups with a finite number of parameters of type (25.4)
above.
III. THE "DICTIONARY" LIE GROUPS - LIE ALGEBRAS.
The theory of "finite and continuous" groups, developed by Lie in numerous

memoirs starting in 1874, is set out systematically in the imposing treatise
"Theone der Transformationsgruppen" ([203], 1888-1893), written in collab-
oration with F. Engel; 7 it is the object of the first volume and of the last five
chapters of the third, the second being consecrated to contact transforma-
tions.
As the title indicates, there was never any question in this work of any-
thing other than transformation groups, in the meaning of the equations
(25.4), where the space of "variables" Zi and the space of "parameters" OJ
initially both play equally important roles. Besides the concept of "abstract"
group is not clearly expressed at this time; when in 1883 ([202]' vol. 5, Abh.
XII, pp. 311-313) Lie remarks that with the notation of (25.10), the equation
w = H(u, v), which gives the parameters of the product of two transforma-
tions of the group, defines a new group, it is as a transformation group on the
space of parameters that he is considering it, obtaining thus what he calls the
6 This research only had a sma.ll influence on the general theory of differential
equations, the group of automorphisms of such an equation being most often trivial.
On the contrary, for certain types of equations (for example linear ones), interesting
results were obtained subsequently by Picard, Vessiot, then, more recently, Ritt and
Kolchin.
6 They are called today "Lie pseudo-groups"; we must be careful not to confuse
them with the "Banach" Lie groups.
7 From 1886 to 1898, Lie occupied at Leipzig the chair left vacant by Klein and
had Engel as assistant; this circumstance favoured the flowering of an active math-
ematical school as well as the diffusion of the ideas of Lie, fairly poorly known until
then (because, notably, of the fact that his first memoirs were most often written in
Norwegian, and published in the Comptes Rendus of the Academy of Christiania,
poorly propagated elsewhere). It is thus that at a time when it was hardly usual for
young French mathematicians to go to study in Germany, E. Vessiot and A. Tresse
spent a year of study at Leipzig, with Sophus Lie.
"group of parameters" (he even obtains two of them, which are none other
than the group of left translations and the group of right translations).8
The variables :l:i and the parameters aJ in the equations (25.4) are as-
sumed complex in principle (except in chaps. XIX-XXIV of v. 3), and the
functions Ii analytic; Lie and Engel are of course conscious of the fact that
these functions are not in general defined for all complex values of the Zi and
the aj and that, in consequence, the composition of such transformations
raises serious difficulties ([203], v. I, pp. 15-17, pp. 33-40 and passim); and al-
though, later, they express themselves almost always as if composition of the
transformations that they study were always possible without restriction, it
is no doubt only for the convenience of the statements, and they re-establish
explicitly the "local" point of view each time that it is necessary (cf. loco
cit., pp. 168 or 189 for example or ibid., V. 3, p. 2, note at the bottom of
the page); in other words, the mathematical object that they are studying
is near to what we would now call a partial operation law. They do not fail
to consider, on occasion, global groups, for example the 4 series of classical
groups ([203], V. 3, p. 682), but do not seem to have set themselves the ques-
tion of what in general a "global group" can be; it suffices for them to be
able to obtain, for the "parameters" of the classical groups (the "variables" of
these groups do not introduce any difficulty, since it is a caae of linear transfor-
mations of en), systems of "local" parameters in the neighbourhood of the
identical transformation, without their being concerned about the domain
of validity of the formulae that they write down. They set themselves how-
ever one problem that stands out clearly from the local theory:9 the study of
"mixed" groups, that is to say groups having a finite number of connected
components, such as the orthogonal group ([203], V. I, p. 7). They present
this study as that of a set of transformations closed under composition and
taking inverses, which is the union of sets Hj such that each is described by
systems of functions JjJ> as in (25.4); the number of (essential) parameters
of each Hj is even assumed tJ priori to depend on j, but they show in fact
that this number is the same for all the Hj. Their main result is then the
existence of a finite continuous group G such that Hj = Gohj for an hi E Hi
and for all j; they establish also that G is normal in the mixed group and
remark that the determination of the invariants of this latter reduces to that
of the invariants of G and of a discontinuous group ([203], V. I, chap. 18).
The general theory developed in [203] finishes up (without that being
stated in a very systematic way by the authors) by forging a "dictionary"
making the translation from properties of "finite continuous" groups to those
a The analogous notion for groups of permutations had been introduced and stud-
ied by Jordan in his "7raite".
9 Let us remember that (p. 119), following a Note of H. Poincare ([251], V. V,
pp. 77-79) various authors have studied the group of invertible elements of an
associative algebra of finite dimension. It is interesting to note in this connection
that E. Study, in his work on this subject, introduces a symbolism that reduces in
substance to considering the abstract group defined by the group of parameters.
of the set of their infinitesimal transformations. It is based on the "three the-

orems of Lie" , each one of which is made up of an assertion and its converse.
The first theorem ([203], v. I, pp. 33 and 72 and v. 3, p. 563) affirms in
the first instance that if in (25.4) the parameters are effective, the functions
Ii satisfy a system of partial differential equations of the form
(25.15)
where the matrix (ekr) is of maximum rank and det(1Pki) :/: OJ reciprocally, if
the functions Ii have this property, the formulae (25.4) define a groupuscule
of transformations.
The second theorem ([203], v. I, pp. 149 and 158, and v. 3, p. 590) gives
relations between the eki on the one hand, the 1Pii on the other: the conditions
on the eki can be written in the form
~
L..J (e
ill
8ejr 8eil) = ~
8% - ..t jk 8% II t
L..J cii .. llr
(1 $ a,..J $ r, 1 $ I $ n) (25.16)
k=1 " "k=1
where the c~ are constants (1 $ i,j, k $ r) anti-symmetric in i,j. The
conditions on the 1Pii in the form given by Maurer, are:
(25.17)
By introducing the matrix «(Xij) contragredient to (1Pii) and the infinitesimal

transformations
(25.18)
(25.16) and (25.17) can be written respectively:

r
[Xi,Xi] = ~c~iXk (1 $ i,j $ r) (25.19)
k=1
r
[Ai,A;] = ~c~;Ak' (25.20)
k=1
Conversely, if given r infinitesimal transformations X,,(1 $ k $ r), lin-
early independent and satisfying conditions (25.19), the one parameter sub-
groups generated by these transformations generate a group of transforma-
tions with r essential parameters.
Finally, the third theorem ([203], v. I, pp. 170 and 297 and v. 3, p.
597) reduces the determination of systems of infinitesimal transformations
(X"h$k~r satisfying (25.19) to a purely algebraic problem: we must have
r
E(c~ch + c~c~; + Cj,C~i) = 0 (1 $ i:i, k, m$ r). (25.22)
1=1
Conversely,10 if (25.21) and (25.22) are satisfied, there exists a system of in-
finitesimal transformations satisfying relations (25.19), from whence a group
of transformations with r parameters (in other words, the linear combinations
with constant coefficients of the X. make up a Lie algebra, and conversely
every Lie algebra of finite dimension can be obtained in this way).
These results are completed by the study of isomorphism questions. Two
groups of transformations are said to be similar if it is possible to pass from
one to the other by an invertible transformation of co-ordinates on the vari-
ables and an invertible transformation of co-ordinates on the parameters:
from the beginning of his research, Lie had met this notion in a natural way
in connection with the definition of the "canonical parameters". He shows
that two groups are similar if, by means of a transformation on the "vari-
ables" , one can bring the infinitesimal transformations of the one onto those
of the other ([203], v. I, p. 329). A necessary condition for this to be so is
that the Lie algebras of the two groups be isomorphic, which Lie expresses by
saying that the groups are "gleichzusammengesetzf'; but this condition is not
sufficient, and a whole chapter ([203], v. I, chap. 19) is devoted to obtaining
supplementary conditions insuring that the groups should be "similar". On
the other hand the theory of permutation groups supplied the notion of the
"holoedric isomorphism" of two such groups (isomorphism of the underlying
"abstract" groups); Lie transposes this notion to groups of transformations,
and shows that two such groups are "holoedric isomorphic" if and only if
their Lie algebras are isomorphic ([203], v. I, p. 418). In particular, every
group of transformations is holoedrically isomorphic to each of its groups of
parameters, and that shows that, when one wishes to study the structure of
the group, the "variables" on which they operate do not matter much and
that in fact everything reduces to the Lie algebra. l l
Always by analogy with the theory of permutation groups. Lie introduces
the notions of subgroups, normal subgroups, "meriedric isomorphisms" (sur-
jective homomorphisms), and shows that they correspond to that of sub-
algebras, ideals and surjective homomorphisms of Lie algebras; besides he
10 This converse was not obtained without trouble. The first proof that Lie gives
of it ([202], vol. 5, Abh. III, pp. 42-75) consists in passing over to the adjoint group
and is in fact only valid if the centre of the given Lie algebra is reduced to O. He
later gives two general proofs olit ([203], v. 2, chap. XVII and v. 3, pp. 599-604); it
is fairly significant that the first is based on contact transformations and that Lie
finds it more natural than the second.
11 It can be noticed that there is a similar evolution in the theory of "abstract"
groups, in particular finite ones. They were first defined as groups of transforma-
tions, but already Cayley remarked that what is essential is the manner in which
the transformations are comp08ed together, and not the nature of the concrete
representation of the group of permutations of particular objects.
had met very early on a particularly important example of "meriedric iso-

morphism" , the adjoint representation, and had recognised its links with the
centre of the group ([202], vol. 5, Abh. III, pp. 42-75). For these results, as for
the fundamental theorems, the essential tool is the theorem of Jacobi-Clebsch
giving the complete integrability of a differential system (one of the forms of
the theorem called "of Frobenius"); he gives a new proof of it, as it happens,
using groups with one parameter ([203], v. I, chap. 6).
The notions of transitivity and of primitivity, so important for groups of
permutations, arise also naturally for the ''finite and continuous" groups of
transformations, and the treatise of Lie-Engel makes a detailed study of them
([203], v. I, chap. 13 and passim); the relations with the subgroups stabilising
a point and the notion of homogeneous space are observed (for as much as
they could be without putting oneself in a global point of view) ([203], v. I,
p.425).
Finally, the "dictionary" is completed, in [203], by the introduction of
the notions of derived group and soluble group (called "integrable group" by
Lie; this terminology, suggested by the theory of differential equations, will
remain in use until the work of H. Weyl) ([203], v. I, p. 261 and v. 3, pp.
678-679); the relation between commutators and brackets had besides been
observed by Lie already in 1883 ([202], vol. 5, p. 358).
Other proofs of fundamental theorems.
In [278 b], F. Schur shows that in canonical co-ordinates the VJik of (15) satisfy
the differential equations
(25.23)
These integrate and give a formula equivalent to the formula
w(X) = I: ( 1 1)1 (ad(X)t

n~O n + .
(25.24)
for the right differential 1U(X) of the exponential map at the point X; in
particular, in canonical co-ordinates, the VJij are extended into entire func-
tions of the ak. F. Schur deduces from this a result making precise an earlier
remark of Lie: if, in the definition (25.4) of groups of transformations, it is
only assumed that the Ii are in the class C 2 , then the group is holoedrically
isomorphic to an analytic group.12 Following his research on the integration
12 Lie had already stated without proof a result of this kind ([202], vol. 6, Abh. V,
pp. 230-236). He had been led to it by his research on the foundations of geometry
("problem of Helmhotz"), where he had remarked that the hypotheses of analyticity
are not natural.
of differential systems, E. Cartan ([52 a], v. 112 , p. 371) introduces in 1904

the Pfaffian forms
r
Wk = LtPkidai (1 ~ i ~ r) (25.25)
i=1
(with the notation of (25.15», later called Maurer-Cartan forms. The condi-
tions (25.17) of Maurer can then be written
dwk = -4 LC~Wi
iJ
"Wj;
E. Cartan shows that it is possible to develop the theory of finite continuous

groups starting with the w" and establishes the equivalence of this point of
view and that of Lie. But, for him, the interest in this method is especially
that it adapts itself to "infinite and continuous" groups for which he pushes
the theory much further that had been done by Lie, and that it allows the
setting up of his theory of the generalised "mobile marker".
IV. THE THEORY OF LIE ALGEBRAS.
Once the correspondence between groups of transformations and Lie algebras

is acquired, the theory is going to take a clearly more algebraic turn and will
be centred on a deep study of Lie algebras. 13
A first and short period, from 1888 to 1894, marked by the work of Engel,
of his pupil Umlauf and especially Killing and E. Cartan, ended up with a
series of spectacular results on complex Lie algebras. We have seen above
that the notion of soluble Lie algebra was due to Lie himself, who had proved
(in the complex case) the reduction theorem for soluble linear Lie algebras to
triangular form ([203], v. I, p. 270).14 Killing observes [180] that there exists
in a Lie algebra a biggest soluble ideal (that is called the radical today), and
that the quotient of the Lie algebra by its radical has null radical; he calls
the Lie algebras with null radical semisimple, and proves that they are the
product of simple algebras (this last notion had already been introduced by
The results of F. Schur would lead Hilbert, in 1900, to aak if the same conclu-
sion remains valid if one aasumes only tha.t the Ii are continuous ("5th Hilbert
problem"). This problem gave rise to numerous research efforts. The most com-
plete result along these lines is the following theorem, proved by A. Gleason, D.
Montgomery a.nd L. Zippin: every locally compact topological group haa an open
subgroup that is the projective limit of Lie groups; it implies that every locally
Euclidean group is a Lie group. For more details on this question, d. [226].
13 The term "Lie algebra" waa introduced by H. Weyl in 1934: in his work of 1925,
he had used the expression "infinitesimal group". Beforehand, one simply speaks
of "infinitesimal transformations Xd, ... , Xd" of the group, which Lie and Engel
frequently shorten by saying "the group Xd, ... , Xrr!
14 Almost at the beginning of his research, Lie had met soluble linear groups, and
even in fact nilpotent ones ([202], vol. 5, Abh. IV, pp. 78-133).
Lie, who had proved the simplicity of the "classical" Lie algebras ([203], v.
3, p. 682».
On the other hand, Killing introduces, in a Lie algebra, the characteristic
=
equation det( ad( a:) - w.l) 0, already met by Lie in studying the Lie subal-
gebras of dimension 2 containing a given element of a Lie algebra. We refer
to other historical Notes for the analysis of the methods whereby Killing, in
studying in a penetrating manner the properties of the roots of the "generic"
characteristic equation for a semisimple algebra, ends up with the most re-
markable of his results, the complete determination of the simple (complex)
Lie algebras. 1S
Killing proves that the derived algebra of a soluble algebra is "of rank 0"
(which means that ad a: is nilpotent for every element a: of the algebra). Soon
after, Engel proves that the algebras "of rank 0" are soluble (this statement is
in substance what is called today Engel's theorem). In his thesis, E. Cartan
introduces on the other hand what is now called the "Killing form", and
establishes the two fundamental criteria that characterise by means of this
form the soluble Lie algebras and the semisimple Lie algebras.
Killing had affirmed ([180], IV) that the derived algebra of a Lie algebra
is the sum of a semisimple algebra and of its radical, which is nilpotent, but
his proof was incomplete. A little later, E. Cart an announced without proof
([52 a], v. 11, p. 104) that more generally every Lie algebra is the sum of
its radical and of a semisimple subalgebra; the only result in this direction
that is indisputably established at this time is a theorem of Engel affirming
the existence, in every non-soluble Lie algebra, of a simple Lie subalgebra
of dimension 3. The first published proof (for complex Lie algebras) of the
statement of Cartan is due to E. E. Levi [200]; another proof (equally valid
for the real case) was given by J. H. C. Whitehead in 1936 [334 a]. In 1942,
A. Malcev completed this result by the uniqueness theorem on the "Levi
sections" up to conjugation.
Already from his first work, Lie had set himself the problem of the is0-
morphism of every Lie algebra with a linear Lie algebra. He had thought
that he had solved it affirmatively by considering the adjoint representation
(and so deducing a proof of his "third theorem") ([202], vol. 5, Abh. III, pp.
42-75); he recognised rapidly that his proof was only correct for Lie algebras
with null centre; after him, the question remained open for a long time, and
was solved affirmatively by Ado in 1935 [2 a]. On the other hand, Lie had
substantially set himself the problem of determining the linear representa-
tions of minimal dimension of the simple Lie algebras, and had solved it for
the classical algebras; in his Thesis, Cartan had also resolved this problem
15 Up to the following that he finds two exceptional algebras of dimension 52, for
which he does not notice the isomorphism. (It is a case only of simple complex Lie
algebras, as a more general problem was not considered at this time; the methods
of Killing are valid in fact for every algebraically closed field of characteristic 0).
for the exceptional simple algebrasj 16 the methods that he employs in this
context will be generalised by him twenty years later in order to obtain all
the irreducible representations of simple real or .complex Lie algebras.
The property of complete reducibility of a linear representation seems
to have been met for the first time (in a geometric form) by Study. In an
unpublished manuscript, but quoted in ([203], v. 3, pp. 785-788) he proves
this property for the linear representation of the Lie algebra of SL(2, e), and
obtains partial results for SL(3, e) and SL(4, e). Lie and Engel conjecture
on this occasion that the complete reducibility theorem is valid for SL( n, C)
whatever n may be. The complete reducibility of the linear revresentations
of semisimple Lie algebras was established by H. Weyl in 19251 by an argu-
ment of a global nature (see later). The first algebraic prQof was obtained in
1935 by Casimir and van der Waerden [55]i other algebraic proofs were given
afterwards by R. Brauer [34 b] and J. H. C. Whitehead [334 b].
Finally, during his research on the exponential map (cf. infra). H. Poincare
([251], v. III) considers the associative algebra of differential operators of all
orders, generated by the operators of a Lie algebraj he shows, substantially
that, if (Xi}tSiSn is a basis of a Lie algebra, the associative algebra gen-
erated by the Xi has as basis certain symmetric functions of the Xi (sums
of the non-commutative "monomials" obtained from a given monomial by
all permutations of its factors). The essential part of his proof is algebraic
in nature, and allows him to obtain the structure of the enveloping algebra.
Analogous proofs have been given in 1937 by G. Birkhoff [22 b] and E. Witt
[337 b].IS
The majority of the work quoted above is limited to real or complex Lie
algebras, which are the only ones corresponding to Lie groups in the usual
sense. The study of Lie algebras over a field other than R or C is tackled
by Jacobson [172 a] who shows that the greater part ofthe classical results
remain valid over a field of characteristic zero.
18 The point of view of Cartan consisted in studying the non-trivial Lie algebra ex-
tensions of a simple Lie algebra and a (commutative) radical of minimal dimension.
17 H. Weyl remarks on this occasion that the construction given by E. Cartan of
the irreducible representation implicitly uses this property.
18 The first use of differential operators of higher order generated by the Xi is
without doubt the use of the "Casimir operator" for the proof of the complete
reducibility theorem. After 1950, the researches of Gelfand and his school, and of
Harish-Chandra, on the linear representations of infinite dimension, have brought
these operators to the front rank.
v. THE EXPONENTIAL AND THE FORMULA OF HAUSDORFF.

The first research concerning the exponential map is due to E. Study and
F. Engel; Engel [104 b] remarks that the exponential is not surjective for
SL(2, e) (for example (-~ _~) is not an exponential if a :f: 0), but that
it is for GL(n, e), thus also for PGL(n, e) (this latter property had already
been noted by Study for n = 2); thus SL(2, e) and PGL(2, e) give an exam-
ple of two groups that are locally isomorphic, but which are nonetheless very
different from a global point of view. Engel shows also that the exponential
is surjective in the other classical groups, augmented by homotheties; this
work is taken up again and continued by Maurer, Study and others, without
bringing in substantial new results.
In 1899, H. Poincare ([251], v. III, pp. 169-172 and 173-212), tackles the
study of the exponential map from a different point of view. His memoirs
seem to have been hurriedly written, for in several places he affirms that every
element of a connected group is an exponential, whereas he gives examples
to the contrary elsewhere. Bis results refer mainly to the adjoint group: he
shows that a semisimple element of such a group G can be the exponential
of an infinity of elements of the Lie algebra L(G), whereas a non-semisimple
element may be not an exponential. If ad(X) does not have an eigenvalue
which is a non-zero multiple of 211"i, then exp is etale in X. Be proves also
that, if U and V describe loops in L( G), and if W is defined by continuity such
that eU .ev = eW , we do not return necessarily to the initial determination
of W. He uses a formula for residues that reduces essentially to
4>(ad X) = _1
211";
Je-
4>(e)cJe
ad X
where ad(X) is a semisimple element whose non-zero eigenvalues have multi-
plicity 1, 4> is an entire series with a sufficiently large radius of convergence,
the integral being taken over a loop enclosing the eigenvalues of ad X; he
studies also what happens when X tends towards a transformation having
multiple eigenvalues.
The search for expressions for W as a function of U and V in the formula
eU .e V = eW had already, a little before the work of Poincare, been the sub-
ject of two memoirs of Campbell [46 a and b]. As is written a little later by
Baker "... the theory of Lie suggests in an obvious way that the product eU eV
is of the form eW where W is an alternating series in U and V ... ". The
subsequent work on this subject aimed to make this assertion precise and to
give an explicit formula (or a method of construction) for W ("Bausdorft" for-
mula"). After Campbell and Poincare, Pascal, Baker [13] and Hausdorff [152
a] return to the question; each considers that the proofs of his predecessor
are not convincing; the main difficulty resides in what is meant by "alternat-
ing" : is it a case of elements of the particular Lie algebra under consideration,
or of universal "symbolic" expressions? Neither Campbell, nor Poincare, nor

Baker express themselves clearly on this point. The memoir of Hausdorff, on
the contrary, is perfectly precise; he works at first in the algebra of formal
associative (non commutative) series in a finite number of indeterminates and
considers U, V, W as elements of this algebra. He proves the existence of W by
an argument on differential equations analogous to those of his predecessors.
The same argument is used by him to prove the convergence of the series
when the indeterminates in it are replaced by elements of a Lie algebra of
finite dimension. As Baker had remarked, and Poincare independently, this
result can be used to give a proof of the third theorem of Lie; he clarifies the
correspondence between groups and Lie algebras, for example as far as the
group of commutators is concerned.
In 1947, Dynkin [98 a] takes up the question again, and obtains the explicit
coefficients of the Hausdorff formula, by considering from the beginning a
normed Lie algebra (of finite dimension or not, over R, C or an ultrametric
field).19
VI. LINEAR REPRESENTATIONS AND GLOBAL LIE GROUPS.
None ofthe work of which we have been speaking tackled frankly the problem
of the definition and the study of global Lie groups. The first steps along this
path go back to H. Weyl. He is inspired by two theories, which until then
had developed independently: that of linear representations of semisimple
complex Lie algebras, due to E. Cartan, and that of linear representations
of finite groups, due to Frobenius and which had just been transposed to
the orthogonal group by I. Schur using an idea of Hurwitz. This latter had
shown [168] how invariants can be constructed for the orthogonal groups or
the unitary groups by replacing the operation of the mean on a finite group
by integration relative to an invariant measure. He had also remarked that in
applying this method to the unitary group, invariants for the general linear
group are obtained, a first example of the "unitarian trick". In 1924, I. Schur
[279 e] used this procedure to show the complete reducibility of the repre-
sentations of the orthogonal group O(n) and of the unitary group U(n), by
the construction of a positive non-degenerate invariant hermitian form; he
deduces from this, by the "unitarian trick", the complete reducibility of the
holomorphic representations of O(n, C) and of SL(n, C), establishes orthog-
onality relations for the characters of O(n) and of U(n) and determines the
characters of O(n). H. Weyl also extends this method to complex semisimple
Lie algebras [331 bJ. Given such an algebra g, he shows that it possesses a
"real compact form" (which amounts to saying that it comes from an algebra
19 In the ultrametric case, the classical method of majorants can not be extended
without precautions, because of the asymptotic behaviour of the p-adic valuation
of lin when n tends to infinity.
90 over R, whose adjoint group Go is compact, by extending the scalars from

R to C). Furthermore he shows that the fundamental group of Go is finite,
thus that the universal cover20 of Go is compact. He deduces from this, by an
appropriate adaptation of the procedure of Schur, the complete reducibility
of the representations of 9, and gives also, by global means, the determina-
tion of the characters of the representations of 9. In a letter to I. Schur [331
a), H. Weylsummarises the results of Canan, that Schur did not know (d.
[279 e], p. 299, note at the foot of the page) and compares the two points of
view: the method of Cartan supplies all the holomorphic representations of
the simply connected group of the Lie algebra 9; in the case of the orthogonal
group, the representations of a cover in two sheets (later called the spinor
group), which had escaped Schur's notice, are also obtained; from another
side, Schur's method has the advantage of proving complete reducibility and
of giving the characters explicitly.
After the work of H. Weyl, E. Canan adopts an openly global point of
view in his research on symmetric spaces and Lie groups. It is this point of
view that is at the basis of his expose of 1930 ([52 a), v. 12, pp. 1165-1225) of
the theory of "finite and continuous" groups. There is found in particular the
first proof of the global variant of the third fundamental theorem (existence
of a Lie group with given Lie algebra); Cartan shows also that every closed
subgroup of a reaJ Lie group is a Lie group, which generalises a result of J.
von Neumann on the closed subgroups of the linear group [324 b). In this
Memoir, von Neumann showed also that every continuous representation of
a complex semisimple group is real analytic.
After this work, the theory of Lie groups in the "classical" sense (that is
to say of finite dimension over R or C) is more or less fixed in its main lines.
The first detailed expose of it is given by Pontrjagin in his book on topological
groups [253]; he keeps there to a point of view still fairly close to that of Lie,
but in distinguishing carefully the local from the global. It is followed by the
book of Chevalley [62 d) which contains also the first systematic discussion
of the theory of analytic varieties and of the exterior differential calculus; the
"infinitesimal transformations" of Lie appear there 88 fields of vectors and
the Lie algebra of a Lie group G is identified with the space of fields of vectors
invariant on the left under G. He leaves to one side the "groupuscule" aspect
and the "groups of transformations" aspect.
20 H. Weyl does not define this notion, with which he W88 familiar since the drawing
up of his lecture on Riemann surfaces (1913), explicitly. It is o. Schreier [276 a and
b] who, in 1926-1927, gives, for the first time, the definition of a topological group
and that of a "continuous" group (i. e.locally homeomorphic to a Euclidean space),
as well 88 the construction of the universal cover of such & group.
VII. EXTENSIONS OF THE NOTION OF A LIE GROUP.
In our day, the vitality of Lie theory is manifested by the diversity of its
applications (in topology, differential geometry, arithmetic, etc.) as well as
by the creation of parallel theories where the structure of the underlying
differential variety is replaced by a neighbouring structure (p-adic, algebraic
variety, schema, formal schema, ... ). We do not need to provide here the
history of all these developments, and we will limit ourselves to two of them:
Banach Lie groups and p-adic Lie groups.
a)Banach Lie groups.
It is a case of Lie groups "of infinite dimension" . From the local point of view,
a neighbourhood of 0 in an Euclidean space is replaced by a neighbourhood
of 0 in a Banach space. It is what is done by G. Birkhoff in 1936 [22 a],
ending up thus with the notion of a complete normed Lie algebra and with
its correspondence with a "groupuscule" defined on an open set of a Banach
space. Around 1950, Dynkin completes these results by an extension to this
case of the Hausdorff formula (cf. supra).
The definitions and results of Birkhoff and Dynkin are local. Until recent
days, it does not seem that an attempt has been made to make explicit the
corresponding global theory, no doubt because of the lack of applications.
b) p-adic Lie groups.
Such groups are met for the first time in 1907 in the work of Hensel [157 e]
on the p-adic analytic functions (defined by expansions in entire series). He
studies notably the exponential and the logarithm; in spite of the a priori
surprising behaviour of the series that define them (for example the exponen-
tial series does not converge everywhere), their functional properties remain
valid, which supplies a local isomorphism between the additive group and the
multiplicative group of Qp (or, more generally, of every complete ultrametric
field of characteristic zero).
It is equally about commutative groups (but not linear this time) that the
work of A. Weil [330 a] and E. Lutz [210] on the elliptic p-adic curves (1936)
is concerned. Other than the arithmetic applications, there can be found the
construction of a local isomorphism of the group with the additive group,
based on the integration of an invariant differential form. This method can
be equally applied to abelian varieties, as is remarked shortly afterwards by
C. Chabauty who uses it without any more explanation in order to prove a
particular case of the "Mordell conjecture" [61].
From this moment, it was clear that the local theory of Lie groups can be
applied almost without change to the p-adic case. The fundamental theorems
of the "dictionary" Lie groups-Lie algebras are established in 1942 in the
thesis of R. Hooke [166], a pupil of ChevalleYi this work contains also the
p-adic analogue of the theorem of E. Cartan on the closed subgroups of real
Lie groups.
More recently, M. Lazard [195 b] develops a more precise form of the "dic-
tionary" for compact analytic groups over Qp. He shows that the existence of
an analytic p-adic structure on a compact group G is tightly linked to that of
certain filtrations on G, and gives various applications of it (for example to
the cohomology of G). One of Lazard's tools is an improvement of Dynkin's
results on the convergence of the p-adic Hausdorff series [195 a].
VIII. FREE LIE ALGEBRAS.
It remains for us to speak of a series of works on Lie algebras where the link
with the theory of Lie groups is very tenuous; these researches have on the
other hand important applications in the theory of "abstract" groups and
more especially nilpotent groups.
The origin of this is the work of P. Hall [144], which appeared in 1932.
There is however there no question of Lie algebras: P. Hall has in view the
study of a certain class of p-groups, those that he calls "regular". But that
leads him to examine in detail iterated commutators and the lower central
series of a grouPi he establishes on this occasion a variant of the Jacobi
identity, as well as the "Hall formula"
(zvt = znyn(z, vt(n-l)/2 ...
Soon after (in 1935-1937) the fundamental works of W. Magnus [215 a
and b] and E. Witt [337 b] appear. In [215 a] Magnus uses the same algebra of
formal series A as Hausdorff (since called the "Magnus algebra"); he embeds
the free group F in it and uses the natural filtration of A in order to obtain
a decreasing sequence (Fn) of subgroups of F; it is one of the first examples
of filtration. He conjectures that the Fn coincide with the terms of the lower
central series of F. This conjecture is proved in his second memoir [215 b];
it is also there that he explicitly makes the link between his ideas and those
of P. Hall, and that he defines the free Lie algebra L (as a sub algebra of
A) of which he shows in substance that it is identified with the graded F.
In [337 b], Witt completes this result on several points. He shows notably
that the enveloping algebra of L is a free associative algebra and deduces
from that immediately the rank of the homogeneous components of L ("Witt
formulae") .
As for the determination of the basis of L known by the name of "Hall

basis" , it seems that it only appears for the first time in 1950, in a note of
M. Hall [143], although it is implicit in the works of P. Hall and W. Magnus
quoted above.
26. GROUPS GENERATED BY
REFLECTIONS; ROOT SYSTEMS.
The groups considered in this Note appeared in connection with various ques-
tions of Geometry, Analysis and the Theory of Lie groups, sometimes in the
form of permuta.tion groups, sometimes in the from of groups of displace-
ments in Euclidean or hyperbolic geometry, and these various points of view
have only been co-ordinated in recent times.
Historically, the beginnings of the theory are a good deal older than the
introduction of the concept of a group: it takes its source indeed in the studies
on the "regularity" or the "symmetries" of geometrical figures, and notably
in the determination of regular polygons and polyhedra (going back no doubt
to the Pythagoreans), which constitute the crowning achievement of the Ele-
ments of Euclid, and one of the most admirable creations of the Greek genius.
Later, notably with the Arab authors of the high Middle Ages, then with Ke-
pier, the beginnings of a mathematical theory of regular "tHings" of the plane
or the sphere by polygons congruent in pairs (but not necessarily regular) ap-
pear, no doubt linked to the origin of the different types of ornament thought
up by the ancient and Arab civilisations ( that can be considered with good
cause as an authentic part of the mathematics developed by these civilisations
[291]).
Towards 1830-1840, studies in crystallography (Hessel, Bravais, Mobius)
lead to considering a problem that is exactly that of the determination of the
finite groups of displacements in Euclidean space of 3 dimensions, although
the authors quoted above do not use yet the language of the theory of groups;
this latter hardly comes into use until around 1860, and it is in the context of
the classification of groups that Jordan, in 1869 [174 b], determines the dis-
crete subgroups of displacements in R3 which preserve orientation (and more
generally, all the closed subgroups of the groups of displacements preserving
orientation) .
Until the last years of the XIXth century, this stream of ideas is developed
in many directions, of which the most marked are the following:
1. Conforming to a tendency that appears very early on in the theory of
finite groups, "presentations" of finite groups of displacements by generators
and relations of a simple type are sought. It is thus that Hamilton, already
in 1856 [145 b], proves that the finite groups ofrotations in Euclidean space
270 26. GROUPS GENERATED BY REFLECTIONS; ROOT SYSTEMS.
R 3 are generated by two generators S, T linked by the relations Sf' =T9 =

(ST}3 = 1 for appropriate values of p and q.
2. Discrete groups of displacements mayor may not contain reflections.
Already in 1852, Mobius determines substantially the finite groups of dis-
placements in spherical geometry generated by reflections (which is equivalent
to the same problem for finite groups of Euclidean displacements in RS); he
finds that, with the exception of the cyclic groups, such a group has as funda-
mental domain a spherical triangle having angles of the form 'trIp, 'trlq, 'trlr,
where p, q, r are three integers> 1 such that ~ + ~ + : > 1 ([223], v. II, pp.
349-360 and pp. 561-708). He also notices that these groups contain all the
finite groups of displacements as subgroups.
3. This last stream of ideas finds a new amplification when following
work of Riemann and Schwarz on hypergeometric functions and conformal
representations, the study of "tilings" of the complex plane or of the half-
plane by means of figures bounded by arcs of a circle is started; Klein and
Poincare make it the foundation of the theory of "automorphic functions" and
recognise in it (for the case of arcs of a circle orthogonal to a fixed straight
line) a problem equivalent to that of the search for the discrete subgroups of
the group of displacements of the non-Euclidean hyperbolic plane (identified
with the "Poincare half-plane") [118].
4. The notions of regular polyhedron and of the tiling of R3 by such poly-
hedra are extended to all the Euclidean spaces R n by Schlafii, in work that
goes back to the neighbourhood of 1850, but was only published much later
and remained ignored for a long time ([273], v. I, pp. 167-387); he determines
completely the regular "polytopes" in each R n , the group of displacements
leaving invariant such a polytope, and a fundamental domain of this group,
which, as in the case n = 3 studied by Mobius, is a "room" whose trace
on the sphere Sn-1 is a spherical simplex. However, he does not tackle the
inverse problem of the search for the finite displacement groups generated by
reflections in Rn; this problem will only be solved much later, by Goursat
[132] for n = 4, and, for arbitrary n, its solution will have to wait for the
work of E. Cartan ([52 a], v. h, pp. 1003-1020) and of Coxeter [70 cl, to
which we will return later on.
Around 1890, with the first work of Killing and of E. Cartan on Lie groups,
begins a new stream of ideas that for a long time will develop without links
to the preceding work. Killing [180] and Cartan ([52 a], v. 11 , pp. 137-287),
in their study of the structure of complex semisimple Lie algebras, will plan
straightaway a primordial role for certain linear forms Wa on a "Cartan sub
algebra" ~ of such a Lie algebra g; they are the "roots" relative to ~, so called
because with Killing they appear as the roots of the characteristic equation
det(adg(x) - T) = 0, considered as functions of x E ~. The properties of
these "roots" established by Killing and Cartan reduce to affirming that,
in the actual geometric language, they form a "reduced system of roots";
26. GROUPS GENERATED BY REFLECTIONS; ROOT SYSTEMS. 271
they show then that the classification of the complex semisimple Lie algebras
is reduced to that of 8880ciated "systems of roots", which itself reduces to
the determination of certain matrices with integer coefficients (later called
"Cartan matrices"). Killing and Cartan also bring out, for every root "'a,
the existence of an involutive permutation Sa of the set of roots; they use
in an essential way the transformation C = Sal Sa3 ... Sal' the product of
permutations associated with 1 roots making up a fundamental system (a
transformation today called a "Coxeter transformation"); they even extend
this permutation into a linear transformation of the vector space generated
by the fundamental roots "'ai(l :s i :s I), and study its eigenvalues ([180],
II, p. 20; [52 a], v. 11 , p. 58). But neither Killing, nor at first Cartan, seem
to have thought of considering the group (i' generated by the Sa; and when
Cartan, a little later ([52 a], v. 11 , pp. 293-353), determines the Galois group
(i of the characteristic equation
det(adg(:r:) - T) =0
of a "general element" :r: E ~, he studies it at first without bringing in the
SO/; thirty years later, already under the influence ofthe work of H. Weyl, he
proves ([52 a], v. III pp. 555-568) that (i has as a normal subgroup the group
(i' and determines in all cases the structure of the quotient group (i /(i' which
(for a simple algebra g) is or order 1 or 2 except for the type D4 where it is
isomorphic to S3; it is also on this occasion that .he interprets (i' as the group
induced by the inner automorphisms of a complex semisimple Lie algebra,
leaving fixed a Cartan sub algebra.
The work of H. Weyl, to which we have just alluded, is that which inau-
gurated the geometric interpretation of the group (i' (since called the "Weyl
group" of g~ in the same way as Killing and Cartan had done it for the trans-
formation C, he had the idea of considering the Sa as reflections in the vector
space of linear forms on ~. It is also in the memoir of H. Weyl [331 b] that
the fundamental domain of the "affine Weyl group" is seen to appear (with-
out besides the link with the "Weyl group" g' being clearly indicated); Weyl
uses it in order to prove that the fundamental group of a compact semisim-
pIe group is finite, a crucial point in his proof of the complete reducibility of
the linear representations of a complex semisimple Lie algebra. Soon after,
E. Cartan brings to fruition the synthesis of the global points of view of H.
Weyl, of his own theory of real or complex semisimple Lie algebras, and of
the theory of symmetric Riemann spaces that he was building at this time. In
the memoir ([52 a], v. 12 , pp. 793-840), he completes the determination of the
fundamental polytopes of the Weyl group and of the affine Weyl group, and
introduces the weight systems and radical weight systems; he extends this
discussion to symmetric spaces, and meets thus notably the first examples
of non reduced root systems ([52 a], v. 12 , pp. 1003-1010). Finally the article
([52 a], v. 12, pp. 867-989) gives the first proof of the fact that every finite
group generated by reflections in R n and irreducible has a fundamental do-
main having as trace on Sn-1 a spherical simplex; it is also in this work that
he proves the uniqueness of the largest root (under an arbitrary lexicographic

ordering on the system of roots) by geometrical considerations.
A little later, van der Waerden [317 b], relying on the memoir ofH. Weyl,
shows that the classification of the complex semisimple Lie algebr88 is equiv-
alent to that of the reduced root systems, which he carries out by elementary
geometric considerations (whereas, with Killing and Cartan, this classifica-
tion is a result of complicated calculations with determinants). At about the
same time, Coxeter determines explicitly all the finite irreducible groups of
Euclidean displacements which are generated by reflections [70 c]; he com-
pletes thus the results of the memoir ([52 a], v. 12, pp. 793-840) of E. Cartan,
who had only determined the "crystallographic" groups (i. e. 88SOciated to
a root system, or also susceptible of being embedded in an infinite discrete
group of displacements). The following year [70 d], Coxeter shows that the
finite groups generated by reflections are the only finite groups (up to isomor-
phism) admitting a presentation by involutive generators Ri subject to rela-
=
tions ofthe form (RiRj )m;; 1 (fnij integers), whence the name of "Coxeter
groups" given since to groups (finite or not) admitting such a presentation.
The first link between the two streams of research that we have described
above seems to have been established by Coxeter [70 e], then by Witt [337 c].
They notice that the infinite irreducible groups of Euclidean displacements
generated by reflections correspond bijectively (up to isomorphism) to com-
plex simple Lie algebr88. Witt gives a new determination of discrete groups
of this type, and extends also the theorem of Coxeter [70 d] recalled above
by characterising as well the Coxeter groups isomorphic to infinite discrete
groups of Euclidean displacements. This result, and the fact that the analo-
gous groups in hyperbolic geometry are also Coxeter groups, 1 have led to the
open tackling of the study of these latter, first by putting the emphasis on a
geometric realisation ([71], [308 a]), then, following J. Tits [308 band c] in a
purely algebraic framework.
Starting with the work of Witt, the theory of semisimple Lie groups and
that of discrete groups generated by reflections will not cease from reacting
extremely fruitfully the one on the other. Already from 1941, Stiefel [296]
remarks that the Weyl groups are exactly the finite groups generated by
reflections, and that leave a network invariant. Chevalley [62 e] and Harish-
Chandra [149 a] give in 1948-51 proofs a priori ofthe bijective correspondence
between "crystallographic" groups and complex semisimple Lie algebras; it
was not possible until then to verify separately this correspondence for each
type of simple Lie algebra.
Around 1950, it is noticed on the other hand that the polynomials in-
variant under the Weyl group play an important role in the theory of linear
representations of infinite dimension [149 a] and in the topology of Lie groups.
1 These groups, studied in depth in the case of dimension 2, have not been con-
sidered in dimension ~ 3 except incidentally until these last years.
26. GROUPS GENERATED BY REFLECTIONS; ROOT SYSTEMS. 273
On his side, Coxeter [70 g], taking up again the study of the transformation
C, product of the fundamental reflections of a finite group W generated by
reflections, notices (by means of a separate examination of each type) that the
algebra of polynomials invariant under W is generated by algebraically inde-
pendent elements, whose degrees are linked in a simple way to the eigenvalues
of C. Proofs a priori of these results were subsequently given by Chevalley
[62 f] for the first, and by Coleman [68] and Steinberg [292] for the second.
With the work of A. Borel on linear algel:iraic groups [30] new devel-
opments in the theory of Lie groups start which were to lead to a notable
enlargement of this latter. A. Borel brings out the importance of the maximal
connected soluble subgroups (since called "Borel subgroups") in a Lie group,
and makes of them the principal tool for transposing a large part of the clas-
sical theory to algebraic groups over an algebraically closed field (without
however obtaining yet a classification of the simple algebraic groups2). The
Borel subgroups (in the case of real or complex classical groups) had already
turned up some years previously in the work of Gelfand and Neumark on the
representations of infinite dimension; and in 1954, F. Bruhat had discovered
the remarkable fact that, for the classical simple groups, the decomposition
of the group into double cosets over a Borel group is indexed in a canoni-
cal way by the Weyl group [40]. This result was subsequently extended to all
real and complex semisimple groups by Barish-Chandra [149 b]. On the other
hand, in 1955, Chevalley [62 g] had succeeded in associating with every com-
plex semisimple Lie algebra 9 and with every commutative field k, a group
of matrices with coefficients in k, possessing a Bruhat decomposition; and
he used this last fact to show that, with a small number of exceptions, the
group thus defined was simple (in the sense of the theory of abstract groups).
He "explained" thus the coincidence, already noticed since Jordan and Lie,
between the simple Lie groups (in the sense of the theory of Lie groups) of
types A, B, C, D and the classical simple groups defined in a purely algebraic
way over an arbitrary field (a coincidence that until then could not be ex-
tended except to the exceptional types 02 and E6 by Dickson [88 c and d]).
In particular, by taking a finite field k, the construction of Chevalley sup-
plied, for each type of complex simple Lie algebra, a family of finite simple
groups, containing a large part of the then known finite simple groups, as
well as three new series (corresponding to the types of simple Lie algebras
F 4 , E7 and Es). Soon after, by various procedures, using modifications of the
methods of Chevalley, several authors (Bertzig, Suzuki, Ree, Steinberg and
Tits) on the one hand showed that one can obtain in an analogous way the
other finite simple groups known at that time, with the exception of the al-
2 An algebraic group of dimension > 0 is said to be simple (in the sense of algebraic
geometry) if it does not contain any normal algebraic subgroup of dimension> 0
other than itself. It is said to be semisimple if it is isogeneous to a product of simple
non commutative groups.
ternating groups and the Mathieu groups, and on the other hand constructed
other series of new finite simple groups (cf. [54]).
At almost the same time, Chevalley [62 h], still using the technique of
Bruhat decompositions, joined to a key result Qn the normaliser of a Borel
subgroup, took up again the study of linear algebraic groups and reached the
result that over an algebraically closed field Ie of arbitrary characteristic, the
theory of semisimple linear algebraic groups3 leads essentially to the same
types as in the Killing-Cartan classification for Ie = C. Following on, J. Tits
[308 a and b], analysing the methods of Chevalley, reached an axiomatised
version (the "BN-pairs") of the Bruhat decompositions, in a remarkably flex-
ible form, only bringing in the structure of the group; it is this notion that is
at present known under the name ''Tits system". All the simple groups (in
the various meanings of the word) of which we have been speaking above are
canonically supplied with Tits systems, and Tits himself [308 c) has proved
that the existence of such a system in an abstract group G, linked with a
few supplementary properties from pure group theory, allows the proof that
G is simple, a theorem which covers the majority of the proofs of simplicity
given until then for these groups. In collaboration with A. Borel, he has on
the other hand generalised the results of Chevalley of [62 h], by showing the
existence of Tits systems in the group of rational points of a semisimple linear
algebraic group over an arbitrary field [31].
All the Tits systems occurring in these questions have a finite Weyl group.
Another category of examples was discovered by Iwahori and Matsumoto
[170]; they have shown that if, in Chevalley's construction of [62 g], Ie is a
p-adic field, then the group obtained has a Tits system whose Weyl group
is the affine Weyl group of the complex semisimple Lie algebra with which
one started. This result has just been extended by Bruhat and Tits [41] to
all semisimple algebraic groups over a local field.
3 The existence of numerous "pathological" simple Lie algebras over a field of

characteristic p > 0 could have led some to doubt the universal character of the
Killing-Cartan classification.
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Index
Abel, 16, 51, 53, 78, 88, 103, 154, 201, Borel, E, 166
205 Borel, E., 36, 37, 142, 155, 222, 238
Ackermann, 40 Braikenridge, 132
Ado, 260 Brauer, 121, 123, 261
Albert, 123 Brianchon, 61
Alexandroff, 146, 245 Briggs, 186
Andersen, 245 Brill, 103, 105
Apollonius, 58, 128, 132 Brouncker, 173
Archimedes, 2, 13, 71, 127, 149, 163, Brouwer, 32, 37
167, 169, 173 Bruhat, 273, 274
Archytas, 13 Burali-Forti, 10, 31
Argand,162 Burgi, 157
Aristarchu8, 126 Burnside, 121
Aristotle, 3, 4, 6, 11, 14, 25, 26
Artin, 54, 55, 67, 83, 92, 110, 122, 203 Campbell, 262
Arzela., 223 Cantor, 9, 21, 23, 25, 27, 28, 30-32, 37,
Ascoli, 142, 205 79, 81, 141, 145, 155, 159, 221
Caratheodory, 227
Baire, 36, 37, 166 Cardan, 46,72
Baker, 262 Carnot, 61, 126
Banach, 66, 165, 216, 217, 233 Cartan,117
Barrow, 18, 152, 174, 176, 182, 184, 193 Cartan, E., 65
Bellavitis, 52, 61 Cartan, E., 53, 119, 120, 232, 259, 260,
Beltrami, 24, 134 264,270
Bernays, 33, 40, 43 Cartan, H., 111, 113, 143
Bernoulli, D., 207 Casimir, 261
Bernoulli, Jakob, 177, 199 Cauchy, 16, 27, 51, 59, 78, 82, 89, 108,
Bernoulli, Johann, 74, 130, 194 129, 130, 145, 153, 154, 161, 163,
Bernstein, 28, 36 197, 201, 205
Berry, 31 Cavalieri, 179, 180
Bezout,59 Cayley, 52-54, 62,65,89,106,117,118,
Bhaskara, 46 133, 136, 163, 249
Binet, 130 Cesari, 223
Birkhoff, 261, 265 Chabll.uty, 95, 265
Bochner, 227, 244 Chasles, 61, 131, 132, 135
Bolyai, 15, 133 Chevalley, 110-112, 264, 272-274
Bolzano, 15, 16, 25, 27, 38, 92, 145, Choquet, 166
154, 197 Chuquet, 157
Bombelli, 22, 73, 151 Chwistek, 34
Boole, 8, 19, 20, 25, 52 Clairll.ult, 59, 132
Borel, A., 273, 274 Clavius, 16
298 Index
Clebsch, 103, 106 Eutocius, 150

Clifford, 53, 118, 137
Cohen, I., 110, 112 Fano, 10
Cohen, P., 43 Fermat, 18, 22, 46, 58, 61, 62, 87, 93,
Coleman, 273 96,127,128, 174,176, 178, 181-183,
Cotes, 74 187
Coxeter, 270, 272, 273 Fernique, 244
Cramer, 59 Ferrari, 73
Crelle,79 Ferro, Scipio del, 72, 75
Curry, 33 Fischer, 223
Foncenex de, 92
d'Alembert, 18, 21, 59, 91, 130, 153, Fonrier, 219
161, 175, 196 Fraenkel, 32, 107, 110
Daniell, 227, 228, 235, 239, 243 Frechet, 109, 143, 146, 165, 212, 237
Darboux, 198 Fredholm, 142, 210
De Morgan, 9 Frege, 9,10,25,29,34,35,40
De Castillon, 8 Frobeniu8, 53, 54, 62, 64, 65, 88, 118,
De La Vallee Poussin, 237 119, 121, 136
De Morgan, 9 Fubini, 225
de Segner, 8
de Sluse, 178 Galileo, 26, 167, 175
Dedekind, 10, 23, 24, 26-30, 40, 53, 55, Galois, 19, 23, 26, 51, 53, 54, 66, 76, 79,
63, 66, 67, 79, 81, 83,91, 92, 97-99, 80, 92, 100, 138
101-107, 110, 112, 113, 119, 121-123, Gauss, 15, 16, 23, 26, 50, 51, 53, 60-63,
141, 155, 159 75, 77, 79, 82, 86-88, 92, 93, 95, 98,
Dehn, 54, 231 100, 129, 130, 133, 134, 139, 153,
Desargues, 61, 127, 131, 132 161,203
Descartes, 6, 11, 12, 14, 22, 50, 58, 70, Gelfand, 104, 114,227, 244
73,128,130,172,175,178 Gentzen,44
Deuring, 109 Gergonne, 132
Dickson, 53, 67, 120, 138, 273 Giorgini, 132
Dieudonne, 165 Girard, 18, 73, 75
Dinostratus, 71 GOdel, 7; 33, 39, 41, 43
Diodes, 71 Gordan, 103
Diophantus, 48, 58, 69, 86, 90, 150 Gonrsat, 270
Dirichlet, 53, 63, 88, 93, 94, 96-98, 101, Gram, 208
111, 198, 219 Grassmann, 19, 23, 24, 52, 61, 62, 65,
Doob,244 90, 117
Du Bois-Reymond, 30,202 Graves, 63
Dunford, 227 Gregonne,8
Dyck,54 Gregory, 74, 172, 181, 182, 184, 186,
Dynkin,263 194, 197
Grell, 110
Egoroff, 223 Grothendieck, 218
Eisenstein, 94, 97, 98
Engel, 262 Haar,233
Epsteen, 119 Hachette, 89
Euclid, 14, 22, 26, 47, 57, 70, 72, 85, Hadamard, 30, 31, 35-37, 39,142
126, 157 Hahn, 216
Eudoxus, 148, 167 Hall, M., 267
Euler, 25, 59, 75, 82, 85, 87, 88, 90, 91, Hall, P., 266
93, 126, 129, 130, 132, 164, 196, 199, Hamilton, 51-54, 61, 62, 89, 117, 137,
203, 219, 225 163,269
Hankel, 20, 21, 23, 52
Index 299
Hardy, 202 Kummer, 19, 53, 63, 91, 93, 94, 96, 97,
Harish- Chandra, 272 112
Harish-Chandra, 273 Kuratowski, 30
Harnack, 221 Kiirschak, 109
Hasse, 55, 67, 101, 110, 112, 123
Hausdorff, 41, 143, 146, 165, 262 Lagrange, 50, 51, 59, 60, 75, 76, 82, 87,
Hegel, 14 88, 91, 93-95, 128, 196
Heger, 87 Laguerre, 53, 118, 133
Heine, 145 Lambert, 8
Helly,215 Landsberg, 105
Helmhotz, 16 Laplace, 88
Hensel, 83, 105, 108, 111, 112, 265 Lasker, 106, 110
Herbrand, 40 Lazard, 266
Hermite, 15, 18, 63, 65, 81, 87, 94, 98, Le Cam, 246
102, 137 Lebesgue, 36, 37, 165, 166, 222, 224,
Hero, 69, 71, 127 225,228
Heyting,37 Legendre, 79, 82
Hilbert, 11, 16, 21, 26, 30, 33, 35, 39, Leibniz, 6, 7, 11, 16, 19, 22, 24-26, 46,
41, 43, 53, 55, 64, 66, 81, 102, 105, 50, 58, 61, 74,77, 153, 167, 172, 181,
106, 113, 121, 137, 142, 211 184, 189, 191
Hipparchus, 126 Leonardo of Pisa, 57, 72
Holder, 53, 67, 123 Leray, 111
Holland, 8 Levi, 36
Hooke, 266 Levi ben Gerson, 46
Hopf,146 Levi, E. E., 260
Hopkins, 122 Levi-Civiti., 65
Houel, 16 Levy, 240, 242
Hudde, 73, 178 l'Hopitai, 167
Hurwitz, 30, 232, 263 Lie, 53, 119, 247, 251, 254
Huygens, 171, 177, 179, 181 Lindemann, 81
Liouville, 81, 208
Iwahori, 274 Lipschitz, 65, 137, 220
Lobatschevsky, 15, 17, 133
J. Richard, 31 Lorenzen, 110
Jacobi, 59, 60, 64, 79, 88, 94, 103, 129, Lukasiewicz, 11
136 Lusin, 166
Jacobson, 114, 123, 261 Lutz, 265
Jessen, 239, 245 Lowenheim, 42
Jevons,9
Jordan, 53, 67, 90, 138, 198, 221, 224, Macaulay, 107, 110
247, 249, 269 Macbeath, 236
Jung, 110 Mackey, 218
Maclaurin, 132, 196, 200
Kakutani, 243 MacShane, 246
Kant, 8, 11, 14 Magnus, 266
Kepler, 178 Matsumoto, 274
Killing, 260, 270 Mayer, 248
Klein, 24, 53, 54, 131, 134, 135, 248, Menechme, 128
270 Meray, 16, 23, 145
Kolmogoroff, 229, 243 Mercator, 173, 181
Kothe, 218 Minkowski, 102, 215
Kronecker, 28, 53, 60, 63, 64, 67, 81, Minlos,244
88, 91, 94, 96, 97, 102-10~ 112 Mobius, 52, 61, 89, 126, 132, 270
Krull, 55, 81, 107, 109-113, 122
300 Index
Moine de, 46 PtoleIIlY, 71, 126

Moine, de, 74
Mollen, 53, 119, 121 Quine, 34
Monge, 61, 131, 132
Moore, 120 Radon, 227
Morgan, 117 Ramsey, 34
Ricci,65
Napier, 157, 176 Richard,33
Netto, 106 RieIIlann, IS, 17,20,27,54,82, 103,
NeuIIlann, 32, 40,43,112,227,233,264 134, 139, 159, 198, 220
Newton, 77, 132, 153, 175, 177, 181, Riesz, F., 109, 143, 213, 226, 228
184, 186, 187, 195, 199 Riesz, M., 215
NicoIIledes, 71 Roberval, 130, 176, 180, 182, 193
Nielsen, 54 Roch, 103
NikodYIIl, 227 Rodrigues, 130 .
Noether, E., 23, 55, 67, 110, 112, 113, Rosser, 34, 42
120-123 Ruffini, 51, 78
Noether, M., 103, 105, 106 Russell, 10, 31, 33
Novikov,43
Saint-Vincent, 172, 181, 190
OhIIl,23 Sab, 224, 237
OresIIle, 157 S&IIluel, 111
OresIIlus, 178 Sarasa, 172
Osgood, 166 Scheffers, 119
Ostrowski, 109, III Schering, 88
SchliJIi, 54, 159, 270
Padoa, 10, 35 SchIIleidler, 122
Paley, 242 SchIIlidt, E., 212
Parse val, 208 Schmidt, E., 36, 142, 211, 215
Pascal, B., 6, 11, 18, 24, 46, 61, 174, Schmidt, F. K., 109
180, 183, 188 Schoenflies, 36, 141
Pasch, 16, 21, 26 Schooten van, 178
Peano, 10, 16,24, 26,29,35,36,66,221 Schreier, 54, 55, 92, 232, 264
Peirce, B., 53, 118, 119 SchrOder, 9
Peirce, C. S., 9, 53, 118 Schur, F., 119
Peletier, 16 Schur, F., 258
Peter, 232 Schur, I., 121, 123, 263
Pettis, 227 Schwartz, 218
Pfaff,65 Schwarz, 28, 54, 209
Pieri, 10 Segal, 24i
Pincherle, 61, 66 Segner de, 89
Plato, 3,4, 11, 13, 17,70, 148 Seguier de, 123
Ploucquet, 8 Seidenberg, 112
Pliicker, 132 Selling, 99
Poincare, 10, 15, 17, 21, 33, 35, 39, 40, Serre, 112, 114, 115
53, 65, 119, 122, 159, 201, 209, 210, Serret, 52, 53, 83
255, 261, 262 SkoleIIl, 32, 42, 95, 123
Poisson, 89 SIIlith, H. J., 64, 87, 221
Poncelet, 19, 61, 131, 132 Snellius, 61
Pontrjagin, 66, 67, 264 Souslin, 166
Post, 43 Spinoza,12
Proclus, 13, 126 Staudt von, 134
Prokhorov, 242, 244, 245 Steinberg, 273
Priifer, 110, 112 Steinhaus, 238, 243
Index 301
Steinitz, 21, 41, 55, 67, 80, 83, 102, Weierstrass, 15, 23, 24, 28, 30, 38, 53,
108-110, 113 62, 64, 67, 89, 103, 107, Ill, 118,
Stevin, 90, 151 154, 197,205
Stickelberger, 88 Weil, 115, 146, 233, 235, 265
Stiefel, 272 Wessel,162
Stieltjes, 226 Weyl, 232, 263, 271
Stifel, 72, 157 Whitehead, 33
Stirling, 19, 199 Whitehead, A. N., 9, 10
Stolz, 221 Whitehead, J. H. C., 260, 261
Stone, A. H., 165 Whitney, 67
Stone, M. H., 206 Wiener, 239, 241
Stone, M. H., 114 Witt, 110, 261, 266, 272
Study, 117, 119 Wren, 131, 182
Sturm, 208 Wright, 186
Swierczkowski, 236
Sylow, 54 Young, 166, 223, 228
Sylvester, 53, 63, 65, 89, 105, 118, 129,
249 Zariski, 110, 111, 113, 114
Zermelo, 28, 29, 32, 34, 36
Tartaglia, 72 Zolotareff, 100
Taylor, 190 Zorn, 30
Tchebychef, 235
Teichmiiller, 110
Theetete, 148
Theodorus of Cyrene, 148
Theon, 71, 164
Tietze, 54, 165
Tits, 272, 274
Toeplitz, 66
Torricelli, 130, 172, 176, 182
Tschirnha.us, 74
Turing, 43
Tychonoff, 143
Urysohn, 165
Uzkov, 110
Vacca., 10
Va.ilati, 10
Van der Wa.erden, 55, 110, 261, 272
Vandermonde, 51,75, 77
Veronese, 17, 30, 83
Viete, 47, 50, 61, 73, 127, 164
Vilenkin, 244
Vita.li, 223, 225
Viva.nti, 10
Volterra, 142, 234
Wallis, 161, 181, 187

Waring, 76
Weber, 53, 66, 81, 101, 103-105, 108,
112
Wedderburn, 53, 67, 119-122

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Bourbaki· Elements of the History of Mathematics

Second Printing 1999

Title of the French edition:

Mathematics Subject Classification (1991): 01-XX

ISBN-13: 978-3-540-64767-6 e-ISBN-13: 978-3-642-61693-8

This work gathers together, without substantial modification, the major-

1. Foundations of Mathematics; Logic; Set Theory ................. .

24. Integration in Non Locally Compact Spaces ..................... 237

The study of what is usually called the "foundations of mathematics" , which

That there was a well-developed prehellinic mathematics is not today in

THE FORMALISATION OF LOGIC.

1 Notably Democritus, to whom Archimedes attributes the discovery of the formula

had remained vague or unformulated in his predecessors.3 We must above

"universal Characteristic". By that he means a type of symbolic language,

:c E V), thought up by Lukasiewicz, thanks to which brackets can be com-

THE NOTION OF TRUTH IN MATHEMATICS.

that an idea is "clear and distinct", 23 he also considers axioms as obvious

first "Elements" that tradition ascribes to Hippocrates of Chio, about 450 B.

On the other hand Greek mathematicians do not seem to have believed

hyperbolic geometry by Gauss, Lobatschevsky and Bolyai at the beginning

OBJECTS, MODELS AND STRUCTURES.

A) Objects and structures of mathematics. - From Antiquity to the XIXth

sions deprived of any numerical interpretation. Finally, even in the domain

30 Leibniz, in this respect, appears again as a precursor: "universal Mathematics"

systematically by mathematicians, such as the relation of inclusion, or what he calls

in 1867, inaugurating the axiomatisation of algebra, defends a mathematics

doubt what can be seen here is a manifestation ceaselessly recurring of a

more immediate way, precisely since all appeals to an intuitive representation

38 As examples of non-commutative operations, he points to subtraction. division

particular a precise formulation of the principle of induction (that Grassmann

THE THEORY OF SETS.

at which, from Antiquity, most mathematicians stop. It consists essentially

.a It is a case of sets E C R such that, if a trigonometric series E:: Cnenis

his great surprise,44 in defining such a correspondence. Having such results as

THE PARADOXES OF THE THEORY OF SETS AND THE CRISIS OF

or of "pathological" curves (such as curves without tangents)j it must lead to

sidered; not only do these rules appear to be as gratuitous as the prohibitions

notion of whole number in formalised mathematics, and the use of whole

It is not astonishing that, starting from such principles, the intuitionist

it. But arithmetic itself, could it be inconsistent? A question that without

Already in 1904, in a lecture at the international Congress ([163 c], pp.

The proof of the independence of a system of propositions Al , A 2 , ••• , An

78 A neighbouring question is tha.t of the existence of "algorithms" for the solution

History and archaeology make us conscious of a large number of "systems of

by an equivalence relation), and that it is commutative ([107], Book V, prop.

"what should be understood by a class composed from two or more classeS' . He

8 It is quite remarkable that Gauss denotes the composition of classes of quadratic

10 It is in this instance that Galois, by a bold extension of the "formalism" that

In the meantime, it had gradually become obvious that what is essential

geometric algebra, indicates a fusion of algebra and geometry, absolutely in

in the previous century, that is to say essentially the projective geometry of

2 On the classification of systems of n equations in n unknowns when the deter-

can be deduced from the calculations of Grassmann; it is in his lectures that

which was vague or subconscious, to prove in the generality which is appro-

contemporary era, in the hands of algebraists such as E. Noether, Artin and

The theory of commutative fields - and the theory of polynomials, which

them, in order to solve these problems, introducing numerous algebraic (con-

S Because of the lack of a manageable algebraic calculus, no trace is found among

We cannot describe here the picturesque side of this sensational discovery