Central Project

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The project aims at the analysis of three important threads of written mathematics between 1650 and 1820: (1) mathematical textbooks in Latin by Jesuit authors (Cursus), (2) mathematical textbooks written in German in the 18th century (Anfangsgründe), and (3) mathematical textbooks written in French in the 18th century (Cours).One branch of the project deals with the Anfangsgründe and Cours texts. As a first step the relevant texts are collected (bibliography), analysed and compared. Special attention is paid to the question of whether and to what extent the influence of national traditions in teaching and education can be demonstrated. Moreover it will be analysed whether such roots go back to the teaching and publishing of mathematics in the Society of Jesus in the 17th century. This aspect closely ties the two branches of the project together.The branch of the project dealing with the Jesuit mathematical textbooks concentrates (1) on the fundamental role of the Jesuits and the Jesuit colleges in the production of mathematical textbooks and in internationalising mathematical contents in higher education. At the same time it attempts (2) an analysis and mapping of the importance of the Jesuits for the systematic dissemination of knowledge from the early modern sciences and mathematical sciences. To follow this trace and to integrate these activities in our historical understanding of the processes of mathematization and scientization, which have characterised European history since the 17th century, is a task that has to this day only been sketched out in international research.