Josep Pla i Carrera, professor emeritus of the University of Barcelona and supernumerary academician of the Royal European Academy of Doctors-Barcelona 1914 (RAED) has presented a new instalment of his work “Història de la matemàtica: resultats, textos i contextos” (History of mathematics: results, texts and contexts), an ambitious project directed by the full academician of number of the RAED and also professor emeritus of the University of Barcelona Pilar Bayer, to whom this third volume he devotes: “Grècia IIa (Elements d’Euclides, llibres I, II, III, IV, V i VI)” (Greece 2a (Elements of Euclid, books I, II, III, IV, V and VI)). The complete collection is edited by the Institute of Catalan Studies.
The work becomes a complete history of mathematics and is divided, for now, into six volumes that only reach the mathematics of antiquity and that should have a continuity not yet defined. To date the issues “Història de la Matemàtica: Egipte i Mesopotàmia. Resultats, textos i contextos” (History of Mathematics: Egypt and Mesopotamia, Results, Texts and Contexts) (2016), “Història de la Matemàtica: Grècia I (de Tales i Pitàgores a Plató i Aristòtil). Resultats, textos i contextos” (History of Mathematics: Greece I (from Thales and Pythagoras to Plato and Aristotle), results, texts and contexts) (2016), and the current one “Grècia IIa (Elements d’Euclides, llibres I, II, III, IV, V i VI)” (Greece 2a (Elements of Euclid, books I, II, III, IV, V and VI)) have been published. It’s in the process of editing “Història de la Matemàtica: Grècia IIb (Elements d’Euclides, llibres VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII and XIII)” (History of Mathematics: Greece 2b (Elements of Euclid, books VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII and XIII)).
The academician has also begun the writing of the next installment, which will be titled “Història de la Matemàtica: Grècia III” (History of Mathematics: Greece III). The first part, which groups the studies of Euclides and Archimedes, is already finished, and the volume will be finalized throughout the first quarter of 2019 with the inclusion of Apollonius. It will be followed by an exemplary future on mathematics in Ancient Greece that will include the studies of Hipparchus, Ptolemy, Papus, Nicomachus, Diophantus, Theon and Hypatia.
“When I was proposed as a professor emeritus, I was driven to develop a study project that would validate my suitability and I thought it was a good opportunity to make a History of Mathematics that clearly established the results obtained by each mathematician and placed it in the historical, cultural and political context and, most importantly, that each relevant statement is justified by providing the document that endorsed it, a philosopher, a historian or the author himself”, explains Pla i Carrera the genesis of the project.
Dr. Josep Pla i Carrera
