A New History of Greek Mathematics

The ancient Greeks played a fundamental role in the history of mathematics and their ideas were reused and developed in subsequent periods all the way down to the scientific revolution and beyond. In this, the first complete history for a century. Reviel Netz offers a panoramic view of the rise and influence of Greek mathematics and its significance in world history. He explores the Near Eastern antecedents and the social and intellectual developments underlying the subject's beginnings in Greece in the fifth century BCE. He leads the reader through the proofs and arguments of key figures like Archytas, Euclid and Archimedes, and considers the totality of the Greek mathematical achievement which also includes, in addition to pure mathematics, such applied fields as optics, music, mechanics and, above all, astronomy. This is the story not only of a major historical development, but of some of the finest mathematics ever created.

REVIEL NETZ is Patrick Suppes Professor of Greek Mathematics and Astronomy at Stanford University. He is the author of many books on Greek mathematics and culture, including The Shaping of Deduction in Greek Mathematics (Cambridge, 1999), The Archimedes Codex (co-authored with William Noel, 2007), Ludic Proof: Greek Mathematics and the Alexandrian Aesthetic (Cambridge, 2009) and Scale, Space and Canon in Ancient Literary Culture (Cambridge, 2020).

1. To the Threshold of Greek Mathematics; 2. The Generation of Archytas; 3. The Generation of Archimedes; 4. Mathematics in the World; 5. Mathematics of the Stars; 6. The Canonization of Greek Mathematics; 7. Into Modern Science: The Legacy of Greek Mathematics.