The mathematical methods employed by Newton in the Principia stimulated much debate among contemporaries. This book explains how Newton addressed these issues, taking into consideration the values that directed his research. It will be of interest to researchers and students in history and philosophy of science, physics, mathematics and astronomy.

Mathematical correspondence offers a rich heritage for the history of mathematics and science, as well as cultural history and other areas. It naturally covers a vast range of topics, and not only of a scientific nature; it includes letters between mathematicians, but also between mathematicians and politicians, publishers, and men or women of culture. Wallis, Leibniz, the Bernoullis, D'Alembert, Condorcet, Lagrange, Gauss, Hermite, Betti, Cremona, Poincaré and van der Waerden are undoubtedly authors of great interest and their letters are valuable documents, but the correspondence of less well-known authors, too, can often make an equally important contribution to our understanding of developments in the history of science. Mathematical correspondences also play an important role in the editions of collected works, contributing to the reconstruction of scientific biographies, as well as the genesis of scientific ideas, and in the correct dating and interpretation of scientific writings. This volume is based on the symposium “Mathematical Correspondences and Critical Editions,” held at the 6th International Conference of the ESHS in Lisbon, Portugal in 2014. In the context of the more than fifteen major and minor editions of mathematical correspondences and collected works presented in detail, the volume discusses issues such as • History and prospects of past and ongoing edition projects, • Critical aspects of past editions, • The complementary role of printed and digital editions, • Integral and partial editions of correspondence, • Reproduction techniques for manuscripts, images and formulae, and the editorial challenges and opportunities presented by digital technology.

Historical Dictionary of Leibniz's Philosophy, Second Edition contains a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has more than 500 cross-referenced entries on Leibniz’s philosophy, written work, teachers, contemporaries, and philosophers influenced by him.

It is commonly assumed that the creation story of Genesis and its chronology were the only narratives openly available in medieval and early modern Europe and that the discovery of geological time in the eighteenth century came as a momentous breakthrough that shook the faith in the historical accuracy of the Bible. Historians of science, mainstream geologists, and Young Earth creationists alike all share the assumption that the notion of an ancient Earth was highly heterodox in the pre-modern era. The old age of the world is regarded as the offspring of a secularized science. In this book, Ivano Dal Prete radically revises the commonplace history of deep time in Western culture. He argues that the chronology of the Bible always coexisted with alternative approaches that placed the origin of the Earth into a far, undetermined (or even eternal) past. From the late Middle Ages, these notions spread freely not only in universities and among the learned, but even in popular works of meteorology, geology, literature, and art that made them easily accessible to a vernacular and scientifically illiterate public. Religious authorities did not regard these notions as particularly problematic, let alone heretical. Neither the authors nor their numerous readers thought that holding such views was incompatible with their Christian faith. While the appeal of theories centered on the biblical Flood and on a young Earth gained popularity over the course of the seventeenth century, their more secular alternatives remained vital and debated. Enlightenment thinkers, however, created a myth of a Christian tradition that uniformly rejected the antiquity of the world, as opposed to a new secular science ready to welcome it. Largely unchallenged for almost three centuries, that account solidified over time into a still dominant truism. Based on a wealth of mostly unexplored sources, On the Edge of Eternity offers an original and nuanced account of the history of deep time that illuminates the relationship between the history of science and Christianity in the medieval and early modern periods, with lasting implications for Western society.

This book contains around 80 articles on major writings in mathematics published between 1640 and 1940. All aspects of mathematics are covered: pure and applied, probability and statistics, foundations and philosophy. Sometimes two writings from the same period and the same subject are taken together. The biography of the author(s) is recorded, and the circumstances of the preparation of the writing are given. When the writing is of some lengths an analytical table of its contents is supplied. The contents of the writing is reviewed, and its impact described, at least for the immediate decades. Each article ends with a bibliography of primary and secondary items. - First book of its kind - Covers the period 1640-1940 of massive development in mathematics - Describes many of the main writings of mathematics - Articles written by specialists in their field

The Oxford Handbook of the History of Physics brings together cutting-edge writing by more than twenty leading authorities on the history of physics from the seventeenth century to the present day. By presenting a wide diversity of studies in a single volume, it provides authoritative introductions to scholarly contributions that have tended to be dispersed in journals and books not easily accessible to the general reader. While the core thread remains the theories and experimental practices of physics, the Handbook contains chapters on other dimensions that have their place in any rounded history. These include the role of lecturing and textbooks in the communication of knowledge, the contribution of instrument-makers and instrument-making companies in providing for the needs of both research and lecture demonstrations, and the growing importance of the many interfaces between academic physics, industry, and the military.