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arXiv · 2110.09787

Diophantus redivivus: is Diophantus an early-modern classic?

Catherine Goldstein
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Abstract

Many early-modern mathematical books incorporated at least a part of Diophantus' Arithmetica, from Jacques de Billy's Diophanti Redivi Pars prior et posterior to John Kersey's Third and Fourth Books of the Elements of algebra or Jacques Ozanam's Recr{\'e}ations math{\'e}matiques. Diophantine questions regularly circulated among mathematicians of the time in the context of exchanges of problems or challenges. It is thus tempting to consider Diophantus's opus magnum as a classic. However, I argued in my talk that, while Diophantus was indeed a classical author for early-modern mathematicians, his main work did not become a classical book.

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Catherine Goldstein. 2021-10-19. Diophantus redivivus: is Diophantus an early-modern classic?. https://arxiv.org/abs/2110.09787

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