Commission Internationale pour l’Histoire des Mathématiques

Commission Internationale pour l’Histoire des Mathématiques
Name	Commission Internationale pour l’Histoire des Mathématiques
Formation	1928
Type	International scholarly commission
Headquarters	Paris
Region served	Worldwide
Language	French, English
Leader title	President
Parent organization	International Mathematical Union

Commission Internationale pour l’Histoire des Mathématiques is an international scholarly commission devoted to the study of the history of mathematics, founded in the interwar period to coordinate research across Europe and beyond. It has linked historians associated with institutions such as the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, British Society for the History of Mathematics, Deutsche Mathematiker-Vereinigung, and International Mathematical Union while fostering scholarship on figures like Euclid, Archimedes, Al-Khwarizmi, Isaac Newton, and Carl Friedrich Gauss. The commission has interacted with archives at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Bodleian Library, Vatican Library, and Library of Congress to support editions, translations, and critical studies concerning manuscripts from Alexandria, Cordoba, Baghdad, and Samarkand.

History

The commission was established in 1928 following initiatives by scholars linked to Émile Picard, Felix Klein, David Eugene Smith, Jacques Hadamard, and Paul Tannery, and it responded to concerted efforts by members of the International Congress of Mathematicians and the Union Académique Internationale. Early work involved collaborators from the Royal Society, Académie des Sciences, Universität Göttingen, University of Cambridge, and Harvard University. During the interwar era the commission navigated the aftermath of the Treaty of Versailles and the cultural rebuilding associated with the League of Nations, later confronting disruptions from World War II and the political realignments after the Yalta Conference. Postwar revival connected the commission to scholars at the University of Chicago, Columbia University, Sorbonne, and University of Tokyo, and to projects influenced by patrons such as Andrew W. Mellon and institutions like the Carnegie Institution.

Mission and Activities

The commission’s mission emphasizes documentation, critical edition, and dissemination of works by mathematicians including Apollonius of Perga, Diophantus, Hypatia, Brahmagupta, Omar Khayyam, Nicole Oresme, Johannes Kepler, René Descartes, Blaise Pascal, Leonhard Euler, Joseph-Louis Lagrange, Augustin-Louis Cauchy, Sofia Kovalevskaya, Évariste Galois, and Srinivasa Ramanujan. Activities encompass organizing collaborations among archives like the Royal Society Library, museums such as the Science Museum, London, and academic publishers including Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, and Springer Verlag. The commission supports projects on transmission paths through centers like Toledo, Granada, Alexandria Library, and cultural exchanges between Byzantium and the Islamic Golden Age. It facilitates liaison with societies such as the History of Science Society, American Philosophical Society, and the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science.

Organization and Membership

Governing structures mirror those of the International Mathematical Union with officers elected at plenary assemblies hosted by universities like University of Paris, University of Oxford, Princeton University, Moscow State University, and Peking University. Membership includes historians from institutes such as the Institut de France, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Académie Royale de Belgique, Austrian Academy of Sciences, and national bodies like the National Academy of Sciences (United States). Notable presidents and officers have included scholars associated with École Normale Supérieure, Heidelberg University, University of Bologna, University of Padua, University of Leiden, University of Göttingen, and Kyiv University. The commission engages with younger researchers through collaborations with the European Mathematical Society, American Mathematical Society, Chinese Mathematical Society, Indian National Science Academy, and regional groups such as the Latin American Mathematical Union.

Publications and Research Projects

The commission has produced survey volumes, critical editions, and bibliographies in association with publishers including Elsevier, Brill, and Routledge, and with editorial collaborations involving journals such as the Historia Mathematica, Isis, Annals of Science, Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, and Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences. Major projects include critical editions of texts by Euclid, Al-Kindi, Abu al-Wafa, Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, Omar Khayyam, and Gerolamo Cardano, and thematic studies on topics from trigonometry as developed in Ptolemy and Nasir al-Din al-Tusi to algebraic traditions traced in manuscripts associated with Madrasa collections and the Royal Library of Turin. Collaborative digital initiatives have linked to institutions such as the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze, Wellcome Collection, and Gallica to digitize manuscripts and catalogues.

Conferences and Meetings

The commission organizes symposia and sessions at the International Congress of Mathematicians, biennial colloquia in partnership with the International Congress of History of Science and Technology, and specialized meetings at universities such as University of Rome La Sapienza, University of Vienna, University of Salamanca, University of Edinburgh, University of Geneva, and University of California, Berkeley. Thematic conferences have addressed periods from antiquity—featuring speakers on Babylonian mathematics and Hellenistic Alexandria—to modern controversies involving Hilbert, Poincaré, Cantor, and Gödel. Workshops often collaborate with archives including the Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève and museums like the Museo Galileo.

Awards and Recognition

The commission has instituted prizes and recognitions in conjunction with bodies such as the International Mathematical Union, the International Academy of the History of Science, the Royal Society, and national academies including the Académie des Sciences. Awards have acknowledged lifetime achievement for historians linked to programs at Cambridge University Press and grants funded by patrons like Rockefeller Foundation and foundations connected to Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, while travel grants have supported research visits to repositories such as the Vatican Secret Archives, State Hermitage Museum, and National Library of China. Recipients have included scholars from institutions such as the Warburg Institute, Institute for Advanced Study, Max Planck Institute, CNRS, and Australian Academy of Science.

Category:History of mathematics organizations