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Arithmetica — Diophantus of Alexandria

~250 AD · Transmission: Silenced
MathematicsTreatiseGreek

Diophantus writes the Arithmetica in 13 books (only 10 survive: 6 in Greek, 4 in Arabic rediscovered in 1968), a collection of 290 algebraic problems solved in rational numbers. He introduces for the first time a rudimentary symbolic notation for the unknown and its powers, separating mathematics from pure rhetoric. His indeterminate equations — 'Diophantine equations' — found modern number theory. Fermat writes in the margin of his copy of the Arithmetica (1637) the note that gives rise to Fermat's Last Theorem. Translated into Arabic by Qusta ibn Luqa (c. 870) and into Latin by Xylander (1575), it was rediscovered in Europe just before Viète and Descartes developed modern symbolic algebra.

InstitutionUnknown — probably the school of Alexandria
Historical regionRoman Alexandria (present-day Egypt)
Primary sourceArithmetica, Diophantus, c. 250 AD — critical Greek edition: Paul Tannery, Teubner, 1893-1895 (2 vols.); Arabic books IV-VII: Jacques Sesiano, Springer, 1982
Secondary sourceMacTutor — mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Diophantus/; Britannica — britannica.com/biography/Diophantus
Original languageLate Alexandrian Greek
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