Bøger af Sara Confalonieri

In 18th century France and Germany, new textbooks for teaching the mathematical sciences in higher education, which were usually entitled ¿Cours de Mathématique(s)¿ and ¿Mathematische Anfangsgründe¿, appeared. They are scientific introductory textbooks, which were mainly created to assist the teaching of the mathematical sciences at universities and to be used by the students. They contain a variety of subjects associated with the wide-ranged label of mathematical sciences at that time. This included not only pure, but also the so-called applied mathematics, like mechanics, statics, and optics.Remarkably, these textbooks were written in the national languages ¿ French and German. The work by Confalonieri/Kröger provides firstly an overview of the French and German educational systems in the 18th century; then, an analysis of a selection of some of the most used French and German textbooks for teaching the mathematical sciences, their contents, and their pedagogical approaches follows. The main aim is to point out the similarities and differences between the considered textbooks and, as much as possible, between the corresponding educational systems.

Sara Confalonieri presents an overview of Cardano's mathematical treatises and, in particular, discusses the writings that deal with cubic equations. The author gives an insight into the latest of Cardano's algebraic works, the De Regula Aliza (1570), which displays the attempts to overcome the difficulties entailed by the casus irreducibilis. Notably some of Cardano's strategies in this treatise are thoroughly analyzed. Far from offering an ultimate account of De Regula Aliza, by one of the most outstanding scholars of the 16th century, the present work is a first step towards a better understanding.