Number Theory for the Millenium

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Rare Book Room Exhibit


MONGE, GASPARD ( -- - --). Geometrie Descriptive. Paris: 1789.

First edition. "Without Monge's geometry - originally invented for use in military engineering - the wholesale spawning of machinery in the nineteenth century would probably have been impossible. Descriptive geometry is the root of all the mechanical drawing and graphical methods that help to make mechanical engineering a fact." (Bell, Men of Mathematics, p. 212). Because of the military importance of descriptive geometry Monge was at first sworn to secrecy, but in 1794 he was allowed to teach it at the Ecole Normale in Paris. His lectures there form the basis of the present work.


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