Henri Poincaré’s Saint Louis Lecture of 1904: Publication, Dissemination, and Historiographical Implications

Abstract

Henri Poincaré’s Saint Louis lecture of 1904 occupies an important place in the early history of relativity, formulating the principle of relativity in general terms and presenting it as a guiding principle of mathematical physics alongside least action and energy conservation. This article reconstructs the lecture’s early publication and international dissemination through La Revue des idées, the Bulletin des sciences mathématiques, The Monist, and Poincaré’s book La valeur de la science. Drawing on library records, accession data, booksellers’ advertisements, press notices, and correspondence, it reconstructs the documentary landscape within which Albert Einstein’s 1905 relativity paper should be situated. Evidence from Einstein’s Bern milieu, including Joseph Sauter’s testimony and the possible redating of Einstein’s letter to Conrad Habicht to June 1, 1905, suggests a denser intellectual environment than simplified narratives of solitary discovery imply. Availability is not influence, but reconstructing availability is essential to assessing Einstein’s relation to Poincaré and Lorentz.