A new history of greek mathematics

Abstract

In French, haute vulgarisation is a recognized genre. Not so in English, but even without the term A New History of Greek Mathematics is still an excellent representative. Regularly—and especially when complicated mathematical arguments unfold—the reader gets the impression of being in the presence of a spirited teacher in a lecture hall. Reviel Netz is a fine pedagogue. A ‘new’ anything will easily be understood to pretend to replace the corresponding ‘old.’ Not so here. True, Netz states that ‘I write this History of Greek Mathematics to replace that of Heath, written a century ago’ (p. 457). But that is merely an argument for not exploring the history of Islamic mathematics in-depth (to which, none the less, 21 pages are dedicated). Instead, the reader is told that