Christoph Scriba

Christoph J. Scriba ( born October 6, 1929 in Darmstadt, † July 26, 2013 in Hamburg ) was a German historian of mathematics.

Life and work

Scriba in 1957 received his doctorate at the Justus -Liebig- University Gießen James Gregory's early writings on the calculus. He then taught at the University of Kentucky, the University of Massachusetts and from 1959 to 1962 at the University of Toronto. In a research fellowship at Oxford, he examined the estate of John Wallis, of which he was habilitated in Hamburg in 1966 with Joseph Ehrenfried Hofmann and Bernhard Sticker (Studies on the mathematics of John Wallis ). From 1969 he was the owner of the newly founded Department of History of Mathematics at the Technical University Berlin. From 1975 until his retirement in 1995, he was Professor of the History of Natural Science and Mathematics at the University of Hamburg and director of the Institute. His successor there was Karin Reich.

Scriba was the Executive Commitee of the ICHM ( International Commission on the History of Mathematics ) and from 1977 to 1985 its president. He was a member of the Jungius Society in Hamburg, the Leopoldina, the Académie Internationale d' Histoire des Sciences, and since 1995 the Göttingen Academy of Sciences. In 1993 he was awarded the Kenneth O. May Prize of ICHM.

His PhD is one Eberhard Knobloch.

In 1990 he issued Selected writings of his teacher Joseph Ehrenfried Hofmann at Olms.

Writings (selection )

• Studies on the mathematics of John Wallis ( 1616-1703 ). Angular pitches, combining theory and number theory problems. In the appendix the books and manuscripts of Valais. Steiner, Wiesbaden 1966 ( same time: Hamburg, University, habilitation font, 1966).
• The Concept of Number. A chapter in the history of mathematics, with applications of interest to teachers ( = BI university scripts 825/825a, ZDB - ID 973602-5 ). With the assistance of M. E. Dormer Ellis. Bibliographical Institute, Mannheim et al 1968.
• With Eduard Seidler, Wielandsberg (ed. ): The elite of the nation in the Third Reich - The ratio of academies and their scientific environment to National Socialism ( = Acta Historica Leopoldina 22). Leopoldina Symposium on 9 - 11th June 1994 in Schweinfurt. Barth, Hall 1995, ISBN 3-335-00409-4.
• With Peter Schreiber: 5000 years geometry. History, cultures, people. Springer, Berlin et al 2000, ISBN 3-540-67924-3.
• As editor with Joseph W. Dauben: Writing the History of Mathematics. Its historical development ( = science networks, historical studies. Vol. 27). Birkhäuser, Basel others 2002, ISBN 3-7643-6167-0.
• As editor with Philip Beeley: The Correspondence of John Wallis. 3 volumes. Oxford University Press, Oxford, inter alia, 2003-2012; Volume 1:. 1641-1659 2003, ISBN 0-19-851066-7;
• Volume 2: 1660 - September 1668 2005, ISBN 0-19-856601-8; .
• Volume 3: October 1668-1671 2012, ISBN 978-0-19-856947-3. .