Christoph Scriba

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

Live and act

Scriba received her doctorate in 1957 from the Justus Liebig University in Giessen on James Gregory 's early writings on calculus . He then taught at the University of Kentucky , the University of Massachusetts and from 1959 to 1962 at the University of Toronto . During a research stay in Oxford , he examined the estate of John Wallis , on which he received his habilitation in 1966 in Hamburg with Joseph Ehrenfried Hofmann and Bernhard Sticker ( studies on the mathematics of John Wallis ). From 1969 he held the newly established chair for the history of exact sciences and technology at the TU Berlin . From 1975 until his retirement in 1995 he was professor for the history of natural science and mathematics at the University of Hamburg and head of the institute there. His successor there was Karin Reich .

Scriba was on the Executive Committee of the ICHM (International Commission on the History of Mathematics) and was its chairman from 1977 to 1985. He was a member of the Jungius Society in Hamburg, the Leopoldina (since 1972), the Académie Internationale d´Histoire des Sciences, the Braunschweigische Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft (since 1988) and since 1995 the Göttingen Academy of Sciences. In 1993 he received the ICHM's Kenneth O. May Prize .

Eberhard Knobloch is one of his doctoral students .

In 1990 he edited selected writings by his teacher Joseph Ehrenfried Hofmann at Olms .

Fonts (selection)

• Studies of the mathematics of John Wallis (1616–1703). Angular divisions, combination theory and number theory problems. The books and manuscripts of Wallis are attached. Steiner, Wiesbaden 1966 (at the same time: Hamburg, University, habilitation paper, 1966).
• The Concept of Number. A chapter in the history of mathematics, with applications of interest to teachers (= BI-Hochschulskripten 825 / 825a, ZDB -ID 973602-5 ). With the assistance of ME Dormer Ellis. Bibliographical Institute, Mannheim et al. 1968.
• with Eduard Seidler , Wieland Berg (ed.): The nation's elite in the Third Reich - The relationship between academies and their scientific environment to National Socialism (= Acta Historica Leopoldina 22). Leopoldina Symposium from 9th to 11th June 1994 in Schweinfurt. Barth, Halle 1995, ISBN 3-335-00409-4 .
• with Peter Schreiber : 5000 years of 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 et al. 2002, ISBN 3-7643-6167-0 .
• as editor with Philip Beeley: The Correspondence of John Wallis. 3 volumes. Oxford University Press, Oxford et al. 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 .

literature

• Joseph W. Dauben , Menso Folkerts , Eberhard Knobloch , Hans Wußing (eds.): History of mathematics. State of the Art. Flores quadrivii. Studies in Honor of Christoph J. Scriba. Academic Press, San Diego CA et al. 1996, ISBN 0-12-204055-4 .
• Andreas Kleinert : Christoph J. Scriba (1929–2013). In: Sudhoff's archive . Vol. 97, No. 2, 2013, pp. 136-142, JSTOR 43694471 .

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