This is the first volume of our series ‘From Pebbles to Computers’ that appears in English. It is a translation of the 3rd edition (2010) of 5000 Jahre
Geometrie, again updated, supplemented and enriched with many illustrations by the author P. Schreiber and the editors H.-W. Alten, K.-H. Schlote,
and H. Wesem¨ uller-Kock.
Meanwhile the book 4000 Jahre Algebra appeared 2014 in its 2nd edition, in
2011 3000 Jahre Analysis was published by Springer Berlin Heidelberg, and
we are now preparing its translation 3000 Years of Analysis to be published
by Springer Basel. Some other volumes of this series will also be published
in English. Besides the film ‘Mathematik in der Geschichte – Mittelalter’ has
now been produced in English as History of Mathematics – Middle Ages.
All of us have been affected by the death of our author Prof. Dr. C. J. Scriba
in 2013. We are grateful for his support over many years and glad to be able
to present Chapters 1 through 4 of this book with the supplements he wrote
before his death as part of his scientific legacy. We shall miss his advice in
future.
The translation of this book was done by Jana Schreiber, the daughter of the
author P. Schreiber. We are very grateful to her because she has done this
with great efficiency and commitment in a short time.
After the corrections and supplements of the editor, language copy editing
by the publisher, and proof reading by the author and editor we now present
this volume.
I thank the members of the project group for their intensive teamwork: A.
K. Gottwald for clearing the licenses (now world-wide) for printing the illustrations, H. Wesem¨ uller-Kock for his involvement inserting new illustrations
with his comments and the index of illustrations, proof reading and preparing
the graphic design and layout for the whole book, the historian of mathematics Dr. K.-H. Schlote for many comments and for transferring the index of
names and the subject index, Prof. Dr. K.-J. F¨ orster and Prof. Dr. E. Wagner
for providing financial support.
We are grateful for the help of our secretaries B. David and R. Falso, the
students J. Sch¨ onborn and N. Westphal for preparing the text, illustrations
and indexes ready for printing.
Last, but not least we thank Springer Publishing Basel AG and its editor
Dr. A. M¨ atzener for her kindly support and the excellent layouting of this
book.
I hope that this book will please, inspire and benefit many readers all over
the world.
On behalf of the project group
Hildesheim, August 2014 Heinz-Wilhelm Alten