The greatest geometer since the time of Apollonius (Q1684353): Difference between revisions

The author starts with a quotation from \textit{F. Cajori}'s [A history of mathematics. London and New York: Macmillan and Co. (1894; JFM 25.0003.03)] in which Jakob Steiner (1796--1863) is defined as the ``the greatest geometrician since the time of Euclid'', and she ends the paper with another quotation by Hermann Hankel, according to Jakob Steiner is ``the greatest geometrical genius that has arisen since the time of Apollonius''. Surely, Steiner worked on the so-called ``Apollonius problem'', but it is not for this reason that Hankel praised him. The author analyzes how the figure of Steiner was perceived in history of mathematics, making use of excerpts from period books. She shows how Steiner was sometimes considered a genius, sometimes not, sometimes one who contributed to the history of projective geometry. In other words, the author passes in review the views in which Steiner was held.