The scientific correspondence of H. A. Lorentz. Vol. 1 (Q952256)

The editions of correspondences of great physicists are booming, Pauli, Einstein, Sommerfeld and now Hendrik Antoon Lorentz (1853--1928), he belonged to the former generation. In 1877 Lorentz became professor for mathematical physics at the university of Leiden, where he stayed until 1910. In 1902 Lorentz and Pieter Zeeman shared the Nobel Prize for physics. Lorentz' successor in Leiden was Paul Ehrenfest, both physicists had a close relationship. In this volume there are presented 434 letters exchanged between 1883 and 1927. This is a selection of the letters existing; unfortunately the reader does not get information about the total number of letters which exist. As far as the edition is concerned, A. Kox pointed out ``that bibliographical information is provided wherever necessary, that the meaning of non-obvious formulas and symbols is explained, and that historical context is provided for discussions on physics. No attempt has been made to be exhaustive in prividing references to the secondary literature in the annotation. Brief biographical information is given for important persons mentioned in the letters'' (p. X). Woldemar Voigt, Ludwig Boltzmann, Arnold Sommerfeld, Max Planck, Willy Wien, Henri Poincaré, Albert Einstein, Erwin Schrödiger and Johannes Stark are perhaps the most important and most prominent correspondents, most of the letters were written in German, the originals were mostly handwritten. At the end of the volume there is given a bibliography (p. 667--707), a bibliography of writings by Hendrik Antoon Lorentz (p. 709--753) and an index (p. 755--777). This is Volume I; how many volumes are planned, what will be the contents of the further volumes? These questions are not yet answered. Editorial remark (2018): For Volume II see [Zbl 1401.01044].