``A valuable monument of mathematical genius'': The Ladies' Diary(1704-1840) (Q1006723)

The paper views the mathematical contribution of \textit{The Ladies' Diary} (1704-1840) as a whole and emphasizes the leading role played by the magazine in the early development of British mathematical periodicals. In the beginning of the eighteenth century, there were no journals dedicated entirely to mathematics. \textit{The Diary}, starting in 1708, presented a variety of mathematical problems and their solutions to a wide audience of not necessarily mathematically-oriented readers for over 130 years. The purpose of the paper is two-fold. Firstly, the authors follow the year-to-year performance of the mathematical part of \textit{The Diary} and discuss representative samples of mathematical problems published in the magazine. Secondly, they position \textit{The Diary} in each of the British mathematical and scientific environments as they moved through the years of its existence dividing \textit{The Diary's} tenure into the four periods.