This site is designed to complement the volume The Mathematical Works of Bernard Bolzano (MWB) translated and compiled by Steve Russ at the University of Warwick and published by Oxford University Press.
Brief details of the volume can be obtained here. Selected parts of the volume are available electronically here.
The main purpose of the site is to provide in electronic form the original German texts of the works translated in the volume. The preparation of these files, and their checking, is still in progress. Some samples of the German texts, and further information, are available now. A detail from a well-known portrait of Bolzano by Hollpein is shown here.
The purpose of the volume is to make the texts of some of Bolzano's mathematical works available to those with little or no German. There are several interesting research issues that arise from Bolzano's technical achievements themselves and also from the unusually close and fruitful relationship between his philosophical views and his technical work.
Bolzano lived and worked at a particularly interesting time in the history of ideas and the history of the exact sciences. Anyone contemplating research (perhaps for a higher degree) on themes that overlap with these histories might well consider Bolzano's work as a main source or as a case study within a wider context. It is hoped that this volume may offer a convenient way in to Bolzano's mathematical work and to whet the appetite for further studies. A very short bibliography is also attached that lays emphasis on the main materials available now in English.
The Bernard Bolzano page maintained at the University of Salzburg has much information of interest to Bolzano scholars and a number of further valuable links. The definitive German edition of the Complete Works of Bolzano (Bernard Bolzano-Gesamtausgabe) is in process of being published in about 120 volumes by Frommann-Holzboog Verlag in Stuttgart.Last modified by Steve Russ 22/12/2004. Please send corrections, comments and suggestions to sbr@dcs.warwick.ac.uk
