Moritz Benedict Cantor

CANTOR, MORITZ BENEDICT (1829–1920), German mathematician. Born in Mannheim, Cantor was appointed to a chair of mathematics at Heidelberg in 1877. After the publication of several mathematical papers, the article "Ueber die Einfuehrung unserer gegenwaertigen Ziffern in Europa" in the Zeitschrift fuer Mathematik und Physik (1865) was the first of his many contributions to the history of mathematics. Cantor's most important work was Vorlesungen ueber Geschichte der Mathematik, which was published in four volumes between 1880 and 1908. The first three were his own work on the history of mathematics from remote antiquity until 1758. The fourth volume, which traced the history to 1799, was written by collaborators under his direction. Cantor wrote several other books, including a history of the mathematics of primitive people. He founded and edited from 1877 until 1918 the Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der Mathematik; he also edited the historical and literary section of the Zeitschrift fuer Mathematik und Physik.

Sources: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2007 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.