Argand and the early work on graphical representation: New sources and interpretations (Q2762098)

Most of the simultaneous inventors of the graphical representation of complex numbers around 1800 have the common pattern of marginality to the mathematical communities and of amateurism. G. Schubring contributes to give some new elements about two of them: Argand and Buée. Argand explained his theory in the booklet ``\textit{Essai sur une manière de représenter les quantités imaginaires dans les constructions géométriques}'' allegedly published in 1806 and discussed beginning in 1813/14 on the \textit{Annales} of Gergonne with Argand himself participating to the discussions. Schubring purposes a new reconstruction of the events around Argand's \textit{Essai}, both examining the old documents and a letter, he recently has found, from Legendre to François Joseph Français, the brother of Jacques Frédéric the first mathematician interested in Argand's ideas.NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINEAdrien-Quentin Buée, a French Catholic Priest, was not a professional mathematician, he read his paper ``\textit{Mémoires sur les quantités imaginaires}'' in 1805 at The London Royal Society that published it in 1806. At the end of his paper he mentions a paper by \textit{M. Foncenex} ``\textit{Réflexions sur les Quantités Imaginaires}'' printed in 1759 in Turin, where one can find perhaps the first ideas on the geometric representation of the complex numbers. Schubring's paper ends with the analysis of this note.NEWLINENEWLINEFor the entire collection see [Zbl 0970.00008].