Correspondence of Leonhard Euler with Christian Goldbach

When Leonhard Euler first arrived at the Russian Academy of Sciences, at the age of 20, his career was supported and promoted by the Academy’s secretary, the Prussian jurist and amateur mathematician Christian Goldbach (1690-1764). Their encounter would grow into a lifelong friendship, as evinced by nearly 200 letters sent over 35 years.

This exchange – Euler’s most substantial long-term correspondence – has now been edited for the first time with an English translation, ample commentary and documentary indices. These present an overview of 18th-century number theory, its sources and repercussions, many details of the protagonists’ biographies, and a wealth of insights into academic life in St. Petersburg and Berlin between 1725 and 1765.

Part I includes an introduction and the original texts of the Euler-Goldbach letters, while Part II presents the English translations and documentary indices.

• Christian Goldbach
• Leonhard Euler
• biography: 18th century
• history of mathematics: 18th century
• history of number theory
• scientific correspondence

“The present book in the edition of Leonhard Euler's œuvre is concerned with the correspondence of Euler with Christian Goldbach. … The present volume is a pearl in the edition of Euler's correspondence and a must-read for historians of mathematics particularly interested in the history of number theory.” (Thomas Sonar, zbMATH 1361.01008, 2017)

• Bernoulli-Euler-Zentrum, Universitätsbibliothek, Basel, Switzerland

  Martin Mattmüller

• Jagstzell, Germany

  Franz Lemmermeyer

• St. Petersburg, Russia

  Leonhard Euler

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