A distinguished mathematician and notable university teacher, Isaac Todhunter (1820–84) became known for the successful textbooks he produced as well as for a work ethic that was extraordinary, even by Victorian standards. A scholar who read all the major European languages, Todhunter was an open-minded man who admired George Boole and helped introduce the moral science examination at Cambridge. His many gifts enabled him to produce the histories of mathematical subjects which form his lasting memorial. First published between 1886 and 1893, the present work was the last of these. Edited and completed after Todhunter's death by Karl Pearson (1857–1936), another extraordinary man who pioneered modern statistics, these volumes trace the mathematical understanding of elasticity from the seventeenth to the late nineteenth century. Volume 1 (1886) begins with Galileo Galilei and extends to the researches of Saint-Venant up to 1850.
