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This open access book brings together for the first time all aspects of the tragic life and fascinating work of the polymath Robert Leslie Ellis (1817-1859), placing him at the heart of early-Victorian intellectual culture.
Written by a diverse team of experts, the chapters in the book's first part contain in-depth examinations of, among other things, Ellis's family, education, Bacon scholarship and mathematical contributions. The second part consists of annotated transcriptions of a selection of Ellis's diaries and correspondence. Taken together, A Prodigy of Universal Genius: Robert Leslie Ellis, 1817-1859 is a rich resource for historians of science, historians of mathematics and Victorian scholars alike.
Robert Leslie Ellis was one of the most intriguing and wide-ranging intellectual figures of early Victorian Britain, his contributions ranging from advanced mathematical analysis to profound commentaries on philosophy and classics and a decisive role in the orientation of mid-nineteenth century scholarship. This very welcome collection offers both new and authoritative commentaries on the work, setting it in the context of the mathematical, philosophical and cultural milieux of the period, together with fascinating passages from the wealth of unpublished papers Ellis composed during his brief and brilliant career.
- Simon Schaffer, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge
List of contents
Part 1. Chapters.- 1. From Bath to Cambridge: The Early Life and Education of Robert Leslie Ellis (Christopher Stray).- 2. "A Senior Wrangler among Senior Wranglers": The Mathematical Education of Robert Leslie Ellis (June Barrow-Green).- 3. Ellis's Character, John Grote and the Cambridge Network, 1830-1866 (John R. Gibbins).- 4. Robert Leslie Ellis as Editor and Contributor to Mathematical Journals (Tony Crilly).- 5. Ellis on Mathematical Statistics and Probability (Stephen M. Stigler).- 6. Ellis's Philosophy and Bacon Scholarship (Lukas M. Verburgt).- 7. Robert Leslie Ellis: An Almost Perfect Moral Nature (Joan L. Richards).- Part 2. Manuscripts.- 8. The Ellis Papers in Trinity College, Cambridge (Jonathan Smith).- Appendix 1: Bibliography of Ellis's Writings.- Appendix 2: List of Ellis's Mathematical Reading.- Appendix 3: List of Ellis's Diaries.- Bibliography.
About the author
Lukas M. Verburgt is Postdoctoral Researcher at the Freudenthal Institute, History and Philosophy of Science, at Utrecht University. He has held visiting research positions at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin, the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, Cambridge, and Trinity College, Cambridge; between September 2021 and June 2022 he will be Fellow of the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS). His research concerns the changing relationship between science and philosophy as sources of knowledge in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. He is the author of
John Venn: A Life in Logic (The University of Chicago Press, 2021) and (co-editor) of
Aristotle's Syllogism and the Creation of Modern Logic (Bloomsbury Academic, forthcoming).
Report
"This book, in which seven authors contributed, discusses in detail many aspects of the life and work of this polymath. Thus, the book also provides a nice sketch of mathematical life in England in the first half of the 19th century: the relationship of mathematics in England to that on the continent, mathematics in Cambridge, religion and mathematics in 19th-century England." (Teun Koetsier, zbMATH 1535.01002, 2024)
