From Here to Infinity: Tracing the Origin and Development of Projective Geometry

This monograph traces the development of projective geometry from its Greek origins to the early 20th century. It covers Renaissance perspective studies and insights from the late sixteenth to seventeenth centuries, examining the contributions of Desargues and Pascal. Most of the book is devoted to the evolution of the subject in the 19th century, from Carnot to von Staudt. In particular, the book offers an unusually thorough appreciation of Brianchon's work, a detailed study of Poncelet's innovations, and a remarkable account of the contributions of Möbius and Plücker. It also addresses the difficult question of the historical relationship between synthetic and analytic points of view in geometry, analyzing the work of prominent synthetic geometers Steiner, Chasles, and von Staudt in detail. The book concludes around 1930, after the synthetic point of view was axiomatized and the analytic point of view became intertwined with algebraic geometry. Balancing historical analysis with technical precision and providing deep insights into the evolution of the mathematics, this richly illustrated book serves as a central reference on the history of projective geometry.