WHY A BERNOULLI EDITION?

After important first steps due to Fermat and Barrow, the decisive breakthrough was made by Newton, who applied it to the foundations of Mechanics and especially to the explanation of the planetary motions in terms of inertial and gravitational forces, and independently by Leibniz who gave a formulation that was much easier to understand and far more amenable to application. Immediately following publication of the fundamental papers of Leibniz, his discoveries as well as those of Newton were systematized, simplified and most importantly substantially extended into new fields by the two brothers Jacob and Johann Bernoulli. Totally new mathematical questions could now be asked. The two thousand year old problem, which had defied the Greek as well as the Medieval philosophers: how can one formulate mathematically a motion through space and time, and more generally any change over time such as temperature variation or tidal motion had found a simple answer. And the simplicity of the answer would lead to an endless range of applications. This was especially evident in the fields of Mechanics where, thanks to Newton's new concept of force, the applications were unlimited and, as Euler was to show, would transform almost completely the field itself.

This was a turbulent development indeed. The turbulence followed not only from the creation of new ideas, that often clashed and needed to be sorted out and refined: turbulent also were the personalities who created and propagated them, as the reader of Ó Mathúna's report will learn. The whole process, not only the intellectual clash but also the human dramas, are an important part of our historical heritage which must be preserved.... and understood.

Einstein, who must have known, once remarked: `the only thing interesting in a scientist are his works'—a remark, which would itself justify the publication of the complete editions of the works of these great figures of science. Looking over the whole period between Kepler and 1800 one can observe that three quarters of what was achieved can or will be found in the editions of the complete works of a small number of scientists. Many of these have been published—a few quite sometime ago: some like the Bernoulli Edition are still underway.

Beyond their importance for science, the Bernoullis also had a central role in the cultural life of Basel. They were the outstanding representatives of what is historically called the eighteenth century Enlightenment `Aufklaerung' in their time. This is evident in their correspondence, the publication of which is part of the project.

What is needed for producing a new edition of the complete works of a scientist? Quite a bit more than just someone, who carries a bundle of old manuscripts to the printer. Of the many people and ingredients needed for making these works accessible to todays' scientist or historian, we may identify the more important ones.

- First one needs the individual who takes the initiative and fights for his idea; later there need to be others who carry the idea forward. Complete editions are enterprises of massive scale and more than only one generation is needed for bringing such an enterprise to a successful end: already now the fourth generation is working on the Bernoulli Edition.

- For assuring continuity there needs to be supporting structures for raising financial support from the state and from private sponsors to guarantee funding for the project. They work, as the reader of this account will learn, in an honorary capacity, having volunteered their services to the Bernoulli Edition.

- A modern scientist is unfamiliar also with the presentation of the old texts, especially of the formulae they contain: today many make painful reading indeed. Here it is necessary to have a permanent close collaboration between the Editorial team, mainly through its Editorial Assistant, and the personnel at the publishing house. For, while the visual arrangement of the text and the grouping of the formulæ may be changed for making it familiar to the modern reader, the integrity of the text itself must not be violated. In order that it retain its value as a historic document, the few modifications, that are indispensable, must be stated explicitly.

It is in view of all these efforts that I chose as our keynote for the Edition, Goethe's verse:

"In dem Vergangnen lebt das Tüchtige,
Verewigt sich in schöner Tat"

I may close this outline of our enterprize with a quotation from Andre Weil, one of the leading mathematicians of the 20th century, who, when I had sent him our plans for the edition of the works of Daniel Bernoulli responded `je suis heureux de voir que Daniel Bernoulli va recevoir son dû'.

David Speiser, December 1999  

Among the great editions of scientific works of the 17th and 18th centuries, the Bernoulli Edition occupies a special position; unlike, for example, the Leibniz and the Euler Edition, it is dedicated not to a single author, but to a group of nine closely related authors. The Bernoulli Edition presents a critical, fully annotated edition of the collected works and correspondence of these authors. It includes their scientific publications, the most important of those texts which exist only in manuscript form, and an extensive selection of their correspondence, for the most part hitherto unpublished. The Bernoulli Edition establishes an authoritative version of the source texts, starting from either the original publications or the manuscripts. The commentaries facilitate access to the historical texts for the modern reader by providing interpretative introductions, explanatory notes and indexes. All texts are printed in the original language (mainly Latin and French); the commentaries are mostly in English (in the past, some volumes have been annotated in French, German or Italian). Copious illustrations present figures from original printings as well as samples from holographs. The Bernoulli Edition is divided into two sections, one for the Collected Works and one for the Correspondence. Each section is composed of several series, each of these being dedicated to one or, in some cases, to two of the nine authors.