THE PROJECT UNDERWAY

With the exemplary work set down by Spiess in the first published volume, the stylistic pattern of the project had been established. Each editor is responsible to the Foundation to perform and bring to completion his assigned responsibilities in accordance with the terms of the Bernoulli Edition. The editorial responsibility includes providing an authoritative edition of the basic text together with an accompanying introduction and editorial script. The latter is to include for each item an explanatory commentary including notes and index, and such prologue as may be appropriate. The basic text is to be in its original language (most frequently Latin or French) while for the editorial text the language is usually English, and sometimes French; occasionally German and in one instance Italian have been used. Illustrations are included as appropriate, showing figures, samples of original text whether printed or manuscript and such other items as may enhance the work.

In 1981 David Speiser succeeded Fleckenstein as General Editor following the death of the latter. Speiser was keenly aware that the leisurely pace that had characterized the output up to then—3 volumes in 45 years—would not do for a massive project of this kind. Accordingly he set about giving the project both a structure and a schedule and, as he had previously done in the case of the works of Daniel Bernoulli, assembled a team of collaborators large enough to staff the structure and meet the schedule. In consequence, the project was given the momentum it needed and that momentum has been sustained with the appearance of ten volumes in the subsequent fourteen years 1982–1996; were it not for the internal difficulties of the publishers in the mid-eighties, it is likely that this performance would have been surpassed both in volume and in time-frame.

In a project of this magnitude, Speiser recognized the necessity for a comprehensive editorial plan which would include a clearly defined system of priorities and a publication schedule. The three trustees of the Otto Spiess Foundation, namely Adolf Gasser (Foundation President), Bernhard Marzetta and David Speiser took counsel with Clifford Truesdell and André Weil, and with the collaboration of Patricia Radelet-de Grave, a number of policy decisions were formulated in 1982:

1. There was an immediate necessity for a comprehensive overall plan. Up until then, there had been a plan for the material of Jacob I only, which proved inadequate: it presumed a total of 4 volumes rather than a more realistic 7 or 8 volumes. Moreover, it had also presumed a project total of 21 volumes—a total that will probably have to be revised to near 50 volumes.

2. Priorities had to be established and clearly defined, taking cognizance of the necessity for bringing to completion the work already underway, namely, the works of Jacob I Bernoulli, of Daniel Bernoulli and the correspondence between Johann I Bernoulli and Pierre Varignon. This would require organizing the project into different stages.

3. While the Bernoulli Edition and associated material remains based in Basel, the work would be carried out by a team recruited world-wide—there are now ten countries represented on the Editorial team.

4. The Editors for the scientific works would be scientists active in the domain of the respective volumes.

It was recognized that a special importance would have to be accorded to the unpublished scripts of Jacob I and particularly—as suggested by A. Weil—to that part of his correspondence still unpublished: the correspondence with Leibniz and Clüver had been published by Gerhardt in 1855; most of the correspondence with Fatio had appeared in a Geneva journal in 1823; thus roughly a third of the material in the proposed volume had not already appeared in print. Giving priority to these items and at the same time accommodating the requirement of bringing to completion the work already underway, Speiser in consultation with P. Radelet-de Grave, who had suggested cutting the "Gordian knot" posed by the polemical writings of Jacob I and Johann I, by assembling them in one volume "Streitschriften", set out the Project Plan in three stages. (Following tradition, Jacob I, Johann I and Daniel are together referred to as the "great three": the others are collectively referred to as the "other five").

Ó Mathúna, 1999