General Investigations Of Curved Surfaces Of 1827 And 1825

In 1827 Gauss presented to the Royal Society of Göttingen his important paperon the theory of surfaces, which seventy-three years afterward the eminent Frenchgeometer, who has done more than any one else to propagate these principles,characterizes as one of Gauss’s chief titles to fame, and as still the most finishedand useful introduction to the study of infinitesimal geometry.∗ This memoir maybe called: General Investigations of Curved Surfaces, or the Paper of 1827, todistinguish it from the original draft written out in 1825, but not publisheduntil 1900. A list of the editions and translations of the Paper of 1827 follows.There are three editions in Latin, two translations into French, and two intoGerman. The paper was originally published in Latin under the title:Ia. Disquisitiones generales circa superficies curvasauctore Carolo Friderico Gauss.Societati regiæ oblatæ D. 8. Octob. 1827,and was printed in: Commentationes societatis regiæ scientiarum Gottingensisrecentiores, Commentationes classis mathematicæ. Tom. VI. (ad a. 1823–1827).Gottingæ, 1828, pages 99–146. This sixth volume is rare; so much so, indeed,that the British Museum Catalogue indicates that it is missing in that collection.