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Foreshadowings of the principles and even of the language of [the infinitesimal] calculus can be found in the writings of Napier, Kepler, Cavalieri, Fermat, Wallis, and Barrow. It was Newton's good luck to come at a time when everything was ripe for the discovery, and his ability enabled him to construct almost at once a complete calculus.

— W. W. Rouse Ball A Short Account of the History of Mathematics (2012)

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More quotes by W. W. Rouse Ball

Wallis rejected as absurd and inconceivable the now usual idea of a negative number as being less than nothing, but accepted the view that it is something greater than infinity.

A History of the Study of Mathematics at Cambridge (1889)

Gauss calculated the elements of the planet Ceres and his analysis proved him to be the first of theoretical astronomers no less than the greatest of 'arithmeticians.'

Babbage was one of the founders of the Cambridge Analytical Society whose purpose he stated was to advocate "the principles of pure d-ism as opposed to the dot-age of the university.

The history of mathematics cannot with certainty be traced back to any school or period before that of the…Greeks…. Though all early races …knew something of numeration yet the rules…were neither deduced from nor did they form part of any science.

It was, however, from Spain, and not from Arabia, that a knowledge of eastern mathematics first came into western Europe. The Moors had established their rules in Spain in 747, and by the tenth or eleven century had attained a high degree of civilisation.

A Short Account of the History of Mathematics (1888)

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