View source for Moritz Cantor

{{short description|German historian of mathematics}}
{{Distinguish|Georg Cantor}}
{{Infobox scientist
|name              = Moritz Cantor
|image             = Moritz Cantor (HeidICON 28790) (cropped).jpg
|image_size        = 
|caption           = Moritz Cantor
|birth_date        = {{birth date|1829|8|23|df=yes}}
|birth_place       = [[Mannheim]]
|death_date        = {{death date and age|1920|4|10|1829|8|23|df=yes}}
|death_place       = [[Heidelberg]], [[Weimar Republic|Germany]]
|residence         = 
|citizenship       = 
|nationality       = [[Germans|German]]
|ethnicity         = 
|field             = [[History of mathematics]]
|work_institutions = 
|alma_mater        = [[University of Heidelberg]]
|doctoral_advisor  = 
|doctoral_students = [[Karl Bopp]]
|known_for         = 
|influences        = 
|influenced        = 
|prizes            = 
|religion          = 
|footnotes         = 
|signature         =
}}
'''Moritz Benedikt Cantor''' (23 August 1829 – 10 April 1920) was a [[Germans|German]] [[History of mathematics|historian of mathematics]].

==Biography==
Cantor was born at [[Mannheim]]. He came from a [[Sephardi Jews|Sephardi Jewish]] family that had emigrated to the [[Netherlands]] from [[Portugal]], another branch of which had established itself in [[Russia]]. In his early youth, Moritz Cantor was not strong enough to go to school, and his parents decided to educate him at home. Later, however, he was admitted to an advanced class of the Gymnasium in Mannheim. From there he went to the [[University of Heidelberg]] in 1848, and soon after to the [[University of Göttingen]], where he studied under [[Carl Friedrich Gauss|Gauss]] and [[Heinrich Martin Weber|Weber]], and where Stern awakened in him a strong interest in historical [[research]].

After obtaining his [[PhD]] at the University of Heidelberg in 1851, he went to [[Berlin]], where he eagerly followed the lectures of [[Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet]]; and upon his return to Heidelberg in 1853, he was appointed privat-docent at the university. In 1863, he was promoted to the position of assistant professor, and in 1877 he became honorary professor.

Cantor was one of the founders of the ''Kritische Zeitschrift für Chemie, Physik und Mathematik''. In 1859 he became associated with [[Schlömilch]] as editor of the ''Zeitschrift für Mathematik und Physik'', taking charge of the historical and literary section. Since 1877, through his efforts, a supplement to the ''Zeitschrift'' was published under the separate title of ''Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der Mathematik''.

Cantor's [[inaugural dissertation]], "Über ein weniger gebräuchliches Coordinaten-System" (1851), gave no indication that the history of exact sciences would soon be enriched by a master work by him. His first important work was "Über die Einführung unserer gegenwärtigen Ziffern in Europa", which he wrote for the ''Zeitschrift für Mathematik und Physik'', 1856, vol. i.

His greatest work was ''Vorlesungen über Geschichte der Mathematik''.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Smith, David Eugene|authorlink=David Eugene Smith|title=Review: ''Vorlesungen über Geschichte der Mathematik'', by Moritz Cantor|journal=Bull. Amer. Math. Soc.|year=1909|volume=15|issue=7|pages=352–357|url=https://www.ams.org/journals/bull/1909-15-07/S0002-9904-1909-01781-1|doi=10.1090/s0002-9904-1909-01781-1|doi-access=free}}</ref> This comprehensive history of mathematics appeared as follows:
* Volume 1 (1880) - ''From the earliest times until 1200''
* Volume 2 (1892) - ''From 1200 to 1668''
* Volume 3 (1894-1896) - ''From 1668 to 1758''
* Volume 4 (1908) (with nine collaborators, Cantor as editor) - ''From 1759 to 1799''

Many historians credit him for founding a new discipline in a field that had hitherto lacked the sound, conscientious, and critical methods of other fields of history.

In 1900 Moritz Cantor received the honor of giving a [[list of International Congresses of Mathematicians Plenary and Invited Speakers|plenary address at the International Congress of Mathematicians]] in [[Paris]] (''Sur l'historiographie des mathématiques'').<ref>{{cite journal|author=Scott, Charlotte Angas|authorlink=Charlotte Angas Scott|title=The International Congress of Mathematicians in Paris|journal=Bull. Amer. Math. Soc.|year=1900|volume=7|issue=2|pages=57–79|url=https://www.ams.org/journals/bull/1900-07-02/S0002-9904-1900-00768-3/S0002-9904-1900-00768-3.pdf|doi=10.1090/s0002-9904-1900-00768-3|doi-access=free}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
* ''Jewish Encyclopedia'', 1906

==External links==
{{Commons category|Moritz Benedikt Cantor|Moritz Cantor}}
{{wikisource|works=or}}
* [[Florian Cajori]], [https://www.ams.org/journals/bull/1920-27-01/S0002-9904-1920-03351-3/S0002-9904-1920-03351-3.pdf Moritz Cantor, ''The historian of mathematics''], Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 26 (1920), pp.&nbsp;21–28.
* {{MacTutor Biography|id=Cantor_Moritz}}
* {{MathGenealogy|id=52921}}
* {{DNB-Portal|116443618}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cantor, Moritz}}
[[Category:1829 births]]
[[Category:1920 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century German mathematicians]]
[[Category:20th-century German mathematicians]]
[[Category:German historians of mathematics]]
[[Category:Heidelberg University alumni]]
[[Category:University of Göttingen alumni]]
[[Category:German Sephardi Jews]]
[[Category:Scientists from Mannheim]]
[[Category:People from the Grand Duchy of Baden]]
[[Category:Mathematicians from the German Empire]]