Otto E. Neugebauer
Encyclopedia
Otto Eduard Neugebauer was an Austria
n-American mathematician
and historian of science
who became known for his research on the history of astronomy
and the other exact sciences in antiquity
and into the Middle Ages
. By studying clay tablet
s he discovered that the ancient Babylonia
ns knew much more about mathematics
and astronomy
than had been previously realized. The National Academy of Sciences
has called Neugebauer "the most original and productive scholar of the history of the exact sciences, perhaps of the history of science
, of our age."
and Babylonian mathematics
, and then took up the history of mathematical astronomy. In a career of sixty-five years, he largely created our current understanding of mathematical astronomy from Babylon and Egypt
, through Greco-Roman antiquity, to India, Islam, and Europe of the Middle Ages and Renaissance
. His influence on the study of the history of the exact sciences is profound.
Neugebauer was born in Innsbruck
, Austria
, his father Rudolph Neugebauer a railroad construction engineer and a collector and scholar of Oriental carpets. His parents died when he was quite young. During World War I
Neugebauer enlisted in the Austrian Army and served as an artillery lieutenant on the Italian front, and then in an Italian prisoner-of-war camp alongside fellow-countryman Ludwig Wittgenstein
. In 1919 he entered the University of Graz
in electrical engineering
and physics
, and in 1921 transferred to the University of Munich. From 1922 to 1924 he studied mathematics at the Mathematisches Institut at the University of Göttingen under Richard Courant
, Edmund Landau
, and Emmy Noether
. During 1924–25 he was at the University of Copenhagen
where his interests changed to the history of Egyptian mathematics. His thesis Die Grundlagen der ägyptischen Bruchrechnung [The Fundamentals of Egyptian Calculation with Fractions] (Springer, 1926) was a mathematical analysis of the table in the Rhind Papyrus. In 1927 he received his venia legendi for the history of mathematics and served as Privatdozent
. His first paper on Babylonian mathematics, in 1927, was an account of the origin of the sexagesimal system.
In 1929 Neugebauer founded Quellen und Studien zur Geschichte der Mathematik, Astronomie und Physik (QS), a Springer series devoted to the history of the mathematical sciences, in which he published extended papers on Egyptian computational techniques in arithmetic and geometry, including the Moscow Papyrus, the most important text for geometry. Neugebauer had worked on the Moscow Papyrus in Leningrad
in 1928.
In 1931 he founded the review journal Zentralblatt für Mathematik und ihre Grenzgebiete
(Zbl), his most important contribution to modern mathematics. When Hitler became chancellor in 1933, Neugebauer was asked to sign an oath of loyalty to the new government, but he refused and was promptly suspended from employment. In 1934, he joined the University of Copenhagen
as full professor of mathematics. In 1936 he published a paper on the method of dating and analyzing texts using diophantine equations. During 1935–37 he published a corpus of texts named Mathematische Keilschrift-Texte (MKT). MKT was a colossal work, in size, in detail, in depth, and its contents show that the riches of Babylonian mathematics far surpass anything one could imagine from a knowledge of Egyptian and Greek mathematics
.
In 1939, after the Zentralblatt was taken over by the Nazis
, he moved to the United States, joined the mathematics department at Brown University
, and founded Mathematical Reviews
. He became an American citizen, and remained at Brown for most of his career, founding the History of Mathematics Department there in 1947, and becoming University Professor. Jointly with the American Assyriologist Abraham Sachs
, he
published Mathematical Cuneiform Texts in 1945, and this has remained
a standard English-language work on Babylonian mathematics. In 1967 he was awarded the Henry Norris Russell Lectureship
by the American Astronomical Society
. In 1977, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences
, and in 1979, he received the Award for Distinguished Service to Mathematics from the Mathematical Association of America
. In 1984 he moved to the Institute for Advanced Study
in Princeton
, where he had been a member since 1950.
Neugebauer was also interested in chronology
. He was able to reconstruct the Alexandrian Christian calendar and its origin from the Alexandrian Jewish calendar as of about the 4th century, at least 200 years prior to any other source for either calendar. Thus, the Jewish calendar was derived by combining the 19-year cycle using the Alexandrian year with the seven-day week, and was then slightly modified by the Christians to prevent Easter
from ever coinciding with Passover
. The ecclesiastical calendar, considered by church historians to be highly scientific and deeply complex, turned out to be quite simple. In 1988, by studying a scrap of Greek papyrus
, Neugebauer discovered the most important single piece of evidence to date for the extensive transmission of Babylonian astronomy to the Greeks and for the continuing use of Babylonian methods for 400 years even after Ptolemy
wrote the Almagest
. His last paper, “From Assyriology to Renaissance Art,” published in 1989, detailed the history of a single astronomical parameter, the mean length of the synodic month, from cuneiform
tablets, to the papyrus fragment just mentioned, to the Jewish calendar, to an early 15th-century book of hours
.
In 1986 Neugebauer was awarded the Balzan Prize
"for his fundamental research into the exact sciences in the ancient world, in particular, on ancient Mesopotamian, Egyptian and Greek astronomy
, which has put our understanding of ancient science
on a new footing and illuminated its transmission to the classical and medieval worlds. For his outstanding success in promoting interest and further research in the history of science" (Motivation of the Balzan General Prize Committee). Neugebauer donated the prize money of 250,000 Swiss francs to the Institute for Advanced Study.
The noted physicist and astronomer Gerry Neugebauer at Caltech is his son.
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n-American mathematician
Mathematician
A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
and historian of science
History of science
The history of science is the study of the historical development of human understandings of the natural world and the domains of the social sciences....
who became known for his research on the history of astronomy
History of astronomy
Astronomy is the oldest of the natural sciences, dating back to antiquity, with its origins in the religious, mythological, and astrological practices of pre-history: vestiges of these are still found in astrology, a discipline long interwoven with public and governmental astronomy, and not...
and the other exact sciences in antiquity
Ancient history
Ancient history is the study of the written past from the beginning of recorded human history to the Early Middle Ages. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, with Cuneiform script, the oldest discovered form of coherent writing, from the protoliterate period around the 30th century BC...
and into the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
. By studying clay tablet
Clay tablet
In the Ancient Near East, clay tablets were used as a writing medium, especially for writing in cuneiform, throughout the Bronze Age and well into the Iron Age....
s he discovered that the ancient Babylonia
Babylonia
Babylonia was an ancient cultural region in central-southern Mesopotamia , with Babylon as its capital. Babylonia emerged as a major power when Hammurabi Babylonia was an ancient cultural region in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq), with Babylon as its capital. Babylonia emerged as...
ns knew much more about mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
and astronomy
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
than had been previously realized. The National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
has called Neugebauer "the most original and productive scholar of the history of the exact sciences, perhaps of the history of science
History of science
The history of science is the study of the historical development of human understandings of the natural world and the domains of the social sciences....
, of our age."
Career
Neugebauer began as a mathematician, turned first to EgyptianEgyptian mathematics
Egyptian mathematics is the mathematics that was developed and used in Ancient Egypt from ca. 3000 BC to ca. 300 BC.-Overview:Written evidence of the use of mathematics dates back to at least 3000 BC with the ivory labels found at Tomb Uj at Abydos. These labels appear to have been used as tags for...
and Babylonian mathematics
Babylonian mathematics
Babylonian mathematics refers to any mathematics of the people of Mesopotamia, from the days of the early Sumerians to the fall of Babylon in 539 BC. Babylonian mathematical texts are plentiful and well edited...
, and then took up the history of mathematical astronomy. In a career of sixty-five years, he largely created our current understanding of mathematical astronomy from Babylon and Egypt
Egyptian astronomy
Egyptian astronomy begins in prehistoric times, in the Predynastic Period. In the 5th millennium BCE, the stone circles at Nabta Playa may have made use of astronomical alignments...
, through Greco-Roman antiquity, to India, Islam, and Europe of the Middle Ages and Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
. His influence on the study of the history of the exact sciences is profound.
Neugebauer was born in Innsbruck
Innsbruck
- Main sights :- Buildings :*Golden Roof*Kaiserliche Hofburg *Hofkirche with the cenotaph of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor*Altes Landhaus...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, his father Rudolph Neugebauer a railroad construction engineer and a collector and scholar of Oriental carpets. His parents died when he was quite young. During World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
Neugebauer enlisted in the Austrian Army and served as an artillery lieutenant on the Italian front, and then in an Italian prisoner-of-war camp alongside fellow-countryman Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein was an Austrian philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He was professor in philosophy at the University of Cambridge from 1939 until 1947...
. In 1919 he entered the University of Graz
University of Graz
The University of Graz , a university located in Graz, Austria, is the second-largest and second-oldest university in Austria....
in electrical engineering
Electrical engineering
Electrical engineering is a field of engineering that generally deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after commercialization of the electric telegraph and electrical...
and physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
, and in 1921 transferred to the University of Munich. From 1922 to 1924 he studied mathematics at the Mathematisches Institut at the University of Göttingen under Richard Courant
Richard Courant
Richard Courant was a German American mathematician.- Life :Courant was born in Lublinitz in the German Empire's Prussian Province of Silesia. During his youth, his parents had to move quite often, to Glatz, Breslau, and in 1905 to Berlin. He stayed in Breslau and entered the university there...
, Edmund Landau
Edmund Landau
Edmund Georg Hermann Landau was a German Jewish mathematician who worked in the fields of number theory and complex analysis.-Biography:...
, and Emmy Noether
Emmy Noether
Amalie Emmy Noether was an influential German mathematician known for her groundbreaking contributions to abstract algebra and theoretical physics. Described by David Hilbert, Albert Einstein and others as the most important woman in the history of mathematics, she revolutionized the theories of...
. During 1924–25 he was at the University of Copenhagen
University of Copenhagen
The University of Copenhagen is the oldest and largest university and research institution in Denmark. Founded in 1479, it has more than 37,000 students, the majority of whom are female , and more than 7,000 employees. The university has several campuses located in and around Copenhagen, with the...
where his interests changed to the history of Egyptian mathematics. His thesis Die Grundlagen der ägyptischen Bruchrechnung [The Fundamentals of Egyptian Calculation with Fractions] (Springer, 1926) was a mathematical analysis of the table in the Rhind Papyrus. In 1927 he received his venia legendi for the history of mathematics and served as Privatdozent
Privatdozent
Privatdozent or Private lecturer is a title conferred in some European university systems, especially in German-speaking countries, for someone who pursues an academic career and holds all formal qualifications to become a tenured university professor...
. His first paper on Babylonian mathematics, in 1927, was an account of the origin of the sexagesimal system.
In 1929 Neugebauer founded Quellen und Studien zur Geschichte der Mathematik, Astronomie und Physik (QS), a Springer series devoted to the history of the mathematical sciences, in which he published extended papers on Egyptian computational techniques in arithmetic and geometry, including the Moscow Papyrus, the most important text for geometry. Neugebauer had worked on the Moscow Papyrus in Leningrad
Leningrad
Leningrad is the former name of Saint Petersburg, Russia.Leningrad may also refer to:- Places :* Leningrad Oblast, a federal subject of Russia, around Saint Petersburg* Leningrad, Tajikistan, capital of Muminobod district in Khatlon Province...
in 1928.
In 1931 he founded the review journal Zentralblatt für Mathematik und ihre Grenzgebiete
Zentralblatt MATH
Zentralblatt MATH is a service providing reviews and abstracts for articles in pure and applied mathematics, published by Springer Science+Business Media. It is a major international reviewing service which covers the entire field of mathematics...
(Zbl), his most important contribution to modern mathematics. When Hitler became chancellor in 1933, Neugebauer was asked to sign an oath of loyalty to the new government, but he refused and was promptly suspended from employment. In 1934, he joined the University of Copenhagen
University of Copenhagen
The University of Copenhagen is the oldest and largest university and research institution in Denmark. Founded in 1479, it has more than 37,000 students, the majority of whom are female , and more than 7,000 employees. The university has several campuses located in and around Copenhagen, with the...
as full professor of mathematics. In 1936 he published a paper on the method of dating and analyzing texts using diophantine equations. During 1935–37 he published a corpus of texts named Mathematische Keilschrift-Texte (MKT). MKT was a colossal work, in size, in detail, in depth, and its contents show that the riches of Babylonian mathematics far surpass anything one could imagine from a knowledge of Egyptian and Greek mathematics
Greek mathematics
Greek mathematics, as that term is used in this article, is the mathematics written in Greek, developed from the 7th century BC to the 4th century AD around the Eastern shores of the Mediterranean. Greek mathematicians lived in cities spread over the entire Eastern Mediterranean, from Italy to...
.
In 1939, after the Zentralblatt was taken over by the Nazis
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
, he moved to the United States, joined the mathematics department at Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
, and founded Mathematical Reviews
Mathematical Reviews
Mathematical Reviews is a journal and online database published by the American Mathematical Society that contains brief synopses of many articles in mathematics, statistics and theoretical computer science.- Reviews :...
. He became an American citizen, and remained at Brown for most of his career, founding the History of Mathematics Department there in 1947, and becoming University Professor. Jointly with the American Assyriologist Abraham Sachs
Abraham Sachs
Abraham Sachs was an American assyriologist. He earned his PhD in Assyriology in 1939 at Johns Hopkins University. He is known for his collaboration with Otto Neugebauer, whom he met in 1941 when the latter visited the Oriental Institute in Chicago; Neugebauer and Sachs joined on the publication...
, he
published Mathematical Cuneiform Texts in 1945, and this has remained
a standard English-language work on Babylonian mathematics. In 1967 he was awarded the Henry Norris Russell Lectureship
Henry Norris Russell Lectureship
The Henry Norris Russell Lectureship is awarded each year by the American Astronomical Society in recognition of a lifetime of excellence in astronomical research.-Previous lecturers:This list of lecturers is from the American Astronomical Society's website....
by the American Astronomical Society
American Astronomical Society
The American Astronomical Society is an American society of professional astronomers and other interested individuals, headquartered in Washington, DC...
. In 1977, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
, and in 1979, he received the Award for Distinguished Service to Mathematics from the Mathematical Association of America
Mathematical Association of America
The Mathematical Association of America is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university, college, and high school teachers; graduate and undergraduate students; pure and applied mathematicians; computer scientists;...
. In 1984 he moved to the Institute for Advanced Study
Institute for Advanced Study
The Institute for Advanced Study, located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States, is an independent postgraduate center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It was founded in 1930 by Abraham Flexner...
in Princeton
Princeton, New Jersey
Princeton is a community located in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It is best known as the location of Princeton University, which has been sited in the community since 1756...
, where he had been a member since 1950.
Neugebauer was also interested in chronology
Chronology
Chronology is the science of arranging events in their order of occurrence in time, such as the use of a timeline or sequence of events. It is also "the determination of the actual temporal sequence of past events".Chronology is part of periodization...
. He was able to reconstruct the Alexandrian Christian calendar and its origin from the Alexandrian Jewish calendar as of about the 4th century, at least 200 years prior to any other source for either calendar. Thus, the Jewish calendar was derived by combining the 19-year cycle using the Alexandrian year with the seven-day week, and was then slightly modified by the Christians to prevent Easter
Easter
Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...
from ever coinciding with Passover
Passover
Passover is a Jewish holiday and festival. It commemorates the story of the Exodus, in which the ancient Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt...
. The ecclesiastical calendar, considered by church historians to be highly scientific and deeply complex, turned out to be quite simple. In 1988, by studying a scrap of Greek papyrus
Papyrus
Papyrus is a thick paper-like material produced from the pith of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus, a wetland sedge that was once abundant in the Nile Delta of Egypt....
, Neugebauer discovered the most important single piece of evidence to date for the extensive transmission of Babylonian astronomy to the Greeks and for the continuing use of Babylonian methods for 400 years even after Ptolemy
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the...
wrote the Almagest
Almagest
The Almagest is a 2nd-century mathematical and astronomical treatise on the apparent motions of the stars and planetary paths. Written in Greek by Claudius Ptolemy, a Roman era scholar of Egypt,...
. His last paper, “From Assyriology to Renaissance Art,” published in 1989, detailed the history of a single astronomical parameter, the mean length of the synodic month, from cuneiform
Cuneiform
Cuneiform can refer to:*Cuneiform script, an ancient writing system originating in Mesopotamia in the 4th millennium BC*Cuneiform , three bones in the human foot*Cuneiform Records, a music record label...
tablets, to the papyrus fragment just mentioned, to the Jewish calendar, to an early 15th-century book of hours
Book of Hours
The book of hours was a devotional book popular in the later Middle Ages. It is the most common type of surviving medieval illuminated manuscript. Like every manuscript, each manuscript book of hours is unique in one way or another, but most contain a similar collection of texts, prayers and...
.
In 1986 Neugebauer was awarded the Balzan Prize
Balzan Prize
The International Balzan Prize Foundation awards four annual monetary prizes to people or organisations who have made outstanding achievements in the fields of humanities, natural sciences, culture, as well as for endeavours for peace and the brotherhood of man.-Rewards and assets:Each year the...
"for his fundamental research into the exact sciences in the ancient world, in particular, on ancient Mesopotamian, Egyptian and Greek astronomy
Greek astronomy
Greek astronomy is astronomy written in the Greek language in classical antiquity. Greek astronomy is understood to include the ancient Greek, Hellenistic, Greco-Roman, and Late Antiquity eras. It is not limited geographically to Greece or to ethnic Greeks, as the Greek language had become the...
, which has put our understanding of ancient science
History of science in early cultures
The history of science in early cultures refers to the study of protoscience in ancient history, prior to the development of science in the Middle Ages. In prehistoric times, advice and knowledge was passed from generation to generation in an oral tradition. The development of writing enabled...
on a new footing and illuminated its transmission to the classical and medieval worlds. For his outstanding success in promoting interest and further research in the history of science" (Motivation of the Balzan General Prize Committee). Neugebauer donated the prize money of 250,000 Swiss francs to the Institute for Advanced Study.
The noted physicist and astronomer Gerry Neugebauer at Caltech is his son.
Prizes and honors
- Honorary doctorate, University of St AndrewsUniversity of St AndrewsThe University of St Andrews, informally referred to as "St Andrews", is the oldest university in Scotland and the third oldest in the English-speaking world after Oxford and Cambridge. The university is situated in the town of St Andrews, Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. It was founded between...
, 1938 - Honorary doctorate, Princeton UniversityPrinceton UniversityPrinceton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
, 1957 - Honorary doctorate, Brown UniversityBrown UniversityBrown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
, 1971 - American Council of Learned SocietiesAmerican Council of Learned SocietiesThe American Council of Learned Societies , founded in 1919, is a private nonprofit federation of seventy scholarly organizations.ACLS is best known as a funder of humanities research through fellowships and grants awards. ACLS Fellowships are designed to permit scholars holding the Ph.D...
' Award, 1961 - Distinguished Service Award, Mathematical Association of AmericaMathematical Association of AmericaThe Mathematical Association of America is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university, college, and high school teachers; graduate and undergraduate students; pure and applied mathematicians; computer scientists;...
, 1979 - Franklin Medal, American Philosophical SocietyAmerican Philosophical SocietyThe American Philosophical Society, founded in 1743, and located in Philadelphia, Pa., is an eminent scholarly organization of international reputation, that promotes useful knowledge in the sciences and humanities through excellence in scholarly research, professional meetings, publications,...
, 1987 - Susan Culver Rosenberger Medal of Honor, Brown UniversityBrown UniversityBrown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
, 1987 - John F. Lewis Prize, American Philosophical SocietyAmerican Philosophical SocietyThe American Philosophical Society, founded in 1743, and located in Philadelphia, Pa., is an eminent scholarly organization of international reputation, that promotes useful knowledge in the sciences and humanities through excellence in scholarly research, professional meetings, publications,...
, 1952 - Heineman Prize for the Exact Sciences, 1953
- Pfizer Prize, 1975 and 1985
- Balzan PrizeBalzan PrizeThe International Balzan Prize Foundation awards four annual monetary prizes to people or organisations who have made outstanding achievements in the fields of humanities, natural sciences, culture, as well as for endeavours for peace and the brotherhood of man.-Rewards and assets:Each year the...
, 1986
Articles
- "The Early History of the Astrolabe." Isis 40 (1949): 240–56.
- "The Study of Wretched Subjects." Isis 42 (1951): 111.
- "On the 'Hippopede' of Eudoxus." Scripta MathematicaScripta MathematicaScripta Mathematica was a quarterly journal published by Yeshiva University devoted to the philosophy, history, and expository treatment of mathematics...
19 (1953): 225–29. - "Apollonius' Planetary Theory." Communications on Pure and Applied MathematicsCommunications on Pure and Applied MathematicsCommunications on Pure and Applied Mathematics is a scientific journal which is associated with the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. It publishes original research originating from or solicited by the institute, typically in the fields of applied mathematics, mathematical analysis, or...
8 (1955): 641–48. - "The Equivalence of Eccentric and Epicyclic Motion According to Apollonius." Scripta MathematicaScripta MathematicaScripta Mathematica was a quarterly journal published by Yeshiva University devoted to the philosophy, history, and expository treatment of mathematics...
24 (1959): 5–21. - "Thabit Ben Qurra 'On the Solar Year' and 'On the Motion of the Eighth Sphere.'" Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 106 (1962): 264–98.
- "On the Allegedly Heliocentric Theory of Venus by Heraclides Ponticus." American Journal of Philology 93 (1973): 600–601.
- "Notes on Autolycus." Centaurus 18 (1973): 66–69.
- "Studies in Ancient Astronomy. VIII. The Water Clock in Babylonian Astronomy." Isis, Vol. 37, No. 1/2, pp. 37–43. (May, 1947). JSTOR link. Reprinted in Neugebauer (1983), pp. 239–245 (*).
- (with Richard A. ParkerRichard Anthony ParkerRichard Anthony Parker was a prominent Egyptologist and professor of Egyptology. Originally from Chicago, he attended Mt. Carmel High School with acclaimed author James T. Farrell. He received an A.B. from Dartmouth College in 1930, and a Ph.D. in Egyptology from the University of Chicago in 1938...
) "Egyptian Astronomical Texts: Iii. Decans, Planets, Constellations, and Zodiacs."
Books
- (with Abraham Sachs, eds.). Mathematical Cuneiform Texts. American Oriental Series, vol. 29. New Haven: American Oriental Society, 1945.
- The Exact Sciences in Antiquity. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1952; 2nd edition, Brown University Press, 1957; reprint, New York: Dover publications, 1969. ISBN 978-0486223322
- Astronomical Cuneiform Texts. 3 volumes. London:1956; 2nd edition, New York: Springer, 1983. (Commonly abbreviated as ACT)
- The Astronomical Tables of al-Khwarizmi. Historiskfilosofiske Skrifter undgivet af Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab, Bind 4, nr. 2. Copenhagen: Ejnar Munksgaard, 1962.
- Ethiopic Astronomy and Computus. Wien: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1979.
- A History of Ancient Mathematical Astronomy 3 vols. Berlin: Springer, 1975. (Commonly abbreviated as HAMA)
- Astronomy and History: Selected Essays. New York: Springer, 1983.
External links
- National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoirs V.75 (1998) – Otto E. Neugebauer, pp. 214–239
- Masters of Math, From Old Babylon (November 26, 2010 New York Times article on exhibition honoring Neugebauer)
- Otto Neugebauer – Institute for Advanced Study
- Before Pythagoras: The Culture of Old Babylonian Mathematics – Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University