Abstract

The edition of the correspondence of John Wallis has had a relatively long and varied history, being conceived originally by Christoph J. Scriba as a small companion volume of those letters of the great Oxford mathematician that had not already appeared elsewhere, in publications such as the Correspondence of Isaac Newton or the Œuvres complètes de Christiaan Huygens. In this chapter, the author charts the evolution of the Wallis Edition from those initial plans through to the major critical edition that is now in progress. Drawing on Scriba’s own letters and papers, he argues that the history of the Wallis Edition mirrors changes that have taken place in the nature and outlook of the history of mathematics itself; changes on which Scriba reflected intensely during his lifetime and to which he contributed both through his writings and his historiographical practice.