"The true method of foreseeing the future of mathematics is to study its history and its actual state." With these words Henri Poincare began his presentation to the Fourth International Congress of Mathematicians at Rome in 1908. Although Poincare himself never actively pursued the history of mathematics, his remarks have given both historians of mathematics and working mathematicians a valuable methodological guideline, not so much for indulging in improbable prophecies about the future state of mathematics, as for finding in history the origins and moti va tions of contemporary theories,...

"The true method of foreseeing the future of mathematics is to study its history and its actual state." With these words Henri Poincare began his presentation to the Fourth International Congress of Mathematicians at Rome in 1908. Although Poincare himself never actively pursued the history of mathematics, his remarks have given both historians of mathematics and working mathematicians a valuable methodological guideline, not so much for indulging in improbable prophecies about the future state of mathematics, as for finding in history the origins and moti va tions of contemporary theories,...