Algebraic geometry is, loosely speaking, concerned with the study of zero sets of polynomials (over an algebraically closed field). As one often reads in prefaces of int- ductory books on algebraic geometry, it is not so easy to develop the basics of algebraic geometry without a proper knowledge of commutative algebra. On the other hand, the commutative algebra one needs is quite difficult to understand without the geometric motivation from which it has often developed. Local analytic geometry is concerned with germs of zero sets of analytic functions, that is, the study of such sets in the...