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Mazzotti has written a fascinating case study of 'mathematical resistance' in late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Naples. On the most fundamental level, the book's exploration of 'mathematics as politics' observes the reciprocal interactions between the mathematical imagination of historical actors and their sociopolitical circumstances. Mazzotti's keen attention to the political actors themselves tells a very human story of mathematics, and of the events and changes that led to the development of this seemingly quixotic Neapolitan resistance to mathematical modernity. -- Sean Cocco, Trinity College A landmark account of Neapolitan reactionary mathematics in context that contributes insightfully to the histories of Naples, reaction, and mathematics in their separate and interacting respects. -- Michael Barany, University of Edinburgh

Mazzotti offers us a superbly crafted historical study of the interweaving of mathematics, politics, religion, social order, and even olive-oil presses in the Kingdom of Naples around 1800. This gives him a distinctive, striking platform from which to address big questions: the relationship between science and politics, the connections between mathematics and modernity, and how we should understand mathematics's past. -- Donald MacKenzie, University of Edinburgh Mazzotti has written a fascinating case study of 'mathematical resistance' in late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Naples. On the most fundamental level, the book's exploration of 'mathematics as politics' observes the reciprocal interactions between the mathematical imagination of historical actors and their sociopolitical circumstances. Mazzotti's keen attention to the political actors themselves tells a very human story of mathematics, and of the events and changes that led to the development of this seemingly quixotic Neapolitan resistance to mathematical modernity. -- Sean Cocco, Trinity College A landmark account of Neapolitan reactionary mathematics in context that contributes insightfully to the histories of Naples, reaction, and mathematics in their separate and interacting respects. -- Michael Barany, University of Edinburgh

Mazzotti offers us a superbly crafted historical study of the interweaving of mathematics, politics, religion, social order, and even olive oil presses in the Kingdom of Naples around 1800. This gives him a distinctive, striking platform from which to address big questions: the relationship between science and politics, the connections between mathematics and modernity, and how we should understand mathematics' past. -- Donald MacKenzie, University of Edinburgh Mazzotti has written a fascinating case study of 'mathematical resistance' in late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Naples. On the most fundamental level, the book's exploration of 'mathematics as politics' observes the reciprocal interactions between the mathematical imagination of historical actors and their sociopolitical circumstances. Mazzotti's keen attention to the political actors themselves tells a very human story of mathematics, and of the events and changes that led to the development of this seemingly quixotic Neapolitan resistance to mathematical modernity. -- Sean Cocco, Trinity College A landmark account of Neapolitan reactionary mathematics in context that contributes insightfully to the histories of Naples, reaction, and mathematics in their separate and interacting respects. -- Michael Barany, University of Edinburgh

“Mazzotti offers us a superbly crafted historical study of the interweaving of mathematics, politics, religion, social order, and even olive oil presses in the Kingdom of Naples around 1800. This gives him a distinctive, striking platform from which to address big questions: the relationship between science and politics, the connections between mathematics and modernity, and how we should understand mathematics’ past.” -- Donald MacKenzie, University of Edinburgh “Mazzotti has written a fascinating case study of ‘mathematical resistance’ in late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Naples. On the most fundamental level, the book’s exploration of ‘mathematics as politics’ observes the reciprocal interactions between the mathematical imagination of historical actors and their sociopolitical circumstances. Mazzotti’s keen attention to the political actors themselves tells a very human story of mathematics, and of the events and changes that led to the development of this seemingly quixotic Neapolitan resistance to mathematical modernity.” -- Sean Cocco, Trinity College “A landmark account of Neapolitan reactionary mathematics in context that contributes insightfully to the histories of Naples, reaction, and mathematics in their separate and interacting respects.” -- Michael Barany, University of Edinburgh

Author Information

Massimo Mazzotti is professor of history of science in the Department of History at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of The World of Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Mathematician of God and the coeditor of Algorithmic Modernity: Mechanizing Thought and Action, 1500–2000.

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