The Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler (1707-1783) made important original contributions to every branch of mathematics studied in his day.

The son of a clergyman, Leonhard Euler, was born in Basel on April 15, 1707. He graduated from the University of Basel in 1724. In 1727 Catherine I invited him to join the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, Russia; he became professor of physics in 1730 and professor of mathematics in 1733. In 1741 Frederick the Great called him to Berlin. Euler was director of mathematics at the Academy of Sciences there until 1766, when he returned to St. Petersburg, as director of the academy. Soon after his return to St. Petersburg, Euler became blind but continued to dictate books and papers. In 1776, having lost his first wife, he married his sister-in-law. Euler died in St. Petersburg on Sept. 7, 1783.

Analysis and the Calculus

Euler's textbooks presented all that was known of mathematics in a clear and...