From Fermat to Minkowski: Lectures on the Theory of Numbers and Its Historical Development

This book arose from a course of lectures given by the first author during the winter term 1977/1978 at the University of Münster (West Germany). The course was primarily addressed to future high school teachers of mathematics; it was not meant as a systematic introduction to number theory but rather as a historically motivated invitation to the subject, designed to interest the audience in number-theoretical questions and developments. This is also the objective of this book, which is cert...