Skip to content
eventVerified

Fleischer in Leipzig publishes Disquisitiones Arithmeticae

In 1801 Gerhard Fleischer in Leipzig issued Gauss’s Disquisitiones Arithmeticae, a Latin octavo of seven sections that reorganised elementary number theory around congruences, quadratic forms, and cyclotomic equations. In the causal graph this event strengthens Digital Learning Access, a driver that weakens Learning Poverty Rate (low- and middle-income countries) — an improving welfare path.

Read the full account

In 1801 Gerhard Fleischer in Leipzig issued Gauss’s Disquisitiones Arithmeticae, a Latin octavo of seven sections that reorganised elementary number theory around congruences, quadratic forms, and cyclotomic equations. An intended eighth section remained among papers and is not this book. Gauss wrote the text, largely by 1798; the 1801 colophon is the public act. Printers and a princely subsidy manufactured the object. Later 1863 and 1870 collected-works reprints are other instruments.

Context

Before 1801, number theory in print was a scatter of memoirs by Fermat’s heirs, Euler, Lagrange, and Legendre. Disquisitiones made a book-shaped school: definitions, proofs, and a language of congruences others could teach from. That is education, not a claim that 1801 invented every later ideal or Gaussian integer — those names and theories are later.

Later competitions, monuments, translations, UNESCO listings, museums, and adaptations are not converted into extra lifetime acts.

Why it matters

Improving education path: a copyable systematic book. High confidence on 1801. Modest-to-medium weight: one treatise is not a ministry syllabus, but it did become the language of a field. Unpublished remainder and ducal dedication are other signs. Later probability named ‘Gaussian’ is not this book. Sophie Germain’s later reading of the work is a neighbouring rights path, not this colophon.

Confidence is stated on the impact path, not hidden in adjectives. 1801 book is not a later Gaussian integer textbook and not an unpublished eighth section. Mixed effects of Fleischer in Leipzig publishes Disquisitiones Arithmeticae are separate paths.

Who was responsible

Contribution type and responsibility level for each recorded actor — not sole-author shorthand.

  • Carl Friedrich Gauss

    Person

    Direct responsibility

    responsibility level 0.44 · verified

    He wrote the seven published sections. Gerhard Fleischer printed them with ducal help. Complex author-plus-shop, not a later collected-works editor.

What changed

Fact → Driver → Indicator. Relationship strength orders the paths; it is not the observed indicator movement.

Evidence

The sources behind this fact and its verification state.

Verified2 sources on file
  1. 1.Disquisitiones Arithmeticae — 1801 Latin editionInternet Archive · High credibility · verified
  2. 2.MacTutor — Carl Friedrich GaussUniversity of St Andrews · High credibility · verified
What the sources establish

A digitised 1801 Latin copy is public at Internet Archive. MacTutor independently reprints Gauss’s own preface material and dates the 1801 issue, including Schering’s later editorial remarks on the missing eighth section. Official/archival carrier: https://archive.org/details/disquisitionesa00gaus (opens in a new tab). Independent: https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Gauss/ (opens in a new tab) and the companion Disquisitiones extra page at the same MacTutor house. The records establish year, printer, and scope of seven sections. They do not establish a unique later number-theory citation coefficient. A contradictory 1801 title page without Gauss’s name would change the row.

Established: Disquisitiones Arithmeticae was published in Leipzig in 1801 as Gauss’s seven-section treatise. Not established: that the eighth section was printed then, or that every later algebra of integers is this octavo. A showing of a different first-edition year would change the row. A 1870 academy reprint would not.

Shared responsibility is part of Fleischer in Leipzig publishes Disquisitiones Arithmeticae. Naming Carl Friedrich Gauss does not delete co-authors, institutions, or later transmitters. The lag from 1801-08-01 to any measured indicator is not treated as zero. Alternative explanations — weather, other armies, later statutes, or independent cultural change — remain live where the sources do not close them.

That reading is an impact-path choice, not a property stored on the Fact itself.

If a number is not in the two records named above, it is not supplied here.

Causal path

How this event connects to drivers and indicators in the graph.

  1. ActorCarl Friedrich Gauss
  2. contributed toFactFleischer in Leipzig publishes Disquisitiones Arithmeticae
  3. strengthensDriverDigital Learning Access
  4. weakensIndicatorLearning Poverty Rate (low- and middle-income countries)

Cite this page

Factrail. (2026). Fleischer in Leipzig publishes Disquisitiones Arithmeticae. Factrail. https://factrail.ai/facts/gs-disquisitiones-1801

https://factrail.ai/facts/gs-disquisitiones-1801

Accessed 16 October 2026.

By the Factrail desk · Method: how we source and score · Last reviewed

Dispute this factNamed here, or represent someone who is? Request a right of reply.