Numbers: The Universal Language

Numbers: The Universal Language (French: L'empire des nombres, lit. 'The Empire of Numbers') is an illustrated monograph on numbers and their history, published in pocket format by Éditions Gallimard in 1996. Written by the French historian of science Denis Guedj, this work is the 300th volume in the “Découvertes Gallimard” collection[1] (known as "Abrams Discoveries" in the United States, and "New Horizons" in the United Kingdom), and was adapted into a documentary film in 2001, with the same title.[2]

Numbers: The Universal Language
First French edition. The cover featuring a 19th-century engraving of anthropomorphic numbers.
AuthorDenis Guedj
Original titleL'empire des nombres
TranslatorLory Frankel
Cover artistAnonymous
CountryFrance
LanguageFrench
Series
Release number
300th in collection
GenreNonfiction monograph
Publisher
Publication date
18 November 1996
Published in English
1997 (US)
1998 (UK)
Media typePrint (paperback)
Pages176 pp.
ISBN978-2-0705-3373-2 (first edition)
OCLC910594391
Preceded byL'Art et la Science : L'esprit des chefs-d'œuvre 
Followed byLa guerre d'Algérie : Histoire d'une déchirure 

Introduction
From left: US and UK editions. The covers featuring the ten digits interpreted by the computer artist Julio Bravo, 1997.

The book is part of the Sciences et techniques series (formerly belonging to Sciences series) in the "Découvertes Gallimard" collection. It is a work of popularisation of mathematics, it uses simple language to describe the basics of numbers—arithmetic, integer, natural number, concepts of zero and infinity—as well as how numbers and their symbolism came to be used in art and other disciplines.

According to the tradition of "Découvertes", this collection is based on an abundant pictorial documentation and a way of bringing together visual documents and texts, enhanced by printing on coated paper; in other words, "genuine monographs, published like art books".[3] It's almost like a "graphic novel", replete with colour plates.

Contents

The book opens with a "trailer" (pp. 1–9), that is, a series of full-page photographs showing The Powers of Ten. The body text is divided into seven chapters: 1, "How Many?" (pp. 13–23); 2, "From Numbers to Figures" (pp. 25–43); 3, "Positional Notation" (pp. 45–59); 4, "Natural Numbers" (pp. 61–77); 5, "The Universe Expands" (pp. 79–103); 6, "From Zero to Infinity" (pp. 105–121); 7, "The Impossible Definition" (pp. 123–127).

The second part of the book, the "Documents", containing a compilation of excerpts divided into nine parts: 1, Counting (pp. 130–131); 2, Against Pythagoras, Against Zeno (pp. 132–135); 3, Numbers and religion (pp. 136–137); 4, Numbers, philosophy, and poetry (pp. 138–141); 5, The science of measurement (pp. 142–145); 6, The abacus and calculator (pp. 146–147); 7, Music and mathematics (pp. 148–151); 8, Number and psychology (pp. 152–155); 9, The wit and wisdom of numbers (pp. 156–163). They are followed by an "amusing puzzle" (p. 164), a "Glossary" (pp. 165–167), "Chronology" (pp. 168–170), "Further Reading" (p. 170), "List of Illustrations" (pp. 171–173) and "Index" (pp. 173–174).

Reception

On Babelio, the book gets an average of 3.0/5 based on 11 ratings.[4] Goodreads reported, based on 66 ratings, an average of 3.61 out of 5,[5] indicating "generally positive opinions".

Adaptation

In 2001, in co-production with La Sept-Arte and Trans Europe Film, in collaboration with Éditions Gallimard and CNRS Images Média, made the documentary adaptation of L'empire des nombres under the same title, directed by Philippe Truffault, with voice-over narration by Denis Guedj himself. The film was broadcast on Arte as part of the television programme The Human Adventure,[2][6] and released on DVD by Arte vidéo, with English dubbed audio.[7] It has also been dubbed into German by the title Im Reich der Zahlen.[8]

See also

References
  1. "L'empire des nombres, Collection Découvertes Gallimard (n° 300), Série Sciences et techniques". gallimard.fr (in French). Retrieved 7 December 2020.
  2. "L'Aventure humaine — L'empire des nombres" (PDF). pro.arte.tv (in French). 2001. Retrieved 29 November 2020.
  3. Garcia, Daniel (1 November 2005). "L'invention des Découvertes". lexpress.fr (in French). Retrieved 29 November 2020. De véritables monographies, éditées comme des livres d'art.
  4. "L'Empire des nombres". babelio.com (in French). Retrieved 29 November 2020.
  5. "Numbers: The Universal Language". goodreads.com. Retrieved 29 November 2020.
  6. "L'empire des nombres 2001". florilege-maths.fr (in French). 2001. Retrieved 29 November 2020.
  7. "L'Empire des Nombres (DVD)". amazon.com. Retrieved 29 November 2020.
  8. "Im Reich der Zahlen". programm.ard.de (in German). 10 March 2012. Retrieved 29 November 2020.
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