Hermit 'Scribblings' Of Eccentric French Math Genius Unveiled | Juliette Collen

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Juliette Collen -- Phys.org

Sept. 29, 2023

Tens of thousands of handwritten pages by one of the 20th century's greatest mathematicians, Alexander Grothendieck, many of which the eccentric genius penned while living as a hermit, were unveiled in France on Friday.

The unpublished manuscripts, which veer from math to metaphysics, autobiography and even long musings on Satan, offer a unique insight into the enigmatic mind of the French mathematician, according to experts at the Paris library where they were donated.

Grothendieck, who died aged 86 in 2014, is considered by some to have revolutionized the field of mathematics in the way that Einstein did for physics.

His work on algebraic geometry earned him the 1966 Fields Medal, known as the Nobel prize of the math world.

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