1685

Wallis's Treatise of Algebra

First publication focusing on algebra

Mathematician John Wallis, perhaps best known as the inventor of the symbol ∞ for infinity and for his eponymous infinite product for π, also wrote about the history and development of algebra in his Treatise of Algebra. In the preface of this work, published in 1685, Wallis credited Thomas Harriot (1560–1621), William Oughtred (1574–1660) and François Viéte (1540–1603) as contributors to the development of algebra as a mathematical discipline.