The essays offer a unified and comprehensive view of 17th century mathematical and metaphysical disputes over status of infinitesimals, particularly the questio

A rigorous, axiomatically formulated presentation of the 'zero-square', or 'nilpotent' infinitesimal.

On August 10, 1632, five leading Jesuits convened in a sombre Roman palazzo to pass judgment on a simple idea: that a continuous line is composed of distinct an