page_title: Abraham Gotthelf Kästner
section_title: Work
hierarchical_section_title: Abraham Gotthelf Kästner / Work
caption_attribution_description: Italiano: Frontespizio
context_page_description: Abraham Gotthelf Kästner was a German mathematician and epigrammatist.
  He was known in his professional life for writing textbooks and compiling encyclopedias rather than for original research. Georg Christoph Lichtenberg was one of his doctoral students, and admired the man greatly. He became most well known for his epigrammatic poems. The crater Kästner on the Moon is named after him.
context_section_description: Kaestner became most well known for his poems, which appeared first in print without his consent in 1781 and were notable for their biting humour and sharp irony on different contemporary personalities. They were published in Vermischten Schriften 1 und 2 (Altenburg 1783, 2 volumes), and further poems were published in Gesammelten poetischen und prosaischen schönwissenschaftlichen Werken (Berlin 1841, 4 volumes) and later in Joseph Kürschner's Deutscher Nationalliteratur, volume 73 (hrsg. von Minor; Stuttgart 1883).
  His numerous mathematical writings include Anfangsgründe der Mathematik ("Foundations of Mathematics") (Göttingen 1758-69, 4 volumes; 6th edition 1800) and Geschichte der Mathematik ("History of Mathematics") (Göttingen 1796-1800, 4 volumes). Geschichte der Mathematik is considered an astute work, but lacks a comprehensive overview of all subsections of mathematics.
  He also translated many volumes of the Proceedings of Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences into German, including all volumes of the Proceedings (Handlingar) between 1749 and 1781 and some volumes of New Proceedings (Nya handlingar) from 1784 to 1792.
  He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in April 1789.
caption: De habitu matheseos et physicae ad religionem, 1752
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