Euler Committee of the Swiss Academy of Sciences

The original writings of Euler are of great importance today, particularly regarding the history of sciences. Since the beginning, it was planned to integrate all works, as well as letters and manuscripts of Euler in one complete edition: the “Opera Omnia”. The editorial board regulation from 1919 says: “All works from Leonhard Euler, hitherto unseen or already printed, coming from St-Petersburg or elsewhere need to be integrated. This also includes the scientific letters of Euler”.

The Series I-III published since 1911 include the works of Euler in the fields of mathematics (I), of the mechanics and the astronomy (II), as well as of physics and other works (III).

The gathered written correspondence forms the content of the Series IVA and it is planned to integrate the manuscripts in the Series IVB. However, the work on Series IVB was interrupted in 1985, and in 2005, the Euler Committee decided to entirely stop the edition in books format. Instead, it is considered to create a global edition in digital format, which should also include the scans of letters and original manuscripts.

The current planning is scheduled such, that the classical edition of Series I-III and of the book of the Series IVA will include a total of 84 volumes with more than 35’000 pages and should be completed before the end of 2020.

The Euler Committee works in close collaboration with the Center Bernoulli-Euler of the Basel University Library regarding the maintenance and the lasting protection of precious archives. Apart from the completion of the edition, the most important task of the Committee is the construction of a digital platform “Bernoulli-Euler-Online (BEOL)” which should include the entire works of Euler, Bernoulli and their entourage, and which will supply a free access to their research. Without financial support from the SNF, from the SCNAT, from the University of Basel and from private funds, this project would not have been feasible.