Abstract
The history of mathematics is an abundant field for making surprising discoveries. Some luck is necessary, but whereas the literary tradition has been extensively explored by scholars, finding a nugget in the history of mathematics is not so difficult as turning up a new fragment by Jane Austen, or a lost piece by Mozart. In my case I struck lucky in the theory of matrices.As is well known, the theory of matrices arose during the 1850s – a useful benchmark is the publication of Arthur Cayley's celebrated memoir of 1858, A memoir on the theory of matrices, a paper which generations of mathematicians have taken as signalling the beginning of matrix theory. Even today the opening paragraphs serve as a useful introduction to the subject.
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