Reviel Netz (

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

: רויאל נץ; born January 2, 1968) is an Israeli scholar of the history of pre-modern

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

, who is currently a professor of

classics Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

and of

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

Life and work

Netz was born January 2, 1968, in Tel Aviv, Israel to Israeli author and Yoel Netz, a

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''trans ...

of Russian classics. From 1983 to 1992, Netz studied at the

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) is a Public university, public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Located in northwest Tel Aviv, the university is the center of teaching and ...

, obtaining a B.A. in Ancient History and an M.A. in History and the Philosophy of Science; from 1993 to 1995 studied

at Christ College,

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, where he obtained his doctorate in 1995. From 1996 to 1999 Netz worked as a post-doctoral research fellow at

Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Gonville and Caius College, commonly known as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348 by Edmund Gonville, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and ...

, and concurrently in 1998 and 1999 worked as a post-doctoral fellow at MIT. In the fall of 1999 he took a position as an assistant professor in the

Department of Classics, where he continues to teach and publish. Netz is married to Maya Arad, an Israeli writer who is widely considered "the foremost Hebrew writer outside Israel". The couple has two daughters. Netz's major research interests include the wider issues of the history of cognitive practices; for example the history of the book, visual culture, literacy and numeracy. He is the author of a number of works in field, including volumes I and II of '' The Archimedes Palimpsest''. He also co-authored ''The Archimedes Codex'' with William Noel on the same subject matter, but oriented towards a public audience which received the Neumann Prize, as well as several works published by the

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

, including ''The Shaping of Deduction in Greek Mathematics: a Study in Cognitive History'' (1999, Runciman Award), ''The Transformation of Early Mediterranean Mathematics: From Problems to Equations'' (2004), ''Ludic Proof: Greek Mathematics and the Alexandrian Aesthetic'' (2009), ''Scale, Space, and Canon in Ancient Literary Culture'' (2020), and ''A New History of Greek Mathematics'' (2022). In 2014 he was awarded the Commandino Medal at the Urbino University for his contributions to the history of science. Netz has also appeared as a subject matter expert on PBS's Nova concerning ancient mathematics.PBS Nova: Working with Infinity
/ref> In addition to his work on the history of mathematics, Netz has published some Hebrew poetry, including "Adayin Baḥutz" in 1999 as well as "Quatrains" in 2014.

Selected publications

*''The Shaping of Deduction in Greek Mathematics: A Study in Cognitive History'', Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999, . *''The Works of Archimedes: Translation and Commentary, Vol. I: The Two Books "On The Sphere and the Cylinder"'', Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004 and 2009 . *''Barbed Wire: an Ecology of Modernity'', Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2007, . *With William Noel, ''The Archimedes Codex: Revealing the Secrets of the World's Greatest Palimpsest'', London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2007, . *''The Transformation of Mathematics in the Early Mediterranean World: from Problems to Equations'', Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007 . *''Ludic Proof: Greek Mathematics and the Alexandrian Aesthetic'', Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009, . *Editor, with William Noel, Natalie Tchernetska, and Nigel Wilson, ''The Archimedes Palimpsest Vol. I: Catalogue and Commentary'', Cambridge:

, 2011, . *Editor, with William Noel et al., ''The Archimedes Palimpsest Vol. II: Facsimile and Transcription'', Cambridge University Press, 2011, . *''The Works of Archimedes: Translation and Commentary, Vol. 2: "On Spirals"'', Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017, . * "Scale, Space and Canon in Ancient Literary Culture", Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020 . *''A New History of Greek Mathematics'', Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022, . * ''Why the Ancient Greeks Matter: The Problematic Miracle that was Greece'', Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2025, .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Netz, Reviel 1968 births Living people Stanford University faculty Israeli classical scholars Historians of mathematics Israeli philologists Stanford University Department of Classics faculty Tel Aviv University alumni Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge Scholars of ancient Greek history 20th-century Israeli historians 21st-century Israeli historians Israeli people of Romanian-Jewish descent Runciman Award winners