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Hieronymus Georg Zeuthen

Danish mathematician (1839–1920)

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 29, 2026
Entity authorityQ335116 ↗
Source-derived summary

Hieronymus Georg Zeuthen (15 February 1839 – 6 January 1920) was a Danish mathematician. He is known for work on the enumerative geometry of conic sections, algebraic surfaces, and history of mathematics.

Early life and education

Zeuthen was born in Grimstrup near Varde where his father was a minister. In 1849, his father moved to a church in Sorø where Zeuthen began his secondary schooling. In 1857 he entered the University of Copenhagen to study mathematics and graduated with a master's degree in 1862. Following this he earned a scholarship to study abroad, and decided to visit Paris where he studied geometry with Michel Chasles.

Career

After returning to Copenhagen, Zeuthen submitted his doctoral dissertation on a new method to determine the characteristics of conic systems in 1865. Enumerative geometry remained his focus up until 1875.

In 1871, he was appointed as an extraordinary professor at the University of Copenhagen, as well as becoming an editor of Matematisk Tidsskrift, a position he held for 18 years. For 39 years he served as secretary of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, during which he also lectured at the Polytechnic Institute.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Hieronymus Georg Zeuthen” as danish mathematician (1839–1920). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1839, 1920, 1849, 1857—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1839-02-15. The account is most persuasive where Hieronymus, Georg and Zeuthen can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as danish mathematician (1839–1920). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q335116. VIAF identifies the subject as 2544413. The Library of Congress control number is n84802638. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1839, 1920, 1849 and 1857.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

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  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Hieronymus Georg Zeuthen” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.