Flashy and Over-the-Top

"Qi, bring me something when you come to the hospital." Ou Ye called Shen Qi.

Shen Qi was reading papers in his office. "Sure. What do you need?"

Ou Ye said, "Volume 15 of Gauss's notebooks."

"Huh? You want to read that volume?" Shen Qi was a little surprised. The paper in his hands was the Phillips-Klein edition of volume 15 of Gauss's notebooks.

There were twenty surviving volumes of Gauss's handwritten notebooks in German, all kept by academic institutions in Germany and not for sale. Even Gauss's portrait had appeared on the German mark in circulation from 1989 to 2001. It was clear how deeply Germans respected scientists. Currency in other countries often bore the portraits of kings, queens, or presidents.

Gauss was the founder of the Göttingen School, and Phillips-Klein was an heir to that school.

This was the very Klein who had been driven mad by his good friend Poincare.

After going mad, Phillips-Klein lost his ability to tackle mathematical problems. In his later years, he focused on writing the history of mathematics and translated Gauss's twenty volumes of notes into English, French, Latin, and other languages.

The English edition of Gauss's notebooks, handwritten and translated by Phillips-Klein, passed through several hands before finally being acquired by the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study.

When Shen Qi returned from the United States, he brought back volumes 15 through 18 of the Phillips-Klein English edition of Gauss's notebooks.

The Germans would never hand over Gauss's original notes in any form, and the Klein edition had become an antique by now.

In fact, Gauss's notebooks had long since been published and translated into various languages by publishing houses for sale around the world.

But mathematicians with status, means, a little spare cash, and a sense of romance preferred to collect