The Göttingen mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss and the Norwegian astronomer and physicist Christopher Hansteen engaged in a lively correspondence, which lasted from 1832 until Gauss's death in 1855. For the first time, this book offers a critical edition of the surviving letters. A key theme is research on the earth's magnetism, a field within the newly emerging discipline of geophysics.

Karin Reich und Elena Roussanova, Universität Hamburg.