When I was a student, I learned from some of my teachers that Abel submitted an important part of his work to Cauchy, as a member of the "Académie des Sciences de Paris". But Cauchy hid it in a drawer of his office. Abel's work was discovered longtime after. How much of this is true? What is exactly Abel's work (hidden by Cauchy)?
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The story is described on page 320 of E.T Bell's Men of Mathematics. The work is Abel's Memoir on a general property of a very extensive class of transcendental functions, presented to the Paris Academy of Sciences in 1826. The memoir contains what has come to be known as Abel's theorem. Legendre and Cauchy were appointed as referees. Legendre complained about the poor quality of the manuscript: "ink almost white, letters badly formed" [however, see my comment below]. Cauchy would ask Abel for a better copy, but apparently this did not happen. Abel died in 1829 and in 1830 a revolution broke out in France. When Cauchy followed the king into exile, the manuscript remained behind and was forgotten. It was not published until 1841, after the Norwegian consul in Paris raised an inquiry.
There is an intriguing follow-up to this story: Abel’s manuscript disappeared again a short time after it was printed. Most of it was found in recent years in Florence, as described by Andrea Del Centina in Abel’s manuscripts in the Libri collection: Their history and their fate (2002).
microfiche image of the first page of Abel's 1826 memoir.
It does seem quite legible actually, perhaps Legendre's explanation that he had rejected the manuscript because it was illegible (in a letter to Jacobi in 1829) was just an excuse three years later for having neglected his duties as referee.
answered May 13, 2017 at 20:09
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8$\begingroup$ I don't know anything about this particular case, but Bell's book, while very entertaining, is not held in high regard as a historical source. $\endgroup$ Commented May 13, 2017 at 23:38
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2$\begingroup$ @Gerry Myerson: Bell's book was much criticized, but the facts like this he tells are correct. $\endgroup$ Commented May 14, 2017 at 6:37
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4$\begingroup$ @GerryMyerson --- Del Centina's 2002 article seems well researched and matches Bell's earlier account; the role played by the French revolution in July 1830, with Cauchy fleeing in exile, is not mentioned by Bell, and helps to explain why Cauchy lost track of the manuscript for a decade. $\endgroup$ Commented May 14, 2017 at 6:57