The ebook Leçons de Géométrie Supérieure (Lectures on Higher Geometry) by Ernest Vessiot comprises notes in French from a one-year differential geometry course offered in 1905–1906. The book starts with the local shape of space curves, close to a modern course, and includes material that is still standard in a one-semester introduction, such as curves on surfaces, normal sections, extrinsic and intrinsic curvature. There is also less standard material, such as families of lines and spheres, nowadays encountered in algebraic geometry or differential systems. The mathematics will appear at least partly familiar to anyone who has studied differential geometry since the mid-20th century, and may therefore be useful for secondary reasons, such as learning to read French.
This ebook was produced at Distributed Proofreaders (DP) in collaboration with Laura Wisewell, Pierre Lacaze, and many other volunteers. Although Dr. Wisewell’s time did not overlap my time at DP, I can say from extensive first-hand observation that she was a dedicated, prolific, passionate, and technically expert DP community member, Content Provider, and Project Manager, particularly for mathematics books. She was valuable and valued. She is deeply missed.
In this era of history when powers openly and shamefully treat life as having no value but monetary, Dr. Wisewell and so many others remind us all that true greatness is precious, perilously fragile, and irreplaceable.