The 17th century produced books devoted solely to recreational problems not only in mathematics but frequently in mechanics and natural philosophy as well. The first important contribution was that of the Frenchman Claude-Gaspar Bachet de Méziriac, one of the earliest pioneers in this field, who is remembered for two mathematical works: his Diophanti, the first edition of a Greek text on the theory of numbers (1621), and his Problèmes plaisans et delectables qui se font par les nombres (1612). The latter passed through five editions, the last as late as 1959; it was the forerunner of similar collections of recreations to follow. The emphasis was placed on arithmetic rather than geometric puzzles. Among the outstanding problems given by Bachet were questions involving number bases other than 10; card tricks; watch-dial puzzles depending on numbering schemes; the determination of the smallest set of weights that would enable one to weigh any integral number of pounds from one pound to 40, inclusive; and difficult crossings or ferry problems.

In 1624 a French Jesuit, Jean Leurechon, writing under the pen name of van Etten, published Récréations mathématiques. This volume struck the popular fancy, passing through at least 30 editions before 1700, despite the fact that it was based largely on the work of Bachet, from whom he took the simpler problems, disregarding the more significant portions. Yet it did contain some original work, and it served as a model for others, including Mydorge and Schwenter. The first English edition (1633) bore the title: Mathematicall Recreations, or a Collection of Sundrie Problemes, extracted out of the Ancient and Moderne Philosophers, as Secrets in Nature, and Experiments in Arithmeticke, Geometrie, Cosmographie, Horologographie, Astronomie, Navigation, Musicke, Opticks, Architecture, Staticke, Machanicks, Chimestrie, Waterworkes, Fireworks, etc. Not vulgarly made manifest until this Time . . . . Most of which were written first in Greeke and Latine, lately compiled in French, by HENRY VAN ETTEN Gent. And now delivered in the English Tongue with the Examinations, Corrections, and Augmentations [translated by William Oughtred].

The rising tide of interest was exploited by French mathematicians Claude Mydorge, whose Examen du livre des récréations mathématiques was published in 1630, and Denis Henrion, whose Les Récréations mathématiques avec l’examen de ses problèmes en arithmétique, géométrie, méchanique, cosmographie, optique, catoptrique, etc., based largely upon Mydorge’s book, appeared in 1659. Leurechon’s book, meanwhile, had found its way into Germany: Daniel Schwenter, a professor of Hebrew, Oriental languages, and mathematics, assiduously compiled a comprehensive collection of recreational problems based on a translation of Leurechon’s book, together with many other problems that he himself had previously collected. This work appeared posthumously in 1636 under the title Deliciae Physico-mathematicae oder Mathematische und Philosophische Erquickstunden. Immensely popular, Schwenter’s book was enlarged by two supplementary editions in 1651–53. For some years thereafter Schwenter’s enlarged edition was the most comprehensive treatise of its kind, although in 1641–42 the Italian Jesuit Mario Bettini had issued a two-volume work called Apiaria Universae Philosophiae Mathematicae in Quibus Paradoxa et Nova Pleraque Machinamenta Exhibentur, which was followed in 1660 by a third volume entitled Recreationum Mathematicarum Apiaria Novissima Duodecim . . . . And in 1665 one Johann Mohr in Schleswig published an imitation of Schwenter under the title of Arithmetische Lustgarten.

In England, somewhat belatedly, William Leybourn, a mathematics teacher, textbook writer, and surveyor, in 1694, published his Pleasure with Profit: Consisting of Recreations of Divers Kinds, viz., Numerical, Geometrical, Mechanical, Statical, Astronomical, Horometrical, Cryptographical, Magnetical, Automatical, Chymical, and Historical. The title page further states that the purpose of the book was to “recreate ingenious spirits and to induce them to make farther scrutiny into these sublime sciences, and to divert them from following such vices, to which Youth (in this Age) are so much inclined.” Much of the volume is conventional textbook material, for most of Leybourn’s published works grew out of his teaching.

18th and 19th centuries

The 18th century saw a continuation of this interest. Published in England were volumes by Edward Hatton, Thomas Gent, Samuel Clark, and William Hooper. In 1775 Charles Hutton published five volumes of extracts from the Ladies’ Diary dealing with “entertaining mathematical and poetical parts.” On the Continent there appeared several writers, including: Christian Pescheck, Abat Bonaventura, the Dutch writer Paul Halcken, and Edme-Gilles Guyot’s four volumes of Nouvelles Récréations physiques et mathématiques, etc. (1769, 1786). But by far the outstanding work was that of Jacques Ozanam, the precursor of books to follow for the next 200 years. First published in four volumes in 1694, his Récréations mathématique et physiques went through many editions; based on the works of Bachet, Mydorge, Leurechon, and Schwenter, it was later revised and enlarged by Montucla, then translated into English by Charles Hutton (1803, 1814) and again revised by Edward Riddle (1840, 1844).

The first half of the 19th century produced only a moderate number of lesser writers on mathematical recreations, but the second half of the 19th century witnessed a crescendo of interest, culminating in the outstanding contributions of Édouard Lucas, C.L. Dodgson (Lewis Carroll), and others at the turn of the century. Lucas’ four-volume Récréations mathématiques (1882–94) became a classic. The mathematical recreations of Dodgson included Symbolic Logic and The Game of Logic; Pillow Problems and A Tangled Tale, 2 vol. (1885–95).

20th century

Among the more colourful figures at the turn of the 20th century were two Americans named Sam Loyd, father and son. Tremendously successful in making puzzles, the elder Loyd sold his weekly puzzle column to a national syndicate for years, and, in addition, created or adapted hundreds of mechanical puzzles fashioned of cardboard, wood, and metal that were also financially rewarding. When Loyd II died in 1934 at the age of 60, it was estimated that he had produced at least 10,000 puzzles.

In Germany, Hermann Schubert published Zwölf Geduldspiele in 1899 and the Mathematische Mussestunden (3rd ed., 3 vol.) in 1907–09. Between 1904 and 1920 Wilhelm Ahrens published several works, the most significant being his Mathematische Unterhaltungen und Spiele (2 vol., 1910) with an extensive bibliography.

Among British contributors, Henry Dudeney, a contributor to the Strand Magazine, published several very popular collections of puzzles that have been reprinted from time to time (1917–67). The first edition of W.W. Rouse Ball’s Mathematical Recreations and Essays appeared in 1892; it soon became a classic, largely because of its scholarly approach. After passing through 10 editions it was revised by the British professor H.S.M. Coxeter in 1938; it is still a standard reference.

Outstanding work was that of Maurice Kraitchik, editor of the periodical Sphinx and author of several well-known works published between 1900 and 1942.

About the middle third of the 20th century, there was a gradual shift in emphasis on various topics. Up to that time interest had focussed largely on such amusements as numerical curiosities; simple geometric puzzles; arithmetical story problems; paper folding and string figures; geometric dissections; manipulative puzzles; tricks with numbers and with cards; magic squares; those venerable diversions concerning angle trisection, duplication of the cube, squaring the circle, as well as the elusive fourth dimension. By the middle of the century, interest began to swing toward more mathematically sophisticated topics: cryptograms; recreations involving modular arithmetic, numeration bases, and number theory; graphs and networks; lattices, group theory; topological curiosities; packing and covering; flexagons; manipulation of geometric shapes and forms; combinatorial problems; probability theory; inferential problems; logical paradoxes; fallacies of logic; and paradoxes of the infinite.