Episode 1 of 1

Publication of the Prime Paper

When: November 1859
Where: Berlin
Part of: Riemann publishes 'On the Number of Primes Less Than a Given Magnitude'

Riemann published his seminal 9-page paper on the prime-counting function in November 1859, introducing the complex zeta function.

The paper 'Ueber die Anzahl der Primzahlen unter einer gegebenen Grösse' was published in the Monatsberichte der Königlich Preußischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin. It is the only paper Riemann published on number theory. The work studies the prime-counting function using analytic methods, consisting of definitions, heuristic arguments, and sketches of proofs.

Sources

On the Number of Primes Less Than a Given Magnitude Wikipedia, revision of 2026-05-30
Bernhard Riemann Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-12

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