Condorcet and Borda in 1784. Misfits and Documents

This issue on the history of social mathematics is a fine occasion for promoting the digital library accumulated by the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris (www.gallica.fr) and for displaying beyond the circles of Condorcetian erudition the Condorcet-Borda file related to the mathematics of elections. The two names are well known. Their works, associated with the years 1781 (Borda) and 1784 (Condorcet), are often mentioned, but are less well known. (See Iain McLean’s and Arnold Urken’s articles in this issue for the latest commentaries on this matter.) Some fables also run through the collective memory of science. Some authors have commented upon the near-coincidence of the two dates of publication and the physical proximity of the two academicians who were both at the Paris Academy of Sciences. Some have imagined a dialogue, if not a controversy. Studies published during the two last decades provide some insight into this seeming connection.