History of mathematics

See History of mathematics. For a briefer overview of some of the actors in that history:

Value

One definition

Ideally, the history of mathematics will provide us with words to define concepts in such a way that we don’t need to reinvent words for something that has already been created.

Cost

Author existence

Does it matter if Euclid was a real person? He’s defined by his work (the Elements) and he has been effectively reduced (compressed) to what he wrote and what was written about him. His name has essentially become an anchor to his work.

With this assumption, you also don’t care about Gauss, but Disquisitiones Arithmeticae. If you’re interested in someone in particular, find an enumerative bibliography centered on them (see e.g. Leonhard Euler § Selected bibliography). See also WTW for an author’s entire works.