Alessandro Rosa, An episodic history of the staircased iteration diagram, Antiquitates Mathematicæ 15, 2021, 3–90
Mathematical Reviews, MR4467503
(author’s version)

The paper examines the conceptual origins in the nineteenth century of a tool that became popular in late-twentieth-century discrete dynamics: the cobweb plot, also known as a ladder, staircase, Lémeray, or Koenigs-Lémeray diagram, among a host of other monikers. The author seeks historical insight by recalling two related developments: iteration theory in one real variable, and graphical calculus (or nomography). For the former, he builds on Salvatore Pincherle’s chronological account (Pincherle, 1912), although he neglects consideration of Henri Poincaré’s qualitative theory of differential equations. As for the history of graphical calculus, the author is inspired essentially by the writings of the historian of mathematics Dominique Tournès (2000). From a theoretical standpoint, dialogue between the two narrative prongs is sparse and rather barren, and while the individual episodes on offer are richly illustrated and legible in general, the paper suffers from a slew of grammatical and typographical errors.