This volume, the result of monumental editorial work, contains the German text of various lectures on the foundations of geometry, as well as the first edition of Hilbert's Grundlagen der Geometrie, a work we shall refer to as the GdG. The material surrounding the lectures was selected from the Hilbert papers stored in two G?ttingen libraries, based on criteria of relevance to the genesis and the trajectory of Hilbert's ideas regarding the foundations of geometry, the rationale, and the meaning of the foundational enterprise. By its very nature, this material contains additions, crossed-out words or paragraphs, comments in the margin, and all of it is painstakingly documented in notes and appendices. Each piece is preceded by informative introductions in English that highlight the main features worthy of the reader's attention, and place the lectures in historical context, sometimes providing references to subsequent developments. It is thus preferable (but by no means necessary, as the introductions alone, by singling out the main points of interest, amply reward the reader of English only) that the interested reader be proficient in both German and English (French would be helpful as well, as there are a few French quotations), as there are no translations.
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