The first study of icosahedral numbers appears to have been byRené Descartes, around 1630, in hisDe solidorum elementis. Prior to Descartes, figurate numbers had been studied by the ancient Greeks and byJohann Faulhaber, but only forpolygonal numbers,pyramidal numbers, andcubes. Descartes introduced the study of figurate numbers based on thePlatonic solids and somesemiregular polyhedra; his work included the icosahedral numbers. However,De solidorum elementis was lost, and not rediscovered until 1860. In the meantime, icosahedral numbers had been studied again by other mathematicians, includingFriedrich Wilhelm Marpurg in 1774,Georg Simon Klügel in 1808, andSir Frederick Pollock in 1850.[1]
