"From nothing I have created a new different world," wrote Janos Bolyai to his father, Wolgang Bolyai, on November 3, 1823, to let him know his discovery of non-Euclidean geometry, as we call it today. The results of Bolyai and the co-discoverer, the Russian Lobachevskii, changed the course of mathematics, opened the way for modern physical theories of the twentieth century, and had an impact on the history of human culture.


The papers in this volume, which commemorates the 200th anniversary of the birth of Janos Bolyai, were written by leading scientists of non-Euclidean geometry, its history, and its applications. Some of the papers present new discoveries about the life and works of Janos Bolyai and the history of non-Euclidean geometry, others deal with geometrical axiomatics; polyhedra; fractals; hyperbolic, Riemannian and discrete geometry; tilings; visualization; and applications in physics.