History of Continued Fractions and Pade Approximants

The history of continued fractions is certainly one of the longest among those of mathematical concepts, since it begins with Euclid''s algorithm for the great­ est common divisor at least three centuries B.C. As it is often the case and like Monsieur Jourdain in Moliere''s "Ie bourgeois gentilhomme" (who was speak­ ing in prose though he did not know he was doing so), continued fractions were use...