History
The theory of modular forms was developed in three or four periods: first in connection with the theory of elliptic functions, in the first part of the nineteenth century; then by Felix Klein and others towards the end of the nineteenth century as the automorphic form concept became understood (for one variable); then by Erich Hecke from about 1925; and then in the 1960s, as the needs of number theory and the formulation of the modularity theorem in particular made it clear that modular forms are deeply implicated.
The term modular form, as a systematic description, is usually attributed to Hecke.
Read more about this topic: Modular Form
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