Peano is typically credited with giving the first abstract definition of a vector space (1888):


<http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/HistTopics/Abstract_linear_spaces.html>


Apparently, Peano credits Möbius, Grassmann, and Hamilton for inspiring the idea. However, I recall reading somewhere that there was an earlier and independent definition, not mentioned by Peano. (Maybe it was Dedekind?)


Does anyone know what I'm talking about?



Historical precursor for Peano's axioms of a linear space?
Before Peano (1888), a more limited notion of vector space over the reals was axiomatized by 
Gaston Darboux (1875), in
*[Sur la composition des forces en statiques](http://archive.numdam.org/ARCHIVE/BSMA/BSMA_1875__9_/BSMA_1875__9__281_1/BSMA_1875__9__281_1.pdf)*.


This early history is discussed by Gregory Moore, [The axiomatization of linear algebra: 1875-1940](http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/hmat.1995.1025)



> 
> An earlier approach to axiomatizing
>  vectors emerged from the work of
>  Gaston Darboux. In 1875 he published
>  an article analyzing various proofs of
>  the composition of forces in statics
>  (i.e., the parallelogram law),
>  beginning with one due to Daniel
>  Bernoulli in 1726. Darboux set himself
>  the task of treating this matter in
>  pure geometry and then determining
>  which assumptions are necessary.
> 
> 
> 


