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In 1874, Georg Cantor published an article in Crelle's journal in which he demonstrated that there were no more rational numbers than integers, but that, on the other hand, there were more real numbers than integers. This article was revolutionary because, for the first time, infinity was considered not as an unattainable limit but as a possible object of investigation. The descendants of this article were extraordinary: not only did it mark the birth of set theory - which, in fact, is a theory of infinity - but it already contained the germ of the problem of the continuum that occupied the entire end of Cantor's life and was and continues to be the driving force behind the development of this theory. Once the object of an unreasonable fascination based on a pure misunderstanding, it is today largely unknown, having fallen into an undeserved oblivion that is not without recalling the fatal fate of its creator. Conference of the cycle “A text, a mathematician” of the Mathematical Society of France. March 18, 2009 at the National Library of France.