  In 1841, Ferdinand Minding published ``Ueber die Bestimmung des Grades einer
durch Elimination hervorgehenden Gleichung'' in Crelle's Journal. His main
theorem represents the first (implicit) appearance of the BKK bound (and even
some of its extensions) in the mathematical literature. We present an English
translation of this paper and a commentary which explains how Minding's formula
relates to the mixed area of lattice polygons.
