École Polytechnique (, ; also known as Polytechnique or l'X ) is a ''grande école'' located in Palaiseau, France. It specializes in science and engineering and is a founding member of the Polytechnic Institute of Paris. The school was founded in 1794 by mat ...

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Jacobin Club The Society of the Friends of the Constitution (), renamed the Society of the Jacobins, Friends of Freedom and Equality () after 1792 and commonly known as the Jacobin Club () or simply the Jacobins (; ), was the most influential List of polit ...

Condorcet Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas de Caritat, Marquis of Condorcet (; ; 17 September 1743 – 29 March 1794), known as Nicolas de Condorcet, was a French philosopher, political economist, politician, and mathematician. His ideas, including suppo ...

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Monge Gaspard Monge, Comte de Pelusium, Péluse (; 9 May 1746 – 28 July 1818) was a French mathematician, commonly presented as the inventor of descriptive geometry, (the mathematical basis of) technical drawing, and the father of differential geom ...

Lagrange Joseph-Louis Lagrange (born Giuseppe Luigi LagrangiaConvention : in charge with

Monge Gaspard Monge, Comte de Pelusium, Péluse (; 9 May 1746 – 28 July 1818) was a French mathematician, commonly presented as the inventor of descriptive geometry, (the mathematical basis of) technical drawing, and the father of differential geom ...

and

Lagrange Joseph-Louis Lagrange (born Giuseppe Luigi LagrangiaGrandes Ecoles Grandes may refer to: *Agustín Muñoz Grandes, Spanish general and politician *Banksia ser. Grandes, a series of plant species native to Australia * Grandes y San Martín, a municipality located in the province of Ávila, Castile and León, Spain ...

''"), in charge to evaluate "war weapons" and to conduct experiments on "projectiles shapes". In 1794, he attended a "representative of the nation" in a survey of "coal mines and weapons manufactures". The general inspector Monnet () met him during this mission and left a description of him in a memoir : " an extremely exalted head...and a witty person that never lacks of presence of mind ".

1795-1804 : creation of the library of the École Polytechnique

He is appointed in April 1795 librarian of the

École polytechnique (, ; also known as Polytechnique or l'X ) is a ''grande école'' located in Palaiseau, France. It specializes in science and engineering and is a founding member of the Polytechnic Institute of Paris. The school was founded in 1794 by mat ...

(official name since September 1795). According to Albert de Rochas he made an excellent work, the library being the place to be in Paris for science research as from 1803. In less than 10 years, he had purchased as librarian approximately ten thousand books. He is also in charge of publishing the Journal of the school. And he starts (likely pushed by

Monge Gaspard Monge, Comte de Pelusium, Péluse (; 9 May 1746 – 28 July 1818) was a French mathematician, commonly presented as the inventor of descriptive geometry, (the mathematical basis of) technical drawing, and the father of differential geom ...

) the work for which he will have an international recognition : the gathering and the "proper" translation of ancient Greek mathematical works. But his exalted, hot-tempered personality, his administrative indiscipline, his unusual way of life (he lives with his mistress), his permanent conflicts with the personnel are a problem for the direction. Guyton de Morveau drives him out from his apartment of the Hotel Lassay in 1803 for "lack of social propriety", claiming that he was "the scandal of the house" . In 1804,

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

imposes a military status to the school and the new governor, general Lacuée, determined to eliminate any trouble-maker, dismissed him in October 1804. He wrote a 54 pages memoir to disculp himself, that was analysed by Janis Langins, in a tribute from the

École polytechnique (, ; also known as Polytechnique or l'X ) is a ''grande école'' located in Palaiseau, France. It specializes in science and engineering and is a founding member of the Polytechnic Institute of Paris. The school was founded in 1794 by mat ...

's Library Historical Society (SABIX).

1805 and after

Probably under the recommendation of

Monge Gaspard Monge, Comte de Pelusium, Péluse (; 9 May 1746 – 28 July 1818) was a French mathematician, commonly presented as the inventor of descriptive geometry, (the mathematical basis of) technical drawing, and the father of differential geom ...

, he was appointed professor of ''Mathématiques spéciales'' in 1805 at the

Lycée Condorcet The Lycée Condorcet () is a secondary school in Paris, France, located at 8, rue du Havre, in the city's 9th arrondissement. Founded in 1803, it is one of the four oldest high schools in Paris and also one of the most prestigious. Since its inc ...

(Lycée Bonaparte at that time), one of the four lycées recently created in the French capital. Supported by the French Institute ("

Institut de France The ; ) is a French learned society, grouping five , including the . It was established in 1795 at the direction of the National Convention. Located on the Quai de Conti in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, the institute manages approximately ...

") and many of the mathematicians he met, he continued his work on Greek geometry, which is now considered one of the major achievements in the history of science during the Napoleonic period. His later career was difficult. He wrote in the foreword of the third part of the ''

Euclid's Elements The ''Elements'' ( ) is a mathematics, mathematical treatise written 300 BC by the Ancient Greek mathematics, Ancient Greek mathematician Euclid. ''Elements'' is the oldest extant large-scale deductive treatment of mathematics. Drawing on the w ...

'' that the loss of his daughter and granddaughter prevented him from working. The Bourbon Restoration depressed the republican activist he was. He died in 1822 at Hôpital Saint-Louis, a place reserved for destitute people.

Work

Mathematical works

As a mathematician, his main contributions are translations of Euclidean geometry due to his great skills in Greek, Latin, and mathematics. His translations of ''

Euclid's Elements The ''Elements'' ( ) is a mathematics, mathematical treatise written 300 BC by the Ancient Greek mathematics, Ancient Greek mathematician Euclid. ''Elements'' is the oldest extant large-scale deductive treatment of mathematics. Drawing on the w ...

'' are still considered as the best existing in French. In 1798, he published a revised and augmented version of Bézout's lessons ''Cours de mathématiques, à l'usage de la marine et de l'artillerie''. It was reprinted continuously till 1836. He provided a version of the

Archimedes Archimedes of Syracuse ( ; ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek Greek mathematics, mathematician, physicist, engineer, astronomer, and Invention, inventor from the ancient city of Syracuse, Sicily, Syracuse in History of Greek and Hellenis ...

’s complete opus in 1807. His masterpiece, however, was his edition of ''

Euclid's Elements The ''Elements'' ( ) is a mathematics, mathematical treatise written 300 BC by the Ancient Greek mathematics, Ancient Greek mathematician Euclid. ''Elements'' is the oldest extant large-scale deductive treatment of mathematics. Drawing on the w ...

'' which he claimed to have made "during his leisure time at Polytechnique". In 1808, he was the first to identify a previously unknown Euclidean manuscript called ''Vaticanus graecus 190'', a missing part of Euclid's works, that he dug out of

Napoléon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led a series of mi ...

’s booty from the

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Geography * Vatican City, an independent city-state surrounded by Rome, Italy * Vatican Hill, in Rome, namesake of Vatican City * Ager Vaticanus, an alluvial plain in Rome * Vatican, an unincorporated community in the ...

. In 1814, he released a revised and definitive edition of the '' Elements'', reviewed by Delambre,

Lagrange Joseph-Louis Lagrange (born Giuseppe Luigi LagrangiaLegendre. He wrote in the foreword of the third volume of his translation of ''

Euclid's Elements The ''Elements'' ( ) is a mathematics, mathematical treatise written 300 BC by the Ancient Greek mathematics, Ancient Greek mathematician Euclid. ''Elements'' is the oldest extant large-scale deductive treatment of mathematics. Drawing on the w ...

'' that he had also achieved the translation of the

Apollonius of Perga Apollonius of Perga ( ; ) was an ancient Greek geometer and astronomer known for his work on conic sections. Beginning from the earlier contributions of Euclid and Archimedes on the topic, he brought them to the state prior to the invention o ...

works, which were never published.

Other works

He wrote a philosophical essay (''Of Nature and its laws'', 1793), translated two books from Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (''Female Preeminence..'' and ''Of the Vanitie and Uncertaintie of Artes and Sciences'') and the overall poetry of

Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 BC – 27 November 8 BC), Suetonius, Life of Horace commonly known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). Th ...

. He is according to Michaud, a contributor to the ''Dictionnaire des Athées anciens et modernes'' ("Dictionary of Ancient and Modern Atheists") of

Sylvain Maréchal Sylvain Maréchal (; 15 August 1750 – 18 January 1803) was a French essayist, poet, philosopher and political theorist, whose views presaged utopian socialism and communism. His views on a future golden age are occasionally described as ''uto ...

.

References

Citations Sources * Janis Langins, ''Histoire de la vie et des fureurs des François Peyrard, Bibliothécaire de l’École polytechnique de 1795 à 1804 et traducteur renommé d’Euclide et d’Archimède'' rchive Bulletin de la SABIX n°3, 198

* Louis-Gabriel Michaud, ''Biographie universelle ancienne et moderne'' - 1843 - Tome 3
wikiwource

Selected publications

* Peyrard, François.

' (Euclid's Elements, Euclidean Geometry) (1804) * Peyrard, François.

'(applied Arithmetics) (1815). * Peyrard, François. Euclid's Elements (complete edition), Paris 1814-1818 (in Greek, Latin and French)
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Peyrard, Francois 1760 births 1822 deaths 19th-century French mathematicians

Biography

Early life

1789-1794 : among the scientists of the French Revolution

1795-1804 : creation of the library of the École Polytechnique

1805 and after

Work

Mathematical works

Other works

References

Selected publications