Paul Tannery
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Paul Tannery (20 December 1843 – 27 November 1904) was a French
mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...
and
historian of mathematics The history of mathematics deals with the origin of discoveries in mathematics and the mathematical methods and notation of the past. Before the modern age and the worldwide spread of knowledge, written examples of new mathematical developments ...
. He was the older brother of mathematician
Jules Tannery Jules Tannery (24 March 1848 – 11 December 1910) was a French mathematician, who notably studied under Charles Hermite and was the PhD advisor of Jacques Hadamard. Tannery's theorem on interchange of limits and series is named after him. He ...
, to whose ''Notions Mathématiques'' he contributed an historical chapter. Though Tannery's career was in the
tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...
industry, he devoted his evenings and his life to the study of mathematicians and mathematical development.


Life and career

Tannery was born in
Mantes-la-Jolie Mantes-la-Jolie (, often informally called Mantes) is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region of north-central France. It is located to the west of Paris, from the centre of the capital. Mantes-la-Jolie is a subprefe ...
on 20 December 1843, to a deeply
Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
family. He attended private school in Mantes, followed by the
Lycée In France, secondary education is in two stages: * ''Collèges'' () cater for the first four years of secondary education from the ages of 11 to 15. * ''Lycées'' () provide a three-year course of further secondary education for children between ...
s in Le Mans and
Caen Caen (, ; nrf, Kaem) is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the department of Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inhabitants (), while its functional urban area has 470,000,École Polytechnique École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...
, on whose entrance exam he excelled. His curriculum included mathematics, the sciences, and the classics, all of which would be represented in his future academic work. Tannery's life of public service began as he then entered the École d'Applications des Tabacs as an apprentice engineer. As an assistant engineer, Tannery spent two years in the state tobacco factory at
Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Pref ...
. In 1867, he moved to
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
; three years later, he served as an artillery captain in the Franco-Prussian War. Biographies of Tannery describe him as an ardent patriot and claim that he never fully accepted the humiliating
Treaty of Frankfurt The Treaty of Frankfurt may refer to one of three treaties signed at Frankfurt, as follows: * Treaty of Frankfurt (1489) - Treaty between Maximilian of Austria and the envoys of King Charles VIII of France *Treaty of Frankfurt (1539) - Initiated ...
. After his graduation from the École Polytechnique, Tannery had become interested in
Auguste Comte Isidore Marie Auguste François Xavier Comte (; 19 January 1798 – 5 September 1857) was a French philosopher and writer who formulated the doctrine of positivism. He is often regarded as the first philosopher of science in the modern sense ...
and his positivist philosophy. After the war, his interest in mathematics continued, and Comte's ideas would influence his approach to the study of the history of science. Tannery moved several times with his career in the tobacco industry: to Périgord in 1872, to
Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...
in 1874, to
Le Havre Le Havre (, ; nrf, Lé Hâvre ) is a port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the river Seine on the Channel southwest of the Pays de Caux, very cl ...
in 1877, and to Paris in 1883. Bordeaux had something of an intellectual atmosphere, and though Tannery moved to Le Havre (near his parents, who lived at Caen) at his own request, he would also directly request the move to Paris, where his research and academic pursuits would be able to flourish. It was in Paris that Tannery took on his first two major editorial works. In 1883, he began an edition of
Diophantus Diophantus of Alexandria ( grc, Διόφαντος ὁ Ἀλεξανδρεύς; born probably sometime between AD 200 and 214; died around the age of 84, probably sometime between AD 284 and 298) was an Alexandrian mathematician, who was the aut ...
's manuscripts, and in 1885, he and Charles Henry began an edition of one of
Fermat Pierre de Fermat (; between 31 October and 6 December 1607 – 12 January 1665) was a French mathematician who is given credit for early developments that led to infinitesimal calculus, including his technique of adequality. In particular, he is ...
's works. This work was made possible by access to the
Bibliothèque Nationale A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...
, and so Tannery had to reduce his efforts in 1886 when he was transferred to Tonneins. Even without access to the Bibliothèque, Tannery remained hard at work, however, as he published two books composed of articles he had been writing for the ''
Revue philosophique de la France et de l'étranger The ''Revue philosophique de la France et de l'étranger'' is an academic journal founded by Théodule-Armand Ribot in 1876. It was continued by Lucien Lévy-Bruhl, Emile Bréhier, Paul Masson-Oursel, and Pierre-Maxime Schuhl. Originally publis ...
'' and for the ''Bulletin de sciences mathematiques''. In 1888, Tannery moved back to Bordeaux, where he studied Greek astronomy and directed the tobacco factory. Two years later, he was back in Paris; he would remain near Paris until his death. Despite a heavy professional workload, he continued to be productive in his work in the history of science. His editions of Diophantus and Fermat were published, along with over 250 articles. From 1890 forward, Tannery's other major work focused on a new edition of Descartes's works and correspondence, on which he collaborated with Charles Adam, an historian of modern philosophy. Scandal arose in 1903 when the
Collège de France The Collège de France (), formerly known as the ''Collège Royal'' or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment ('' grand établissement'') in France. It is located in Paris n ...
began a search for a new professor of the history of science. Tannery was considered something of a shoo-in; he even began writing his inaugural lecture. Instead, the position went to Grégoire Wyrouboff, who concentrated on modern mathematicians instead of Tannery's classical and seventeenth-century idols. Wyrouboff was also a freethinker, an asset to the secularist Third Republic, while Tannery was Catholic. Tannery died soon thereafter, on 27 November 1904, in
Pantin Pantin () is a commune in the northeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. In 2019 its population was estimated to be 59,846. Pantin is located on the edge of the city of Paris and is mainly formed by a plain ...
, just outside Paris. His wife, Marie, would survive until 1945, and she published several of his works posthumously, helping to ensure that his legacy would live on. He was an Invited Speaker of the ICM in 1904 in Heidelberg.


Works

* * '' Pour l'histoire de la science hellène'', Paris, Félix Alcan, 1887 (réimpr. Paris, Gauthier-Villars, 1930) * ''Recherches sur l'histoire de l'astronomie ancienne'', Paris, Gauthier-Villars, 1893 * ''Diophantus alexandrinus. Opera Omnia'', 2 vol., Leipzig, B.G. Teubner, 1893-1895 * '' Œuvres de Fermat'', (with Charles Henry), 5 Volumes, Paris, Gauthier-Villars, 1891-1922. * '' Œuvres de Descartes'', (with Charles Adam), Paris, Léopold Cerf, 1897-1909 (2 supplements in 1910 and 1913). * ''Mémoires scientifiques'' (17 vol., Toulouse, Édouard Privat, Paris, Gauthier-Villars, 1912-1950) : :''Sciences exactes dans l'Antiquité'' (Volumes I-III), :''Sciences exactes chez les byzantins'' (Volume IV), :''Sciences exactes au Moyen Âge'' (Volume V), :''Sciences modernes'' (Volume VI), :''Philosophie antique'' (Volume VII), :''Philosophie moderne'' (Volume VIII), :''Philologie'' (Volume IX), :''Généralités historiques'' (Volume X), :''Comptes rendus et analyses'' (Volumes XI-XII), :''Correspondance'' (Volumes XIII-XVI), :''Biographie, Bibliographie, compléments et tables'', (Volume XVII).


See also

* George Johnston Allman * C. A. Bretschneider *
Moritz Cantor Moritz Benedikt Cantor (23 August 1829 – 10 April 1920) was a German historian of mathematics. Biography Cantor was born at Mannheim. He came from a Sephardi Jewish family that had emigrated to the Netherlands from Portugal Portugal, off ...
* J. G. Friedlein * James Gow *
Siegmund Günther Adam Wilhelm Siegmund Günther (6 February 1848 – 3 February 1923) was a German geographer, mathematician, historian of mathematics and natural scientist. Early life Born in 1848 to a German businessman, Günther would go on to attend several G ...
*
Hermann Hankel Hermann Hankel (14 February 1839 – 29 August 1873) was a German mathematician. Having worked on mathematical analysis during his career, he is best known for introducing the Hankel transform and the Hankel matrix. Biography Hankel was born on ...
* J. L. Heiberg *
Friedrich Hultsch Friedrich Otto Hultsch (22 July 1833, Dresden – 6 April 1906, Dresden) was a German classical philologist and historian of mathematics in antiquity. Biography After graduating from the Dresden ''Kreuzschule'', Friedrich Hultsch studied classica ...
*
Gino Loria Gino Benedetto Loria (19 May 1862, Mantua – 30 January 1954, Genoa) was a Jewish-Italian mathematician and historian of mathematics. Loria studied mathematics in Mantua, Turin, and Pavia and received his doctorate in 1883 from the University ...
* Maximilien Marie * J. H. T. Müller * G. H. F. Nesselmann *
Franz Susemihl Franz Susemihl (December 10, 1826 – April 30, 1901) was a German classical philologist born in Laage. He studied ancient languages in Leipzig and Berlin, and from 1848 taught classes at the Domgymnasium in Güstrow. In 1852 he received h ...
*
Hieronymus Georg Zeuthen Hieronymus Georg Zeuthen (15 February 1839 – 6 January 1920) was a Danish mathematician. He is known for work on the enumerative geometry of conic sections, algebraic surfaces, and history of mathematics. Biography Zeuthen was born in Grim ...


References

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Further reading

* * (French) * (French) * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tannery, Paul 1843 births 1904 deaths Amateur mathematicians French historians of mathematics