Mathematician:Pierre de Carcavi
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Mathematician
French mathematician who was also a secretary of the National Library of France under Louis XIV.
Noted for his correspondence with Pierre de Fermat, Blaise Pascal, Christiaan Huygens, Galileo Galilei, Marin Mersenne, Evangelista Torricelli and René Descartes.
A member of the informal Académie Parisienne.
His birth date is uncertain. The Académie des Sciences gives $1603$ but historians generally seem to prefer $1600$.
Nationality
French
History
- Born: 1603 or possibly 1600 (uncertain) in Lyon, France
- 1632: Set up by his father as a counsellor to the parliament of Toulouse, where he met Pierre de Fermat.
- 1636: Bought an office of counsellor in the Grand Conseil in Paris, with the aid of his father
- February 1638: Eloped with and married Louise de Chaponay
- 1648: Forced to sell office to pay for debts of his bankrupt father
- September 1648: Death of Marin Mersenne
- 1648: Obtain a post with Roger du Plessis, the Duke of Liancourt
- 1663: Took on job of cataloguing Cardinal Mazarin's library
- 1666: Elected to Académie des Sciences
- Died: April 1684 in Paris, France
Also known as
The name Carcavi can also be seen spelled Carcavy.
Sources
- John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson: "Pierre de Carcavi": MacTutor History of Mathematics archive
- 1937: Eric Temple Bell: Men of Mathematics ... (previous) ... (next): Chapter $\text{IV}$: The Prince of Amateurs