Traité des triangles rectangles en nombres, dans lequel plusieurs belles proprietés de ces triangles sont démontrées par de nouveaux principes

by FRENICLE DE BESSY, Bernard

$9,500 · Offered by Biblio

First edition

Paris: Estienne Michallet, 1676. First edition. First edition, very rare, Henry Cavendish's copy, of this early treatise on number theory, containing a number of results Frenicle had probably obtained by correspondence with Fermat. These include the proof of the first case of Fermat's last theorem to be published, the proof being by the 'method of descent' which Fermat invented.. THE FIRST CASE OF FERMAT'S LAST THEOREM TO BE PROVED HENRY CAVENDISH'S COPY. First edition, very rare, Henry Cavendish's copy, of this early treatise on number theory, containing results Frenicle had probably obtained by correspondence with Fermat, including the proof of the first case of Fermat's last theorem to be published. "During the first half of the seventeenth century, mathematical ideas circulated in France, and to some extent throughout Western Europe, via a correspondence network, having its centre in Paris, and with Marin Mersenne (1588-1648) as its driving force. Pierre de Fermat (1601?-1665), lawyer and mathematician living near Toulouse in the south of France, joined this circle in 1636. Bernard Frenicle de Bessy (1605?-1675), astronomer, physician, naturalist, and mathematician from Paris, had first communicated with Mersenne in 1634. It seems to have been mid-1640, however, before they [i.e., Fermat and Frenicle] were corresponding directly with each other, although both parties were using Mersenne as an intermediary earlier that year. Fermat and Frenicle were each interested in the

• Publisher: Estienne Michallet
• Year: 1676
• Edition: First Edition
• Binding: unknown

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