Paul Tannery

Paul Tannery ( born December 20 1843 in Mantes- la -Jolie in Yvelines, † November 27, 1904 in Pantin) was a French mathematics and science historian.

Tannery's father was a railway engineer, and the family moved with his construction projects by France. He attended schools in Mantes, Le Mans and Caen and studied from 1860 at the École Polytechnique in Paris, whose Eingangsexamina he graduated with very good grades. In 1863 he left the École Polytechnique and studied at the École d' Applications de Tabacs to work from then on in the tobacco industry. The step was perhaps influenced by his adherence to the positivist philosophy of Auguste Comte, who advocated an organized according to modern scientific methods state. At first he was 1865-1867 in the state tobacco factory in Lille and then in management positions in Paris. During the Franco-German War of 1870/71 he served as an artillery captain. About his brother Jules, he began then to be interested in mathematics, and he took a prolonged illness for in-depth study of ancient languages. His first publications on the history of mathematics appeared in 1874, when he was seconded to supervision to Bordeaux, where he held contacts with the university. In 1877 he was put yourself to Le Havre. He created contacts with the other leading historians of mathematics of his time Jerome Zeuthen, Heiberg and Moritz Cantor, with whom he corresponded (especially with Zeuthen ) By traveling abroad. In 1883 he left for Paris move, where he was able to make more scientific contacts again, had access to libraries and worked extensively on ancient Greek mathematics. 1886 to 1888 he was back in the province in Tonneins and as of 1888 Director of a tobacco factory in Bordeaux. 1890 to 1893 he was back on administrative positions at its headquarters in Paris and from 1893 director of the Tobacco Factory of Pantin, near Paris. A heavy blow for him was when he came away empty in 1903 during the occupation of the vacant Chair of the History of Science at the College de France, despite the unanimous recommendation of the peer review panels. The ministry preferred a history of science much less qualified philosophers. He died shortly thereafter from pancreatic cancer.

His main works are his history of Greek science ( Pour l' histoire de la science Hellene ) and the Greek geometry (La géométrie grecque ) of 1887 and its history of ancient astronomy of 1893 ( Recherches sur l' histoire de l' ancienne astronomy ).

He is the older brother of mathematician Jules Tannery ( 1849-1910 ). In 1881 he married Marie - Alexandrine Prisset who published his works after his death. 1891-1896 he was the works of Fermat out in three volumes. He got also issues of Diophantus of Alexandria ( 2 vols, 1893-1895 ) and was co-editor of the 1897 to 1913 published in twelve volumes works of Descartes.