This entry contributed by Margherita Barile

French historian of mathematics, credited for having initiated the tradition of geometric dissections in Europe. Born in Lyon, he moved to Paris after completing his legal studies in Toulouse, and later settled down in Grenoble as a high-ranked royal administrative official. Throughout his life, he devoted his spare time to the study of original mathematical sources. His most popular work is a revised and enlarged version of J. Ozanam's Récréations Mathématiques et Physiques. In 1754, he completed the treatise Histoire des recherches sur la Quadrature du cercle. The first two volumes of his masterpiece Histoire des Mathématiques appeared in 1758, and a second edition was issued in 1799. The third volume remained uncompleted, and was later completed by J. de Lalande.

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