64. Some writers give
Charpey as the place and 1492 as the date of his birth, and state that he
died at Canar in 1572. He belonged to the order of St. Anthony, and wrote
chiefly on geometry, exposing the pretenses of Finaeus. His _Opera
geometrica_ appeared at Lyons in 1554, and his _Logistica_ and _De
quadratura circuli libri duo_ at Lyons in 1559.

[51] This is the great French algebraist, Francois Viete (Vieta), who was
born at Fontenay-le-Comte in 1540, and died at Paris, December 13, 1603.
His well-known _Isagoge in artem analyticam_ appeared at Tours in 1591. His
_Opera mathematica_ was edited by Van Schooten in 1646.

[52] This is the _De Rebus mathematicis hactenus desideratis, Libri IIII_,
that appeared in Paris in 1556. For the title page see Smith, D. E., _Rara
Arithmetica_, Boston, 1908, p. 280.

[53] The title is correct except for a colon after _Astronomicum_. Nicolaus
Raimarus Ursus was born in Henstede or Hattstede, in Dithmarschen, and died
at Prague in 1599 or 1600. He was a pupil of Tycho Brahe. He also wrote _De
astronomis hypothesibus_ (1597) and _Arithmetica analytica vulgo Cosa oder
Algebra_ (1601).

[54] Born at Dole, Franche-Comte, about 1550, died in Holland about 1600.
The work to which reference is made is the _Quadrature du cercle, ou
maniere de trouver un quarre egal au cercle donne_, which appeared at Delft
in 1584. Duchesne had the courage of his convictions, not only on
circle-squaring but on religion as well, for he was obliged to leave France
because of his conversion to Calvinism. De Morgan's statement that his real
name is Van der Eycke is curious, since he was French born. The Dutch may
have translated his name when he became professor at Delft, but we might
equally well say, that his real name was Quercetanus or a Quercu.

[55] This was the father of Adriaan Metius (1571-1635). He was a
mathematician and military engineer, and suggested the ratio 355/113 for
[pi], a ratio afterwards published by his son. The ratio, then new to
Europe, had long been known and used in China, having been found by Tsu
Ch'ung-chih (428-499 A.D.).

[56] This was Jost Buergi, or Justus Byrgius, the Swiss mathematician of
whom Kepler wrote in 1627: "Apices logistici Justo Byrgio multis annis ante
editionem Neperianam viam praeiverunt ad hos ipsissimos logarithmos." He
constructed a table of antilogarithms (_Arithmetische und geometrische
Progress-Tabulen_), but it was not published until after Napier'