Michel CHASLES (1793-1880) mathematician.... - Lot 187 - Ader

Michel CHASLES (1793-1880) mathematician. L.A.S., Chartres 23 July 1841, to M. Desgranges, former professor of mathematics; 3 pages in-4, address. A small L.A.S. is attached to a confrere (9 February 1860), and its ex-libris engraved by L. Bénard. Plus an l.s. from Philarète Chasles, Versailles July 1859, to the editor of Le Figaro, about Étienne Dolet. He has most of the works on his list, but would gladly take those by Kepler, Clavius, Peletier du Mans and Prestel. "Did Diophante solve his 3rd degree equation a priori? Is it necessary to conclude from this fact that he possessed the algebraic resolution of his equations, and to believe that it could be questioned in his 6 or 7 books which unfortunately did not reach us. This historical point is delicate and very important. Around the eleventh century (the vulgar era) our ten numbers were given names which were hardly in use for more than a century and which we soon lost the memory of; here they are: igin, andras, ormis, arbos, quimas, caletis, zenis, temenias, celentis, and dipos "... Some of these words are Hebrew and Chaldean, but the meaning of the others " is a matter for orientalists such as you. ...there is no record of the introduction of these words into our arithmetic in the Middle Ages, which is somewhat mysterious....