François Viète, the Father of Modern Algebra The previous
installment of the History of Science blog examined the role of
Andreas Vesalius as the first modern physician and how he marked
the beginning of the Scientific Revolution. François Viète
(Latinized as Franciscus Vieta) was a mathematician whose claim
to fame arrived fifty years after Vesalius’s instrumental
anatomy text. Viète (1540-1603) of Fontenay-le-Comte, France,
originally studied law at the University of Poitiers. After
graduating in 1560, he worked in law for only four years before
deciding to pursue other fields. Viète spent a few years
tutoring Catherine de Parthenay, the heiress of an influential
French family. In 1570, he left for Paris and began studying the
topics that most interested him: mathematics and astronomy.
Within a year, Viète published a mathematical paper, the first
of many to come. Due to his family’s high status, Viète was
appointed a position in the government of Brittany, a northwest
region of France, by the reigning Char