of his own. The same books were afterwards published in Greek and Latin at Paris in 1G2I, by Bachet, an ingenious and learned Frenchman, who made a new Latin version
He wrote thirteen books of arithmetic, or algebra, which, Regiomontanus in his preface to Alfraganus tells us, are still preserved in manuscript in the Vatican library. Indeed Diophantus himself tells us that his work consisted of thirteen books, viz. at the end of his address to Dionysius, placed at the beginning of the work; and from hence Regiomontanus might be led to say the thirteen books were in that library. No more than six whole books, with part of a seventh, have ever been published; and it is probable there are no more in being; indeed Bombelli, in the preface to his Algebra, written in 1572, says there were but six of the books then in the library, and that he and another were about a translation of them. Those six books, with the imperfect seventh, were first published at Basil by Xylander in 1575, but in a Latin version only, with the Greek scholia of Maximus Planudes upon the two first books, and observations of his own. The same books were afterwards published in Greek and Latin at Paris in 1G2I, by Bachet, an ingenious and learned Frenchman, who made a new Latin version of the work, and enriched it with very learned commentaries. Bachet did not entirely neglect the notes of Xylander in his edition, but he treated the scholiast Planudes with the utmost contempt. He seems to intimate, in what he says upon the 28th question of the second book, that the six books which we have of Diophantus may be nothing more than a collection made by some novice, of such propositions as he judged proper, out of the whole thirteen but Fabricius thinks there is no just ground for such a supposition. From him certain questions relating to square and cubic numbers, and to right-angled triangles, have been called Diophantine problems, because the nature of them was first and chiefly treated of by him in his arithmetic, or rather algebra.
, an ingenious and learned Frenchman, and one of the best writers
, an ingenious and
learned Frenchman, and one of the best writers of his time,
was born at Paris in 1674. At sixteen he entered into the
congregation of the fathers of the oratory, and was afterwards sent to Mans to learn philosophy. That of Aristotle
then obtained in the schools, and was the only one which
was permitted to be taught; nevertheless Mongault, with
some of that original spirit which usually distinguishes men
of uncommon abilities from the vulgar, ventured, in a
public thesis, which he read at the end of the course of
lectures, to oppose the opinions of Aristotle, and to maintain those of Des Cartes. Having studied theology with
the same success, he quitted the oratory in 1699; and
soon after went to Thoulouse, and lived with Colbert,
archbishop of that place, who had procured him a priory
in 1698. In 1710 the duke of Orleans, regent of the kingdom, committed to him the education of his son, the duke
of Chartres; which important office he discharged so well
that he acquired universal esteem. In 1714, he had the
abbey Chartreuve given him, and that of Vilieneuve in
1719. The duke of Chartres, becoming colonel-general
of the French infantry, chose the abbe* Mongault to fill the
place of secretary-general made him also secretary of the
province of Dauphiny and, after the death of the regent,
his father, raised him to other considerable employments.
All this while he was as assiduous as his engagements would
permit in cultivating polite literature; and, in 1714, published at Paris;, in 6 vols. 12mo, an edition of “Tully’s
Letters to Atticus,
” with an excellent French translation,
and judicious comment upon them. This work has been
often reprinted, and is justly reckoned admirable; for, as
Middleton has observed, in the preface to his “Life of
Cicero,
” the abbe Mongault “did not content himself with
the retailing the remarks of other commentators, or out of
the rubbish of their volumes with selecting the best, but
entered upon his task with the spirit of a true critic, and, by
the force of his own genius, has happily illustrated many
passages which all the interpreters before him had given
tip as inexplicable.
” He published also a very good translation of “Herodian,
” from the Greek, the best edition
of which is that of 1745, in 12mo. He died at Paris,
Aug. 15, 1746, aged almost seventy-two.