Claude Gaspard Bachet de Méziriac (October 9, 1581 - February 26, 1638) was a French mathematician born in Bourg-en-Bresse. October 9 is the 282nd day of the year (283rd in Leap years). ... Events January 16 - English Parliament outlaws Roman Catholicism April 4 - Francis Drake completes a circumnavigation of the world and is knighted by Elizabeth I. July 26 - The Northern Netherlands proclaim their independence from Spain in the Oath of Abjuration. ... February 26 is the 57th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... Events March 29 - Swedish colonists establish first settlement in Delaware, called New Sweden. ... A mathematician is a person whose area of study and research is mathematics. ... Bourg-en-Bresse is a city in eastern France, préfecture (capital) of the Ain département, and was capital of the former province of Bresse. ...

He wrote the Problèmes plaisants, of which the first edition was issued in 1612, a second and enlarged edition was brought out in 1624; this contains an interesting collection of arithmetical tricks and questions, many of which are quoted in W. W. Rouse Ball's Mathematical Recreations and Essays. He also wrote Les éléments arithmétiques, which exists in manuscript; and a translation, from Greek to Latin, of the Arithmetic of Diophantus (1621). It was this very translation in which Fermat wrote his famous margin note claiming that he had a proof of Fermat's last theorem. Walter William Rouse Ball (1850 August 14–1925 April 4) was a Brtish mathematician, and a fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge from 1878 to 1905. ... Diophantus of Alexandria - Διόφαντος ο Αλεξανδρεύς - (circa 200/214 - circa 284/298) was an ancient Greek mathematician. ... Pierre de Fermat Pierre de Fermat (August 17, 1601 – January 12, 1665) was a French lawyer at the Parliament of Toulouse and a mathematician who is given credit for the development of modern calculus. ... Pierre de Fermat Fermats last theorem (sometimes abbreviated as FLT and also called Fermats great theorem) is one of the most famous theorems in the history of mathematics. ...

Bachet was the earliest writer who discussed the solution of indeterminate equations by means of continued fractions. He also did work in number theory and found a method of constructing magic squares. Some credible sources also name him the founder of the Bézout's identity. In mathematics, a continued fraction is an expression such as where a0 is some integer and all the other numbers an are positive integers. ... Traditionally, number theory is that branch of pure mathematics concerned with the properties of integers. ... In mathematics, a magic square of order n is an arrangement of n² numbers in a square, such that the n numbers in all rows, all columns, and both diagonals sum to the same constant. ... In number theory, Bézouts identity, named after Étienne Bézout, is a linear diophantine equation. ...

For a year in 1601 Bachet was a member of the Jesuit Order. He lived a comfortable life in Bourg-en-Bresse and married in 1612. He was elected member of the French Academy in 1635. Events February 8 - Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, rebels against Elizabeth I of England - revolt is quickly crushed February 25 - Robert Devereux beheaded Jesuit Matteo Ricci arrives in China Bad harvest in Russia due to rainy summer Dutch troops drive Portuguese from Malaga Battle of Kinsale, Ireland Year in... The Society of Jesus (Latin: Societas Iesu), commonly known as the Jesuits, is a Roman Catholic religious order. ... Events January 20 - Mathias becomes Holy Roman Emperor. ... The Académie française, or French Academy, is the pre-eminent French learned body on matters pertaining to the French language. ... Events February 10 - The Académie française in Paris is expanded to become a national academy for the artistic elite. ...

References

• The initial text of this article was taken from the public domain resource A Short Account of the History of Mathematics by W. W. Rouse Ball (4th Edition, 1908) as quoted at [1] (http://www.maths.tcd.ie/pub/HistMath/People/17thCentury/RouseBall/RB_Math17C.html#Bachet)
• The MacTutor History of Mathematics archive: Bachet (http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Bachet.html)