L'abbé Moigno

Abstract

FRANÇOIS NAPOLÉON MARIE MOIGNO, mathematician, physicist, linguist, and ecclesiastic, was born at Guéméné (Morbihan) on April 20, 1804; as he died on Sunday, the 13th instant, he is worthy of a place among the English mathematicians whose names figure in Prof. Sylvester's British Association Address (Exeter, 1869). He was descended from a good old Breton family. Moigno first studied at the Collège de Pontivy, then proceeded to the Jesuit seminary of St. Anne d'Auray. In 1822 he went to another house of the fathers at Montrouge, where he passed his novitiate. In addition to theology he studied with great enthusiasm both the physical and mathematical sciences; in these he made rapid progress, and in 1828 arrived at a new mode of getting the equation to the tangent plane to a surface. Leaving Paris in 1830 on account of the Revolution, he spent some time in Switzerland, and here turned his wonderful powers of memory to the acquisition of some eight new languages, at the same time perfecting his knowledge of Latin and Greek. In 1836 the Jesuits appointed him to the Mathematical Chair in their house in the rue des Postes, Paris. Here he published the first volume of his great work, “Leçons de Calcul differentiel et intégral,” following the methods used by, and utilising published and unpublished papers of, Cauchy. As his Superior was opposed to his scientific work, Moigno broke with the order, and gave himself up to his favourite pursuits. Having in 1845 become scientific editor of L'Epoque, he was sent on account of that journal on a visit to England, Germany, Belgium, and Holland, and furnished to its columns his observations on these countries. About 1850 he filled a similar post on the staffs of La Prase and Le Pays. In 1852 he became editor-in-chief of Cosmos, a weekly scientific review. His connection with this journal closed in 1862, and in 1863 he founded a new journal called Les Mondes.