deaths
May 29, 1660
Frans van Schooten, Dutch mathematician and academic (born 1615)
Frans van Schooten
Frans van Schooten Jr. also rendered as Franciscus van Schooten was a Dutch mathematician who is most known for popularizing the analytic geometry of René Descartes. He translated La Géométrie in Latin and wrote commentaries and explanations to it. Because most contemporary scientists and mathematicians in Europe knew the invention of analytic geometry through Van Schooten's edition, with its extensive commentaries by Johannes Hudde, Johan de Witt, and Hendrik van Heuraet, he had a significant influence on the science and mathematics of Europe at the time; especially on the invention of calculus by Gottfried Leibniz and Isaac Newton.