Cunha

José Anastácio da Cunha

Born: 1744 in Lisbon, Portugal
Died: 1 Jan 1787 in Lisbon, Portugal

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Anastácio da Cunha was appointed professor of geometry in 1773 to Coimbra University but was arrested and imprisoned by the Inquisition 4 years later. He was freed in 1781 but prison had ruined his health and he died a few years later.

He wrote a 21 part encyclopaedia of mathematics Principios Matemáticos (1782-1790) which contained a rigorous exposition of mathematics, in particular a rigorous exposition of the calculus.

References:

  1. Dictionary of Scientific Biography
  2. A P Youschkevitch, J A da Cunha et les fondements de l'analyse infinitésimale, Revue d'histoire des sciences et leur applications XXVI (1973), 3-22.
  3. A J Franco de Oliveira, Anastácio da Cunha and the Concept of Convergent Series, Archive for History of Exact Sciences 39 (1988), 1-12.
  4. J F Queiró, José Anastácio da Cunha : A forgotten forerunner, Mathematical Intelligencer 10 (1988), 38-43. 
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JOC/EFR February 1996