Nicolas Vilant

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and Literature, letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". ...

(1737-1807) was a

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

from Scotland in the 18th century, known for his textbooks. He was a joint founder of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was establis ...

in 1783.

Life

He was baptised in Ferryport-on-Tay (now called

Tayport Tayport, also known as Ferry-Port-on-Craig, is a town in Fife, Scotland. It lies on the Firth of Tay opposite Broughty Ferry, a suburb of Dundee. The two were linked by a ferry service until 1939. To the east of Tayport is the vast Tentsmuir ...

) on 12 June 1737, the son of Rev William Vilant, the local minister (but of French descent), and his second wife, Jean Wilson. He studied Mathematics at

St Andrews University The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, following the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, t ...

from 1752 under Prof David Gregory. Vilant was Regius Professor of Mathematics in the

University of Saint Andrews The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, following the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, t ...

from 1765 to his death in 1807. Often ill, he was unable to teach most of this time, and lectures were given by assistants, among them John West. Under Newtonian tradition, he was unable to follow the continental developments in

mathematical analysis Analysis is the branch of mathematics dealing with continuous functions, limit (mathematics), limits, and related theories, such as Derivative, differentiation, Integral, integration, measure (mathematics), measure, infinite sequences, series ( ...

, like most of his British contemporaries. He died in

St Andrews St Andrews (; ; , pronounced ʰʲɪʎˈrˠiː.ɪɲ is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fourth-largest settleme ...

on 25 May 1807.

Family

He married Elizabeth Brand around 1770. Two of their sons attended St Andrews University.

Publications

He was a good mathematician, and his textbooks were very popular until the first years of the 19th century. The most renowned was ''The Elements of Mathematical Analysis, Abridged for the Use of Students'', first printed in 1777 and used as a university textbook from 1783, reprinted for student use. There are many manuscripts conserved in the archives of the

., page 174, abstract.

References

Bibliography

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vilant, Nicolas 1737 births 1807 deaths 18th-century Scottish mathematicians People from Tayport Alumni of the University of St Andrews Academics of the University of St Andrews Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh