Olry Terquem

Olry Terquem
Born	16 June 1782 Metz, France
Died	6 May 1862 (aged 79) Paris, France
Occupation	mathematician, geometry

Olry Terquem (16 June 1782 – 6 May 1862) was a French mathematician. He is known for his works in geometry and for founding two scientific journals, one of which was the first journal about the history of mathematics. He was also the pseudonymous author (as Tsarphati) of a sequence of letters advocating radical Reform in Judaism. He was French Jewish.

Terquem grew up speaking Yiddish, and studying only the Hebrew language and the Talmud. However, after the French revolution his family came into contact with a wider society, and his studies broadened. Despite his poor French he was admitted to study mathematics at the École Polytechnique in Paris, beginning in 1801, as only the second Jew to study there. He became an assistant there in 1803, and earned his doctorate in 1804.

After finishing his studies he moved to Mainz (at that time known as Mayence and part of imperial France), where he taught at the Imperial Lycée. In 1811 he moved to the artillery school in the same city, in 1814 he moved again to the artillery school in Grenoble, and in 1815 he became the librarian of the Dépôt Central de l'Artillerie in Paris, where he remained for the rest of his life. He became an officer of the Legion of Honor in 1852. After he died, his funeral was officiated by Lazare Isidor, the Chief Rabbi of Paris and later of France, and attended by over 12 generals headed by Edmond Le Bœuf.

Terquem translated works concerning artillery, was the author of several textbooks, and became an expert on the history of mathematics. Terquem and Camille-Christophe Gerono were the founding editors of the Nouvelles Annales de Mathématiques in 1842. Terquem also founded another journal in 1855, the Bulletin de Bibliographie, d'Histoire et de Biographie de Mathématiques, which was published as a supplement to the Nouvelles Annales, and he continued editing it until 1861. This was the first journal dedicated to the history of mathematics.

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