Adrien-Marie Legendre is best known as the author of Éléments de géométrie, a simplification of Euclid's Elements. Published in 1794, it went through numerous editions and translations, and served as a standard geometry text for the next hundred years. Legendre made significant contributions to several other fields, however, including number theoryand celestial mechanics. In addition, he is generally regarded as the founder of the theory of elliptic functions.

Legendre was born in Paris on September 18, 1752. Although little is known of his early life, Legendre apparently came from a well-to-do family. He studied at the Collége Mazarin in Paris, where he received an unusually progressive education in mathematics. One of his professors there was Abbé Joseph-François Marie, a highly regarded mathematician. At age 18, Legendre successfully defended his theses in mathematics and physics, and at age 22 he issued...