Although a lawyer by profession, Viète was the foremost mathematician of the sixteenth century. Born in the Poitou region of France, Viète followed in his father's footsteps, receiving his law degree from the University of Poitiers in 1560. For the next four years he practiced law at Fontenay, studying cryptography and mathematics in his spare time. In 1570 he moved to Paris, serving under King Charles IX (1550-1574). The persecution of French protestants in 1584 forced Viète to leave his post; however, the absence afforded Viète leisure time to devote himself to mathematics. He pursued mathematics as a hobby, printing and circulating his work at his own expense.

Canon mathematicus seu ad triangula, published in 1579, was the first of Viète's many books on trigonometry. It proved an important aid to the systemization and extension of plane and spherical trigonometry. It contained...