Farkas Bolyai(1775 — 1856)
Farkas Bolyai
empire d'Autriche
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Farkas Bolyai was a Hungarian mathematician, known for his work on the foundations of geometry. He was the father of János Bolyai, one of the founders of non-Euclidean geometry, whom he encouraged despite his own reservations.
Frequently asked questions
Key Facts
- Born in 1775 in Bolya, in Transylvania (Kingdom of Hungary).
- Studied at Göttingen, where he became friends with the mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss.
- Became a professor of mathematics, physics, and chemistry at the Reformed College of Marosvásárhely (1804).
- Published the Tentamen in 1832-1833, a treatise on the foundations of mathematics.
- Died in 1856; his son János developed the non-Euclidean geometry that he had foreseen.
Works & Achievements
His major work: a systematic treatise on elementary mathematics written in Latin, made famous by **János**'s appendix founding non-Euclidean geometry.
By incorporating his son's appendix into his own book, he enabled the spread of one of the most important mathematical discoveries of the 19th century.
His second mathematical work, a condensed presentation of his ideas, in which he notably returns to the question of parallel lines.
Nearly half a century of scientific exchanges with one of the greatest mathematicians in history, a precious testimony to the geometric thinking of the time.
Plays, translations, and teaching manuals that illustrate the breadth of his learning and his commitment to education.
Anecdotes
Farkas Bolyai was a youthful friend of the great mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss, whom he met at the University of Göttingen around 1796. The two men kept up a correspondence for nearly fifty years, discussing in particular the problem of the parallel postulate.
For years, Farkas struggled to prove Euclid's fifth postulate on parallels. When his son János took up the same problem, he warned him in a famous letter: he should flee this question “like sensual passions,” for it could deprive a man of his health and his peace of mind.
When János sent him his revolutionary work founding a new geometry, Farkas had it published as an appendix to his own book, the Tentamen, in 1832. Gauss replied that he could not praise the work without praising himself, since he had thought of it long ago — which deeply wounded the young János.
A man of many talents, Farkas Bolyai also wrote plays, composed music, drew, and took an interest in building stoves and furnaces. He is said to have designed his own coffin and asked that an apple tree be planted on his grave rather than a headstone.
A teacher at the Reformed College of Marosvásárhely (now Târgu Mureș) for more than forty years, he taught mathematics, physics, and chemistry for a modest salary, often living in material hardship.
Primary Sources
A two-volume work setting out the foundations of elementary mathematics, whose appendix, written by his son János, presents the absolute science of space.
You must not attempt this approach to the parallels; I know this path to its very end: I have traversed this bottomless night, and every light, every joy of my life was extinguished there.
An exchange of letters between Farkas Bolyai and Carl Friedrich Gauss, carried on for nearly half a century, dealing notably with the theory of parallels.
Key Places
Birthplace of Farkas Bolyai, in Transylvania, then part of the Habsburg Empire. The noble Bolyai family took its name from it.
German university where he studied from 1796 and formed a lasting friendship with Carl Friedrich Gauss. A leading center of European mathematics.
The institution where he taught mathematics, physics, and chemistry for more than forty years. The center of his professional life.
Major city in Transylvania where he completed part of his early studies before leaving for Germany.
