University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Rare Book Room Exhibit

Viete studied law like his father but worked in the legal profession for only four years. While in the service of Henry of Navarre (later Henry IV) he broke a code used by King Phillip II of Spain. Besides his innovations in algebra and trigonometry he authored several (unpublished) manuscripts on the question of the mathematical consistency of the planetary theories of Ptolemy and Copernicus.

Quotation from the New Algebra: There is no problem that cannot be solved.

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