1. In a recent article, “Das Leben Fermats,” KLaus BArner reported on his archival studies in Prance (DMV Mitteilungen, no. 3 (2001), 12–26): the year of birth 1601, which is traditionally quoted, is that of a half-brother PIerre who died young; the mathematician PIerre FErmat was born between January 13, 1607, and January 12, 1608, but most likely in 1607.
2. Quoted by BErnard GRosperrin in Dictionnaire du Grand Siècle, ed. by FRançOis BLuche, Paris: Fayard, 1990, 721.
3. FOntenelle included his reflections on history in his Histoire des oracles (1686), in De Vorigine des fables (1724), and in his Digression sur les anciens et les modernes (1688).
4. G. Bigourdan, “Le Bureau des longitudes. Son histoire et ses travaux des origines (1795) à ce jour,” Annuaire du Bureau des longitudes pour l’an 1928, Paris 1928, pp. A1–A72.
5. FRançOis WOepcke, “Notice sur une théorie ajoutée par Thabit Ben Korrah à l’arithmétique spéculative des Grecs,” Journal asiatique 20 (1852, fourth sériés), 420–429; [CHarette 1995,151].