Étienne Bézout in Portugal: the reform of the Portuguese University and beyond (1772--1838) (Q2253812)

Étienne Bézout (1730--1783) was recognized by his contributions to integration problems and mainly to his research in algebra, in particular to the theory of equations. This paper does not focus on the original research of Bézout, but on his important role as a writer of textbooks and on the influence of his texts, translated into Portuguese, from 1772 through 1838, after about two centuries of stagnation of Portuguese mathematics. The author attributes much of the long influence of Bézout in Portugal and the successful translation of his texts to the intense adoption of Bézout's texts in military schools in France. This was the period when modernizing the military establishment in Portugal was a high priority. This paper presents a detailed analysis of all the editing aspects of the translations of Bézout's textbooks.