Claude Hardy

Claude Hardy was a French linguist, mathematician and lawyer, born in 1604 and dying on 5 April 1678, known for translating the works of Erasmus and Euclid into 36 different languages and considered one of the strongest mathematicians of his time. His first publication, in 1613 at the age of nine, was a translation of Erasmus on the civility of children. By 1625 he was a lawyer working for the Parlement of Paris, where he published an edition of Euclid's Data with the commentary of Marinus, and a year later he became a counsellor of the court of justice. He studied with Claude Mydorge, Pierre de Fermat and René Descartes, aided them in translating their works, and from 1630 published under the pseudonym Antoine Vasset, beginning with a translation of Viète's algebra. His first original works were two papers on the duplication of the cube, Examen in 1630 and Refutation in 1638.