Nicolas de Malézieu

He was the tutor of Louis Auguste, Duke of Maine (to whom he introduced Bossuet) and he declaimed the plays of Euripides and Sophocles to the duchess who had made her chateau of Sceaux into a literary salon.

Le Journal des savants reported in detail the observations he made in this work on geometry and infinitely small numbers.

In 1713, this work was translated into Latin as Serenissimi Burgundiae Ducis Elementa Geometrica, ex Gallico Semone in Latinum translata ad Usum Seminarii Patavini.

Often written in a single day, these pieces were set to music and staged for the amusement of the duchess, to whom Malézieu also gave courses in astronomy.

A four-volume work, a Histoire des fermes du roi (History of Royal Farms) survives only a manuscript version dating from 1746.