What is new and what is old in Viète’s analysis restituta and algebra nova, and where do they come from ? Some reflections on the relations between algebra and analysis before Viète
François Viète considered most of his mathematical treatises to be part of a body of texts he entitled Opus restitutæ mathematicæ analyseos seu algebra nova. Despite this title and the fact that the term “algebra” has often been used to designate what is customarily regarded as Viète’s main contribution to mathematics, such a term is not part of his vocabulary. How should we understand this term, in the context of the title of his Opus, where “new algebra” is identified with “restored analysis”?...