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Joseph Sauveur

b. 24 March 1653, la Fleche
d. 6 July 1716

Sauveur was educated by the Jesuits at their College in La Fleche but his interest lay in science and mathematics, not the humanities.  Mr. le Marquis de Dangeau demanded of him in 1678 the calculation of the advantages of the Banker against the Punters in the game of Bassette. He did this with much precision and had the honor to explicate this to the King and Queen. In 1686 he had a chair of Mathematics at the College Royal. Ten years later Sauveur was elected to the Academy of Sciences.

Sauveur was above all an applied mathematician. His principal work was Principes d'Acoustique & de Musique, ou System general des intervalles des sons, & son application à tous les Systemes & instrumens de Musique, 1701, which dealt with the theory of musical intervals. Also in the Journal des Sçavans may be found Supputation des avantages du Banquier dans le jeu de la Bassette, 1679.

His Eloge is in the Memoirs de l'Academie des Sciences, 1716.

On the game of Bassette see also Jakob Bernoulli, Montmort and Moivre.