The collection opens with an essay by the historian of science René Taton (1915–2004), Évariste Galois and his contemporaries. After reviewing the key dates in the mathematician’s life, Taton examines Galois’s relationships with his peers to determine who influenced or supported him. A substantial appendix, running to nearly thirty pages, reproduces, among other documents, Galois’s school reports and the comments on them; the letter On science education, published in the Gazette des écoles on January 2, 1831; Poisson’s report of July 4, 1831, on Galois’s memoir; Galois’s famous Preface, written from Sainte-Pélagie prison; the letters he wrote before the duel, including his testamentary letter to Auguste Chevalier; and various writings and reflections on mathematics, science and education.
It continues with a brief essay by the mathematician Jean Dieudonné (1906–1992), Galois’s influence, in which a member of the Academy gives Galois his due by assessing which concepts in groups, fields and "Galois theory" genuinely originated in Galois’s work, as well as their implications for modern theories.
In the article Solvability of equations by radicals and Évariste Galois’s First Memoir, Amy Dahan-Dalmedico sets out to reconstruct in modern terms the memoir that Poisson ultimately rejected in 1831. She begins by placing it in context, reviewing the earlier work of Lagrange, Cauchy and Abel.
The booklet *Présence d’Évariste Galois 1811–1832* is freely available online.
