Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas de Caritat, Marquis de Condorcet, was born on September 17, 1743. His father was a cavalry officer stationed in Ribemont, in what is now the Aisne department, when Condorcet was born. He died shortly afterwards, and Condorcet's deeply devout mother dedicated him to the Virgin Mary and became excessively protective: she would not let him play with other children, constantly fussed over him, and dressed him in white and in a gown until the age of eight, as was customary for babies at the time.
She had him educated by the Jesuits. After receiving lessons from a private tutor, Condorcet entered the Jesuit school in Reims at the age of 11, then the Collège de Navarre in Paris at 15. He remained scarred by the brutality of an education often based on humiliation. The institution was nevertheless highly innovative in its teaching: under Jean-Antoine Nollet's influence, scientific subjects were taught in French rather than Latin.
Condorcet first displayed his mathematical talents at the age of 16, when he defended a thesis on analysis just ten months after entering the Collège de Navarre. The examiners, who included Jean le Rond d'Alembert, Alexis Clairaut and Alexis Fontaine, were deeply impressed by such a fine presentation and already pictured its author as a future colleague at the Académie des sciences.
Portrait of Condorcet attributed to Jean-Baptiste Greuze (c. 1790).
