Charles-René de Fourcroy

French mathematician

Charles René de Fourcroy de Ramecourt (1715–1791) was a French officer of the Royal Engineers Corps. He is known for having published the first synthetic map of urban geography in his Essai d'une table poléométrique (1782).

Grandson of Nicolas de Fourcroy, King's Councillor at the Bailiwick and Royal Provost of the town of Clermont, and son of Charles de Fourcroy, lawyer, Charles René de Fourcroy was born in Paris on 19 January 1715. He entered the Corps du Génie in 1735 or 1737, became a member in 1740 and then captain in 1744. He became director of fortifications for the Minister of War in December 1774, then maréchal de camp on 1 March 1780. He married Marie Marguerite Lemaistre (1732 1772) on 6 November 1755 in Andonville and they had two daughters: Charlotte Marie Louise Cornélie (1758 ?) and Charlotte Marie Françoise (1762 1765). He was a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences, appointed correspondent of Abbé Nollet on 25 November 1767, then of Pingré on 20 June 1770. He was created Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Louis in 1781. A bust portrait was made in 1781 by René Descarsin (now the property of the Conservatoire du portrait du dix huitième siècle, CPDHS). In 1835, an engraving was made by L. Lorin and lithographed by Langlumé.

Fourcroy was the author of Essai d'une table poléométrique, a treatise on engineering and civil construction, published in 1782, which is remarkable for its period in its use of graphs to list the achievements of civil engineers of bridges and roads from 1740 to 1780 and its cross sectional and mathematical analysis of the growth of urban areas.

Fourcroy, Charles de. Essai d’une table poléométrique, ou amusement d’un amateur de plans sur la grandeur de quelques villes. Dupain Triel, Paris (1782)