Syruć or Chróścikowski? Around the issue of the first Polish author of the publication on differential and integral calculus

Abstract

In the Polish historiography of mathematics, Piarist Bernard Syruć (Siruć) is unanimously considered as the first Polish author of work on differential and integral calculus (“Propositiones ex analysi infinitorum”, Romae 1755). However, in the same year, the works of two other authors, another Piarist Samuel Chróścikowski and one Pasquale de Petra, were published in Rome. These works had the same title and, what is particularly astonishing, their content was exactly identical with that of the previously mentioned work of Syruć. The article tries to clarify this puzzling issue. It is suggested that the works of Syruć, Chróścikowski and de Petra could have been a result of some public examination involving many graduates. In the 18th century, public examinations, carried out in religious colleges, were a common form of demonstrating acquired knowledge and skills.