French mathematician, the inventor of descriptive geometry. The son of a merchant, he studied first at the Congregation of the Oratorians in Beaune, his native city, and later at the Collège de la Trinité in Lyon. Returning to Beaune, he drew a map of the city that attracted the attention of the military authorities of the École royale du génie in Mézières where, not having been allowed to enroll due to his humble origins, he was engaged in the capacity of draughtsman (1765). Appointed professor of mathematics at Mézières in 1768, he became professor of physics starting in 1771. In 1780 he was elected a member of the Académie des sciences in Paris and in 1783 he obtained the post of examiner of the cadets at the École. A convinced advocate of revolutionary principles, he was appointed Minister of the Navy in 1792, but had to abandon this position the following year, inder the "Reign of Terror". In 1794 he founded, together with Jacques-Elie Lamblardie (1747-1797) and Lazare Carnot (1753-1823) the École polytechnique, one of the most famous French schools of engineering, where he taught analysis and descriptive geometry until 1809, apart from an interruption of four years that brought him first to Italy and then to Egypt, accompanying Napoleon. Nominated by the Emperor Senator for life, Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour, and Count of Péluse, he died in Paris in 1818. Most of his contributions to the study of mathematical science are collected in the Applicazione dell'algebra alla geometry [Application of algebra to geometry] (1805) and the Applicazione dell'analisi alla geometria [Application of anaysis to geometry], whose fourth edition, extended and corrected by Monge himself, was published posthumously in 1819.