Nicolas Vilant

Nicolas Vilant (1737-1807) was a mathematician from Scotland in the 18th century, known by his textbooks.

Vilant was Regius Professor of Mathematics in the university of Saint Andrews from 1765 to his death in 1807. Often ill, he was unable to teach most of this time, and lectures were taught by assistants, among them John West. Under Newtonian tradition, he was unable to follow the continental developments in mathematical analysis, like most of his British contemporaries. However, he was a good mathematician, and his textbooks were very popular until the first years of the 19th century; the most known of them was The Elements of Mathematical Analysis, Abridged for the Use of Students (1783 first edition). There are many manuscripts conserved in the archives of the university of Saint Andrews.