François Nau
François Nau (13 May 1864 at Thil – 2 September 1931 at Paris) was a French Catholic priest, mathematician, Syriacist, and specialist in oriental languages. He published a great number of eastern Christian texts and translations for the first and often only time. Life. François-Nicolas Nau was the last of five children of François-Nicolas Nau and Marguerite Longueville. He attended primary school at Longwy until 1878, then the "petit séminaire" of Notre-Dame des Champs at Paris, then the "Grand Séminaire de Saint-Sulpice" in 1882. In 1887 he gained his baccalaureate in theology and canon law . On 17 December 1887 he was ordained priest in the diocese of Paris. Nau then studied mathematics and natural science. After this, from 1889 he studied the Syriac language. In 1895 he gained the diploma of the École pratique des hautes études in Paris by publishing the Syriac text and a French translation of a treatise on astronomy by Bar Hebraeus. In 1897 he received a doctorate of science. In 1899, together with René Graffin (1858–1941) he founded the series "Patrologia Orientalis", intended to complement the Greek and Latin patrologies of Migne. Starting in 1890, Nau taught mathematics and astronomy  for 40 years at the Institut Catholique de Paris. In 1927 he was appointed to a teaching post for Syriac at the École pratique des hautes études. In 1928 he became the "doyen" of the Ecole des Sciences. He died in 1931. He published over 250 books and articles. A compilation of these in book form was under discussion in 2007. Partial list of publications by Nau. A complete list of Nau's publications can be found in an appendix to the article by Brière, Journal Asiatique n° 233, pages 153-180 1st thesis: Formation et extinction du clapotis . 2nd thesis: Propositions données par la Faculté, 1897; In the "Bibliothèque de l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes": In the "Bibliothèque Hagiographique Orientale" In the "Patrologia Orientalis" series: In the Revue de l'Histoire des religions: