Around 1770 he invented descriptive geometry, at first kept a military secret, and co-founded the École polytechnique in 1794. Expelled from the Institut at the Restoration for having served Napoleon, he was carried to the Panthéon on 12 December 1989: his Paris monument stands empty.
The story
Gaspard Monge was born at Beaune on 9 May 1746, a merchant's son. He invented descriptive geometry around 1770: a method for setting solids down on a flat sheet, kept at first as a military secret, so great did the advantage seem.
Minister of the Navy from 10 August 1792 to the spring of 1793, elected on Condorcet's proposal, he wrote for the war effort a “Description of the Art of Making Cannon”, then turned to teaching: in 1794 he was one of the founders of the École polytechnique, whose curriculum he laid down.
He went with Bonaparte to Egypt and presided over the Institut d'Égypte in Cairo, alongside Fourier — whose grave stands a few paces from his own, in the same Division. The carving on his own monument still bears the mark of that expedition.
A senator under the Empire and made Count of Pelusium, he lost every title at the Restoration and was struck off the roll of the Institut for having served Napoleon. He died in Paris on 28 July 1818.
A hundred and seventy-one years later, on 12 December 1989, for the bicentenary of the Revolution, his remains were moved to the Panthéon. The monument in Division 18 stayed where it was, empty.
The grave
A monument by the architect Pierre Clochar: a portico adorned with Egyptian suns, wreaths, lotus flowers and poppies — a memory of the Egyptian expedition — sheltering a marble bust by Henri Joseph Rutxhiel. The inscription comes down to two words: “Gaspard Monge”. The monument is empty of its dead: the scientist's remains were transferred to the Panthéon on 12 December 1989, for the bicentenary of the Revolution. His wife Marie Catherine, who died in 1846, had rested there with him. It is the sixth monument without remains in this guide.
On site, do not miss
The Egyptian suns, lotuses and poppies of the portico — and the marble bust, sole occupant of the monument.
Visitors' questions
Where is Gaspard Monge's tomb?
In Division 18, at the Grand Rond junction, first row — not far from Joseph Fourier's Egyptian-style monument and Raspail's sculpture. But it is a cenotaph: the body is in the Panthéon.
Joseph FourierIs Monge's body still there?
No: his remains were transferred to the Panthéon on 12 December 1989, for the bicentenary of the Revolution. The monument in Division 18 was left empty, like those of Bugatti, Andranik, Bellini and Rossini.
Ettore BugattiWhy the Egyptian decoration on his monument?
Because he took part in the Egyptian expedition and presided over the Institut d'Égypte in Cairo. The portico is adorned with Egyptian suns, crowns, lotus flowers and poppies — like the tomb of Fourier, his companion on the expedition.
Vivant DenonWhat did he found?
The École polytechnique, in 1794, whose teaching he defined, and descriptive geometry, a method for representing solids that he invented around 1770 and that the army at first kept secret.
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