Descartes badmouthed Fermat mercilessly and to some extent succeeded in diminishing him. Fermat’s work was never properly published until 1679. His results trickled out through word of mouth or in copies of his letters, but he was not truly appreciated until long after his death. Descartes, however, hit it big. His Discourse became famous. The next generation learned analytic geometry from it. Even today, our students learn about Cartesian coordinates, even though Fermat came up with them first.
