Editing Nicolas Bourbaki (section)

===Founding===
During their time together at Strasbourg, Weil and Cartan regularly complained to each other regarding the inadequacy of available course material for [[calculus]] instruction. In his memoir ''Apprenticeship'', Weil described his solution in the following terms: "One winter day toward the end of 1934, I came upon a great idea that would put an end to these ceaseless interrogations by my comrade. 'We are five or six friends', I told him some time later, 'who are in charge of the same mathematics curriculum at various universities. Let us all come together and regulate these matters once and for all, and after this, I shall be delivered of these questions.' I was unaware of the fact that Bourbaki was born at that instant."{{sfn|Aczel|p=81}} Cartan confirmed the account.{{sfn|Mashaal|p=4}}

The first, unofficial meeting of the Bourbaki collective took place at noon on Monday, 10 December 1934, at the Café Grill-Room A. Capoulade, Paris, in the [[Latin Quarter]].{{sfn|Aczel|pp=82–83}}{{sfn|Beaulieu|1993|p=28}}{{sfn|Mashaal|p=6}}<ref name="mactutor">{{cite web |url=http://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/HistTopics/Bourbaki_1.html |title=Bourbaki: the pre-war years |last1=O'Connor |first1=John J. |last2=Robertson |first2=Edmund F. |date=December 2005 |website=[[MacTutor History of Mathematics archive|Mactutor]]}}</ref>{{efn|The restaurant, which no longer exists, was at 63 Boulevard Saint-Michel.{{sfn|Beaulieu|1993|p=29}} }} Six mathematicians were present: [[Henri Cartan]], [[Claude Chevalley]], [[Jean Delsarte]], [[Jean Dieudonné]], [[René de Possel]], and [[André Weil]]. Most of the group were based outside Paris and were in town to attend the Julia Seminar, a conference prepared with the help of Gaston Julia at which several future Bourbaki members and associates presented.{{sfn|Beaulieu|1993|p=32}}{{sfn|Mashaal|pp=6–7, 102–03}}{{efn|The Julia Seminar was held every other Monday, in the afternoon.{{sfn|Mashaal|p=103}}  Bourbaki's early lunch meetings during 1934–1935 were typically held on the same Mondays, immediately before the Seminar.{{sfn|Beaulieu|1993|p=32}}<ref name="barchive">{{cite web |url=http://sites.mathdoc.fr/archives-bourbaki/ |title=Archives de l'Association des Collaborateurs de Nicolas Bourbaki}}</ref><ref name="timedate">{{cite web |url=https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/?year=1935&country=5 |title=Calendar for Year 1935 (France) |website=Time and Date}}</ref> }} The group resolved to collectively write a treatise on analysis, for the purpose of standardizing calculus instruction in French universities. The project was especially meant to supersede the text of [[Édouard Goursat]], which the group found to be badly outdated, and to improve its treatment of [[Stokes' Theorem]].{{sfn|Mashaal|p=6}}{{sfn|Aczel|p=84}}{{sfn|Beaulieu|1999|p=233}}<ref name="numericana">{{cite web |url=http://www.numericana.com/fame/bourbaki.htm |title=The Many Faces of Nicolas Bourbaki |last=Michon |first=Gérard P. |website=Numericana}}</ref> The founders were also motivated by a desire to incorporate ideas from the [[University of Göttingen|Göttingen]] school, particularly from exponents [[David Hilbert|Hilbert]], [[Emmy Noether|Noether]] and [[Bartel van der Waerden|B.L. van der Waerden]]. Further, in the aftermath of World War I, there was a certain nationalist impulse to save French mathematics from decline, especially in competition with Germany. As Dieudonné stated in an interview, "Without meaning to boast, I can say that it was Bourbaki that saved French mathematics from extinction."{{sfn|Mashaal|pp=38-45}}

Jean Delsarte was particularly favorable to the collective aspect of the proposed project, observing that such a working style could insulate the group's work against potential later individual claims of [[copyright]].{{sfn|Aczel|p=84}}{{sfn|Mashaal|pp=7,14}}{{efn|Delsarte's favorable view of a collective project was not recorded in the minutes of the first meeting.  He is supposed to have expressed the view elsewhere, with Cartan and Weil eventually attributing the opinion to him.  However, the opinion is closely associated with the working style of Bourbaki which eventually emerged.{{sfn|Beaulieu|1993|pp=28–29}} }} As various topics were discussed, Delsarte also suggested that the work begin in the most abstract, axiomatic terms possible, treating all of mathematics prerequisite to analysis from scratch.{{sfn|Aczel|pp=85–86}}{{sfn|Aubin|p=303}} The group agreed to the idea, and this foundational area of the proposed work was referred to as the "Abstract Packet" (Paquet Abstrait).{{sfn|Aczel|p=86}}{{sfn|Beaulieu|1993|p=30}}{{sfn|Mashaal|p=11}} [[Working title]]s were adopted: the group styled itself as the '''Committee for the Treatise on Analysis''', and their proposed work was called the ''Treatise on Analysis'' (''Traité d'analyse'').{{sfn|Aczel|p=87}}{{sfn|Mashaal|p=8}} In all, the collective held ten preliminary biweekly meetings at A. Capoulade before its first official, founding conference in July 1935.{{sfn|Mashaal|p=8}}{{sfn|Beaulieu|1993|p=33}} During this early period, [[Paul Dubreil]], [[Jean Leray]] and [[Szolem Mandelbrojt]] joined and participated. Dubreil and Leray left the meetings before the following summer, and were respectively replaced by new participants [[Jean Coulomb]] and [[Charles Ehresmann]].{{sfn|Aczel|p=87}}{{sfn|Mashaal|pp=8–9}}

[[File:Nicolas Bourbaki naissance à Besse.jpg|thumb|left|Sign marking the official founding of Bourbaki in [[Besse-en-Chandesse]]]]

The group's official founding conference was held in [[Besse-en-Chandesse]], from 10 to 17 July 1935.{{sfn|Aczel|p=90}}{{sfn|Mashaal|p=10}} At the time of the official founding, the membership consisted of the six attendees at the first lunch of 10 December 1934, together with Coulomb, Ehresmann and Mandelbrojt. On 16 July, the members took a walk to alleviate the boredom of unproductive proceedings. During the malaise, some decided to [[Nude swimming|skinny-dip]] in the nearby [[Lac Pavin]], repeatedly yelling "Bourbaki!"{{sfn|Mashaal|p=22}} At the close of the first official conference, the group renamed itself "Bourbaki", in reference to the general and prank as recalled by Weil and others.{{sfn|Mashaal|p=11}}{{efn|The mathematician Sterling K. Berberian suggested another possible origin for the Bourbaki name: [[Octave Mirbeau|Octave Mirbeau's]] 1900 novel ''[[The Diary of a Chambermaid (novel)|The Diary of a Chambermaid]]'', which describes a hedgehog named Bourbaki that eats voraciously.  However Mashaal dismissed this connection as being unlikely since the founders never referred to the novel, but only to the general and the Husson anecdote.{{sfn|Mashaal|pp=25–26}} }} During 1935, the group also resolved to establish the mathematical [[personhood]] of their collective pseudonym by getting an article published under its name.{{sfn|Aczel|p=90}}{{sfn|Mashaal|pp=27–29}} A first name had to be decided; a full name was required for publication of any article. To this end, René de Possel's wife Eveline "baptized" the pseudonym with the first name of Nicolas, becoming Bourbaki's "godmother".{{sfn|Aczel|p=90}}<ref name="Mainard">{{Cite web|url=http://www.academie-stanislas.org/academiestanislas/images/Publications/TomeXVI/TomeXVI-Mainard01.pdf|title=Le Mouvement Bourbaki|last=Mainard|first=Robert|date=October 21, 2001|website=academie-stanislas.org}}</ref>{{sfn|Mashaal|p=27}}<ref name="mccleary">{{Cite web|url=http://www.math.vassar.edu/faculty/mccleary/Bourbaki.pdf|title=Bourbaki and Algebraic Topology|last=McCleary|first=John|date=December 10, 2004|website=math.vassar.edu|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061030215012/http://math.vassar.edu/faculty/McCleary/Bourbaki.pdf|archive-date=October 30, 2006}}</ref> This allowed for the publication of a second article with material attributed to Bourbaki, this time under "his" own name.<ref name="sur">{{cite journal |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k31534/f1311.image |title=Sur un théorème de Carathéodory et la mesure dans les espaces topologiques |last=Bourbaki |first=Nicolas |journal=[[Comptes rendus de l'Académie des Sciences]] |volume=201 |pages=1309–11 |date=18 November 1935}}</ref> Henri Cartan's father [[Élie Cartan]], also a mathematician and supportive of the group, presented the article to the publishers, who accepted it.{{sfn|Mashaal|pp=27–29}}

At the time of Bourbaki's founding, René de Possel and his wife Eveline were in the process of divorcing. Eveline remarried to André Weil in 1937, and de Possel left the Bourbaki collective some time later. This sequence of events has caused speculation that de Possel left the group because of the remarriage,{{sfn|Mashaal|p=17}} however this suggestion has also been criticized as possibly historically inaccurate, since de Possel is supposed to have remained active in Bourbaki for years after André's marriage to Eveline.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.neverendingbooks.org/the-bumpy-road-to-the-first-bourbaki-congress |title=The Bumpy Road to the First Bourbaki Congress |date=22 October 2009 |website=neverendingbooks.org}}</ref>