This week I visited the Capitole de Toulouse, where probably the most famous statue for us math people is Pierre de Fermat. But I found another statue of a mathematician: Guillaume Maran. He must be important, at least at that time, to be memorialized in the city hall. But all information I can find online says that he was a lawyer in Toulouse. I don't know if this is the same person as the statue. I can't find his date of birth/death or any of his work. Do you know anything about him?
UPDATE: I went again and took a picture of Emmaneul Maignan. But I don't understand the description under his name:
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Best Answer
For an authoritative answer, I contacted the professor of history at the University of Toulouse, Jacques Krynen, who has written a biography of Guillaume Maran. His response [*] to the puzzling inscription on Maran's statue in de Salles des Illustres strengthens the case that it was an error. My (unsubstantiated) guess is that this happened when the 17th century statues were reconstructed in 1892 after having been destroyed by a fire a few years earlier (as described here).
[*] Il y a bien longtemps que je ne me suis pas rendu salle des illustres... en tout état de cause Guillaume Maran était professeur de droit. Pas mathématicien! (I have not been to the hall of celebrities for quite some time... in any case, Guillaume Maran was professor of law. No mathematician!)