Though ordained as a priest at age 17, I ended up teaching rhetoric, physics and mathematics at a seminary.

In 1790, I calculated Euler's constant to 32 decimal places...but in 1809 Johann von Soldner showed that only the first 19 places were correct.

I liked to write poetry and even dedicated my book Geometria del compasso (1797) to Napoleon Bonaparte in verse.

In Geometria del compasso (1797), I made my "mark" on the world by proving that all Euclidean constructions can be made with a compass alone (i.e. no unmarked straight edge was needed).

In 1797, Napoleon Bonaparte appointed me to be a deputy in the governing legislative assembly in Milan...charged with the responsibility of reviewing Legendre's introduction of the metric system of weights and measures into France.