Les autres de l'un : deux enqu\^etes prosopographiques sur Charles Hermite

Abstract

Prosopography is usually used to globally describe a large population of ordinary subjects. It is thus opposed to biography, as a genre devoted to exceptional individuals. I show in this article how to use prosopography to study a single person, an exceptional mathematician, Charles Hermite. I construct several prosopographies (f.i. that of the authors quoted by Hermite, or that of the people writing number-theoretical texts between 1870 and 1914) and show how they allow to capture singular characteristics of Hermite, f.i. his role as a mediator, his mathematical reactions to specific themes, etc.