Lyon Des Roys

Lyon-François Des Roys was a French poet and writer active at the turn of the 19th century. He is chiefly associated with La géométrie en vers techniques, a striking work that presents geometric ideas in verse rather than standard textbook form.

Available catalog and reference listings identify him with the dates 1768 to 1804. French reference pages also connect him to Marcilleux, in Saint-Vulbas, where his death is remembered as an early Romantic-era tragedy.

Very little widely documented biographical detail seems to survive, which makes him one of those authors known more through a single distinctive book than through a full public life story. That surviving work is enough to make him stand out: few writers have tried to make mathematics memorable by turning it into poetry.