MDDM: Ch 34 - Notes and Questions

[jbor]

John wrote:

>> The land about the Harlands' farm is "a region of mariform grades". (332.5)
>> What's "mariform"?
>> 
> 
> At first I thought it was something like variform but with a watery bent, ie
> marine, or something, perhaps it's prone to flooding? But apparently
> mariform is a term in it's own right, though I've only found two people to
> have ever used it in history, and that's a couple of Low Countries mystics,
> the Venerable Michael of St Augustine (d. 1684) and the Venerable Mary of St
> Teresa Petijt/Petyt (d. 1677). I believe it's something to do with the
> Carmelites, and the word refers to the Virgin Mary, and the belief that the
> faithful should become a new Mary.
 
Interesting, but it doesn't seem to fit the context at all. Perhaps it is a
misprint for "variform".

 
>> Anything particularly noteworthy about "Fermat's Last Theorem"? (336.1)
>> 
> 
> Good roundup of the above at...
> http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/HistTopics/Fermat%27s_last_theorem
> .html

Thanks. Very interesting, particularly the renewed interest occasioned by
Andrew Wiles' work during the mid-1990s.

best