Bolyai Farkas (1775-1856) was born in the village of Bólya, Szeben County on 9 February, 1775. The family belonged to the nobility, but by the time Farkas was born they were no longer wealthy. He started his schools at the Nagyenyed Protestant College. He was considered a prodigy due to his talent in mathematics and languages. Later he transferred to the Kolozsvár Protestant College. He developed a passion for mathematics at the University of Göttingen. This is where he became a life-long friend of the great German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss. When he returned home, he settled in Kolozsvár. He performed his inaugural address at the Marosvásárhely Protestant College on 4 May, 1804. For the next 47 years, he was professor of mathematics, physics, chemistry and astronomy at the college that today bears his name.

His life work is of an extraordinary diversity; however, he was most outstanding as a mathematician. His first works treat the parallel axiom. His masterpiece, the Tentamen (Marosvásárhely, 1832) contains his reflections on the foundations of mathematics, a number of innovative thoughts ahead of his time. He originally intended his books on mathematics as textbooks. He was an outstanding theoretical pedagogue; he wrote several works calling for changes in public education. Some of the points he argued for were a more cleverly organized curriculum and practical education.

Farkas Bolyai was a practical man: he invented some economical stoves that became soon widespread in Transylvania. He was the author of the first Hungarian book on forestry. Among his manuscripts, we can find works on optics, building plans for bridges and pharmaceutical recipes too.

He had an artistic streak in him as well: he painted, played the violin, wrote treatises on the theory of music, what’s more, he tried his hand at acting too when he was young. He wrote poems and plays (Öt szomorújáték-Five tragedies, Sibiu, 1817, A párizsi per – The Paris trial, Marosvásárhely, 1818.) and translated French, English and German literature. He tried his hand at acting too when he was young.

He died in Marosvásárhely, on 20 November, 1856. He rests in the Marosvásárhely Protestant cemetery.