In 1804 the chair for elementary mathematics at CharlesFerdinand University became vacant as a result of the retirement of Stanislav Vydra. The examination, in which only Bernard Bolzano and Ladislav Jandera took part, consisted of a written and an oral part. The chair went to Jandera, while Bolzano became professor of “religious doctrine”. This paper examines the context, the answers of both candidates and the outcome of the competition, based on a number of related papers preserved in the Czech National Archives in Prague. Additionally, we present the Czech translation of Bolzano’s written answer which is published here for the first time.
history of eighteenth century mathematics, history of nineteenth century mathematics, Bolzano, Jandera, mathematical examination, Prague university
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