Definition:Analytic Geometry/Historical Note

Historical Note on Analytic Geometry
The discipline of analytic geometry is traditionally supposed to have originated with the work of, hence its name of Cartesian geometry.

There exists a story that he first invented it while watching a fly crawling across the ceiling while he was lying in bed in the morning.

However, it appears that may in fact have obtained his key ideas from 's Tractatus de configurationibus qualitatum et motuum.