Mathematicians 15th century
Nicolas Chuquet was a 15th century French mathematician.
The exact dates of birth and death of this scientist are not known, nor are the places of birth. Chuquet received a Bachelor of Medicine degree from the University of Paris, went to Italy in the early 1470s, and around 1480 moved to Lyon, where he worked as a physician, mathematics teacher, and scribe. He is also known to have translated Latin works into French.
In 1484 he wrote his major algebraic work, the treatise Le Triparty en la Science des Nombres (The Science of Numbers in Three Parts), now considered one of the most original mathematical texts of the 15th century. At the time, arithmeticians lacked even the most basic notations for addition subtraction, multiplication, and division. Chuquet was one of the first to propose these symbols; he also introduced the names of large numbers into common use: billion, trillion, etc. In addition to general arithmetic and rules for calculating roots, the treatise contains a doctrine of equations and a collection of problems.
This treatise was published only in 1880, but the works of Nicolas Chuquet had a significant influence on the development of algebra, and they were consistently supplemented and expanded by scientists of the following generations.
Nicolaus Copernicus (Polish: Mikołaj Kopernik) was a Polish and German scientist, astronomer, mathematician, mechanic, economist, and Renaissance canonist. He was the author of the heliocentric system of the world, which initiated the first scientific revolution.
Copernicus studied the humanities, including astronomy and astrology, at the University of Krakow and at the University of Bologna in Italy. Together with other astronomers, including Domenico Maria de Novara (1454-1504), he was engaged in observing the stars and planets, recording their movements and eclipses. At the time, medicine was closely related to astrology, as the stars were believed to influence the human body, and Copernicus also studied medicine at the University of Padua between 1501 and 1503.
Nicolaus Copernicus, based on his knowledge and observations, was the first to suggest that the Earth is a planet that not only revolves around the sun every year, but also rotates once a day on its axis. This was in the early 16th century when people believed the Earth to be the center of the universe. The scientist also suggested that the Earth's rotation explained the rising and setting of the Sun, the movement of the stars, and that the cycle of the seasons was caused by the Earth's rotation around itself. Finally, he correctly concluded that the Earth's motion in space causes the planets to move backwards across the night sky, the so-called retrograde direction.
Although Copernicus' model was not completely correct, it laid a solid foundation for future scientists, such as Galileo, who developed and improved mankind's understanding of the motion of celestial bodies. Copernicus completed the first manuscript of his book De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the Rotation of the Celestial Spheres) in 1532. In it, the astronomer outlined his model of the solar system and the paths of the planets. However, he published the book only in 1543, just two months before his death, and dedicated it to Pope Paul III. Perhaps for this reason, and also because the subject matter was too difficult to understand, but the church did not finally ban the book until 1616.
Estienne de la Roche, also known as Estienne de Villefranche, was a French mathematician.
He is known for having taught mathematics in Lyon for 25 years as a professor of mathematics. In 1520 he published the Arismatics, considered at the time the best reference book on algebra.
Jacobus Faber Stapulensis or Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples was a French humanist, Catholic theologian, philosopher, music theorist and mathematician. He taught at the University of Paris. He is best known as the first translator into French of the complete text of the Bible.
Regiomontanus, real name Johannes Müller, was a 15th-century German astronomer and mathematician, one of the first printers.
The son of a miller, he entered the University of Leipzig at the age of 11 and later transferred to the University of Vienna. In 1452, Regiomontanus earned a bachelor's degree and then a master's degree. With his teacher, the mathematical astronomer Georg von Peyerbach (d. 1461), he spent the next years practicing astronomy and astrology, including observations of eclipses and comets, making astronomical instruments, and compiling horoscopes for the court of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III.
Regiomontanus was also seriously involved in mathematics, publishing his major work on trigonometry, On All Kinds of Triangles (1462-1464). From 1467 to 1471, Regiomontanus lived in Hungary as astrologer to Hungarian King Matyas I and Archbishop Janos Vitez. Then in Nuremberg, Germany, he opened an instrument workshop, established a printing house, and continued his planetary observations. The scholar planned to print extensive publications on classical, medieval, and modern mathematical sciences, but not all plans came to fruition.
Paolo Ricci (Italian: Paolo Ricci, Latin: Paulus Ricius, German: Paul Ritz), also known as Ritz, Riccio, or Paulus Israelita, was a humanist convert from Judaism, a writer-theologian, Kabbalist, and physician.
After his baptism in 1505 he published his first work, Sol Federis, in which he affirmed his new faith and sought through Kabbalah to refute modern Judaism. In 1506 he moved to Pavia, Italy, where he became a lecturer in philosophy and medicine at the university and met Erasmus of Rotterdam. Ricci was also a learned astrologer, a professor of Hebrew, philosophy, theology, and Kabbalah, a profound connoisseur and translator of sacred texts into Latin and Hebrew, and the author of philosophical and theological works.
Paolo Ricci was a very prolific writer. His Latin translations, especially the translation of the Kabalistic work Shaare Orach, formed the basis of the Christian Kabbalah of the early 16th century.
