Esprit Pezenas

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Esprit Pezenas (born November 28, 1692 in Avignon ; † February 4, 1776 ibid) was a French Jesuit , astronomer and mathematician . From 1728 to 1749 he was professor of hydrography and from 1729 to 1763 director of the Marseille observatory .

Life

Esprit Pezenas came from an old Provencal family in Avignon and was the son of the notary Esprit François Pezenas (1661-1738) and Gabrielle de Neviere (1664-1738). He attended the Jesuit college in Avignon from 1702 and entered this order as a novice in 1709 . After completing his training, he worked from 1724 to 1727 as a teacher, including physics , logic and metaphysics, first in Lyon , then at the Jesuit college in Aix-en-Provence . In 1728 he was appointed royal professor of hydrography in Marseille as the successor to Antoine Laval , where he taught future galley officers for an annual salary of 500 livres . He was exemplary through his lectures and writings and was also active as a practical geometer. So he directed the leveling of the projected canal in Provence , which are recorded in Lalande's great work Des canaux de navigation (1778). In doing so, he did not neglect his spiritual duties, but also distinguished himself as a mission preacher through his eloquence.

When the galleys that were no longer suitable for the newer navy were closed in 1749 and the royal school for hydrography in Marseille closed its doors, Pezenas had to give up teaching there, but remained director of the Marseille observatory. In the same year he traveled to Paris , where he met the new Minister of the Navy, Antoine-Louis Rouillé, and the scientists Charles Marie de La Condamine , Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille and Joseph-Nicolas Delisle, and subsequently received significant funding for the renovation and equipment of his observatory . With this financial support he procured several good astronomical instruments and established the fame of the Marseille observatory, which was now one of the best equipped in Europe. Two Jesuits paid by the king were granted to him as assistants, whom he trained to become skilled mathematicians and astronomers and with whom he not only carried out and published regular daily observations, but also jointly published five volumes of mathematical and physical treatises in 1755 and the following years. After the abolition of the Jesuit order in 1763, he had to leave Marseille, retired to his hometown and worked diligently as a writer there. He died in Avignon on February 4, 1776 in 83 years. He had been a member of the Naval Academy since its inception and a correspondent of the Academies of Science in Paris (from 1750), Marseille and Montpellier.

Works

Pezenas wrote works and treatises on mathematics, hydrography, ship navigation and surveying, nautical astronomy and the determination of geographical longitudes. He also translated important works by English scientists, mainly dealing with optics and mathematics, which made these works known in France. His writings include a:

  • Éléments de pilotage , Marseille 1733, new edition 1754
  • Pratique du pilotage , Marseille 1741 and 1749
  • Nouvelle méthode du jaugeage , 1742
  • Théorie et pratique du jaugeage des tonneaux, des navires et de leurs segments , Avignon 1749; second edition 1778
    • The second edition contains two papers by Dez, a professor at the military school, on the sight rod. Pezenas had already sent to the Paris Academy of Sciences a document that had an impact on calibration and sighting systems, relating to Kepler's task on the proportions of the segments of a barrel cut parallel to its axis.
  • French translations from English:
    • des Treatise of fluxions by Colin Maclaurin under the title Traité des fluxions , 2 volumes, Paris 1749
    • the algebra of Maclaurin, Paris 1750
    • of physics by John Theophilus Desaguliers , 2 volumes, Paris 1751
    • the Guide for Young Mathematicians by John Ward, Paris 1757
    • of Stewart 's comment on Newton's squaring of the curves
    • Baker's writing on the microscope under the title Microscope mis à la portée de toute le monde
    • Clarke's treatise on Newton's first book of Principia philosophiae naturalis
    • of the New English General Dictionary by Thomas Dyche . Pezenas organized this translation together with Jean-François Féraud and published it under the title Nouveau dictionnaire universel des arts et des sciences, français, latin et anglais (5 volumes, 1753).
    • the optics of Robert Smith under the title Cours complet d'optique… (2 volumes, Avignon 1767). According to recent research, Pezenas created this translation as early as 1752. He also added valuable additions to it. For example, he reports on light experiments he has carried out himself, gives lectures on achromatic telescopes and other optical instruments that have been invented since the original work was first published, and presents a clever solution to the problem of solar rotation .
  • Astronomy des marins , Avignon 1766
    • In this work, Pezenas shows with numerous examples that the solution of nautical problems through spherical trigonometry is far simpler and more convenient than through the deterrent formulas that Maupertuis wanted to replace.
  • Mémoires de mathématiques et de physique rédigés à l'observatoire de Marseille (together with Blanchard, La Grange and Guillaume de Saint-Jacques de Silvabelle ), 5 volumes, Avignon 1755–56.
    • The year 1755 contains a long treatise by Pezenas on the instruments useful for observations at sea and on the connection of the heliometer with the telescope .
  • Nouveaux essais pour déterminer les longitudes en mer par les mouvements de la lune et par une seule observation , Avignon 1768
    • The method proposed here requires the resolution of many triangles.
  • Manière de réduire en tables la solution de tous les triangles sphériques , Avignon 1772
    • The printing of tables such as the one proposed by Pezenas, and of which he is giving samples, would have cost 18,000 francs, according to the author's estimate.
  • Examen de la méthode de l'abbé de la Caille pour trouver en mer les longitudes , Avignon 1773
    • This criticism is followed by the above-mentioned work Nouveaux essais pour déterminer les longitudes en mer… .
  • Nouvelle théorie des taches du soleil , published by the Paris Academy of Sciences in their Mémoirs présentés des savants étrangers , vol. 6, p. 318
  • Table de logarithmes , Avignon 1770
    • This writing is actually a copy of William Gardiner's tablets published in 1742 , augmented with the logarithms of the sines and tangents for every single second of the first four degrees. The latter logarithms were calculated by Mouton to ten decimal places, but still unprinted; Pezenas reduced it to seven decimal places and published it that way.
  • Histoire critique de la découverte des longitudes , Avignon 1775
    • This work follows on from the author's astronomy des marins above . It puts forward some new ideas that Delambres thought were daring, and it contains some imprecise quotes, presumably made from memory. One notices the decrease in the intellectual powers of its author in the work.

The observations made by Pezenas since 1729 came to the Paris naval depot. Other observations by Pezenas are in the Mémoires de Trevoux , e . B. Observations on the obliqueness of the ecliptic and the latitude of Marseilles (1731). According to an announcement in the Journal des Savants (February 1773, p. 116), a collection of all mathematical essays and treatises from all journals and from the memoranda of all academies in Europe was to appear in Avignon under the direction of Pezenas, but did not materialize.

literature

Remarks

  1. ^ Esprit Pezenas on geneanet.org
  2. ^ List of members since 1666: Letter P. Académie des sciences, accessed on February 2, 2020 (French).
personal data
SURNAME Pezenas, wit
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French Jesuit, astronomer and mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH November 28, 1692
PLACE OF BIRTH Avignon
DATE OF DEATH February 4, 1776
Place of death Avignon