Francisco de Mello

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Francisco de Mello (* 1490 in Lisbon , † April 27, 1536 in Évora ) was a Portuguese mathematician, theologian and teacher.

Life

De Mello was of noble descent and was patronized by the Portuguese King Manuel I. He studied (financed by the king) from 1512 to 1521 in Paris theology and mathematics, where he was introduced to the study of the works of Euclid and Archimedes by the doctor Pierre Brissot (1478-1522) . He was also a student of Gaspar Lax in Paris . He earned a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in theology as well as a licentiate in theology.

In Portugal he was the educator of the king's children and probably also occupied with questions of navigation and cartography, which were of great importance for the seafaring nation Portugal at that time. He was involved in the Badajoz Conference , which was supposed to clarify disputed questions about the division of the world between Spain and Portugal, sanctioned by the Pope (Junta de Badajoz-Elvas). He may also have been rector of the University of Lisbon for four years. Shortly before his death he became bishop of Goa , but never traveled there. He had a reputation as an important scientist and in this sense the Portuguese playwright Gil Vicente dedicated a few verses to him.

Many of his works were burned in the great earthquake in Lisbon in 1755 , and a commentary on Euclid's optics and Archimedes' hydrostatics as well as elements of geometry (a translation of a work by Jabir ibn Aflah (Geber Hispalensis)) have survived. He frequented humanistic circles, also translated non-scientific works from Latin and wrote obituary poems.

In 2012, a manuscript by De Mello from 1521 was discovered in the Stralsund City Archives . She is the former Portuguese King Manuel I paid. Shortly before the earthquake in 1755, the governor of Swedish Pomerania, Axel Graf von Löwen , bought it and inadvertently saved it from destruction. In 2007 it was shown to a broad international public at an exhibition in Lisbon.

Fonts

  • De vivendi ratione atque oculorum forma, in: Euclidis perspectiva corollarium. (Comment on the optics of Euclid)
  • Archimedis de incidentibus in humidis (on Archimedes' hydrostatics with commentary by de Mello)
  • Elementa Geometrica ad Astronomiam necessaria

literature

  • Bernardo Mota, Henrique Leitão (eds.): Obras Mathematicas, Francisco de Mello , Lisbon 2014. ISBN 978-972-9376-31-3
  • Juan Vernet: Francisco de Mello. In: Dictionary of Scientific Biography . Online .
  • Antonio Ribeiro dos Santos: Memoria Da Vida, e Escritos de D. Francisco de Mello. In: Academia Real das Sciencias de Lisboa (ed.): Memorias de Litteratura Portugueza. Volume 7. Officina da Mesna Academia, Lisbon 1806, pp. 237–249 , ( Memory of the life and work of Francisco de Mello. Portuguese).
  • Marcel battalion : Erasme et la cour de Portugal. In: Marcel Bataillon: Études sur le Portugal au temps de l'humanisme. Ordem da Universidade, Coimbra 1952, pp. 49-100.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Juan Vernet in: Dictionary of Scientific Biography. The date of death can also be found in Poggendorff Biographisch-Literarisches Kurzsprache zur Geschichte der Exacten Wissenschaft , 1863. After Poggendorff he died in Goa, but according to the article in the Dictionary of Scientific Biography he was never in Goa.
  2. ↑ Geiß-Wunderlich, Jürgen: Francesco de Mello . In: Stralsund book treasures . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2017, ISBN 978-3-447-10834-8 , pp. 68-69 .
  3. ↑ Robert A. Hatch, Richard S. Westfall 's Encyclopedia of Scientists of the Early Modern Age, see web links
  4. ^ Richard S. Westfall, Robert A. Hatch
  5. ↑ Märkische Oderzeitung, May 24, 2012 ( Memento of the original from November 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.moz.de
  6. ↑ https://www.stralsund.de/shared/Nachrichtenportal/Archiv/2017/02/Kostbaren-de-Mello-in-Lissabon-Schatz-aus-Stralsunder-Stadtarchiv-bei-grosser-Ausstellung-in-Portugal.html
personal data
SURNAME Mello, Francisco de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Portuguese mathematician and humanist
DATE OF BIRTH 1490
PLACE OF BIRTH Lisbon
DATE OF DEATH April 27, 1536
Place of death Évora