Franz Trentel

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Title page of Franz Trentel's "Compendium Algebrae Elementaris", 1774
Tower of the "Neubaukirche" Würzburg, on which Franz Trentel directed the observatory.

Franz Trentel , actually Franz Xaver Trentel (born February 1, 1730 in Neustadt an der Weinstrasse , Rheinpfalz , † January 29, 1804 in Würzburg ) was a Jesuit priest , mathematics professor and astronomer .

Live and act

Franz Trentel was born in Neustadt an der Haardt (now Neustadt an der Weinstrasse ) in the Palatinate . There the Jesuits had looked after the Catholic parish of the Liebfrauen-Stiftskirche on behalf of the Palatinate Elector since 1700 and had a branch with a Latin school or college.

At the age of 16 Trentel entered the Jesuit order on September 27, 1746 and was ordained a priest in 1753. He then worked at the Jesuit colleges in Molsheim , Baden and Würzburg , taught biblical theology and Hebrew at the Mainz University , then mathematics at the Heidelberg University . From 1763 to 1765 he taught physics, ethics and metaphysics at the University of Würzburg . At the same time, as early as 1763, he had to represent Franz Huberti, who was already quite famous at the time, as professor of mathematics so that he could devote himself more to astronomy. Trentel's entry into the faculty of the university is recorded in the register there on March 12, 1763, under the number 19411.

In the years 1771/72, Franz Trentel moved to Vienna to study astronomy with Father Maximilian Hell , the director of the local observatory. In 1773 Trentel was appointed to the newly created, extraordinary professorship for mathematics and astronomy in Würzburg. He received the title "Professor adjunctus"; at the same time he had to represent Huberti again, who was designing uniform fruit measures on the orders of the prince-bishop. In 1775, Father Trentel was employed on an equal footing with Professor Huberti. After his death in 1789, Franz Trentel also took over the management of the Würzburg observatory on the tower of the new church , which belonged to the university.

In 1792, at the age of 62, the Palatinate Jesuits were relieved of their duties due to illness. His former student Michael Anton Schwab took over the mathematical lectures. But Trentel continued his teaching until 1803.

According to his obituary in Samuel Baur's “General Historical-Biographical-Literary Concise Dictionary of All Strange Persons Who Died in the First Decade of the Nineteenth Century” (1816), Franz Trentel's teaching was “comprehensible, engaging and gentle” , and he was because of it his "gentle and virtuous character" had been appreciated by all who knew him.

Works

Franz Trentel's main written works were the textbooks:

  • Compendium Algebrae Elementaris (1774),
  • Compendium Geometriae Elementaris (1775),
  • Compendium Sectionum Conicarum (1778).

They were used for over 30 years and the “Compendium Algebrae Elementaris” in particular was later reissued and reprinted several times, right up to our day. A reprint of it was last published in 2009, ISBN 1-120-27308-0 .

literature

  • Samuel Baur: "General historical-biographical-literary concise dictionary of all strange people who died in the first decade of the nineteenth century" , Volume 2, Ulm 1816, column 618; Scan of the entry about Franz Trentel
  • Maria Reindl: "Teaching and research in mathematics and natural sciences, especially astronomy, at the University of Würzburg" , dissertation, 1965 text excerpt about Franz Trentel
  • Freddy Litten: "Astronomy in Bavaria, 1914-1945" , Steiner Verlag, 1992, ISBN 3515060928 ; Text excerpt about Franz Trentel
  • Ingrid Hupp: "Arithmetic and Algebra Textbooks Würzburg Mathematicians of the 18th Century" , in: Algorism. Studies on the history of mathematics and natural sciences, Issue 26, Institute for the history of natural sciences, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-89241-027-5 .
  • Ingrid Hupp: "De Extractione Radicum - drawing roots from a historical perspective" , in: "Der Mathematikunterricht", 2004, No. 6, pp. 33–35

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christian Bönicke (Ed.): Outline of a story from the University of Wirzburg . 1782, p. 163 ( google.de ).
  2. ^ To Professor Michael Anton Schwab (1748-1806)
  3. ↑ Complete scan of the book
personal data
SURNAME Trentel, Franz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Trentel, Franz Xaver
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Jesuit, university professor, mathematician and astronomer
DATE OF BIRTH February 1, 1730
PLACE OF BIRTH Neustadt an der Weinstrasse
DATE OF DEATH January 29, 1804
Place of death Wurzburg