Henry Savile
Sir Henry Savile (born November 30, 1549 in Bradley , West Yorkshire , † February 19, 1622 in Eton ) was an English scholar. His focus was on Greek and mathematics , best known for the chairs he founded in Oxford.
Life
Savile was the son of Henry and Elizabeth Savile. His older brother Sir John Savile (1545-1607) was a lawyer, another brother, Thomas Savile († 1593), also a scholar in Merton.
He attended Brasenose College , Oxford , where he was enrolled in 1561. In 1565 he went to Merton College , where he made his Baccalaureus Artium in 1566 and his Magister Artium in 1570 . He gave lectures on the Almagest and earned his first reputation as a Greek scholar and mathematician. In 1575 he received the administrative post of Junior Proctor . In 1578 he went on a study trip through Europe, including to France , Breslau and Rome , where he exchanged ideas with many of the most important mathematicians of his time and fulfilled orders for Queen Elisabeth in the Netherlands .
On his return he became the Queen's Greek teacher, Warden of Merton in 1585 and Provost of Eton in 1596 , chairman of the college administration, as he led the college to its prime. In 1592 he married Margaret Dacre. In February 1601 he was suspected of being linked to the Earl of Essex coup d'état and arrested, but quickly rehabilitated. On September 30, 1604 he received the accolade as a Knight Bachelor . In the same year his only son died, leaving only his daughter Elizabeth, who later became the mother of the playwright Sir Charles Sedley . Savile himself died in 1622 at the age of 72.
plant
The notes for his lecture on the Almagest have been preserved; in addition to Ptolemy 's classical content, they also contain the then new ideas of Regiomontanus and Nicolaus Copernicus as well as the current state of mathematics. Even then, he was also concerned with the theoretical and practical reasons for doing mathematics, as well as the didactics of the subject.
This later became one of his most important subjects. He repeatedly complained that in England mathematics was not practiced systematically and at a sufficient level, neither in teaching nor in research. At the end of his life he tried to remedy this problem himself by establishing two chairs for geometry and astronomy in Oxford , which are now named after him: the Savilian Chair of Geometry and the Savilian Chair of Astronomy .
In his introductory lecture for the geometry chair on Euclid's elements , he proved that their author could not be identical with Euclid of Megara , his most important contribution to the history of mathematics . His preparatory work for a Euclid edition was used in the Oxford edition of 1703 by David Gregory (including his annotations on the Greek edition of the elements, which appeared in Basel in 1533). Another well-known activity was participating in the translation of the King James Bible , during which he edited parts of the Gospels , the Acts of the Apostles of Luke and the Revelation of John .
Web links
- Publications by and about Henry Savile in VD 17 .
- John J. O'Connor, Edmund F. Robertson : Henry Savile. In: MacTutor History of Mathematics archive .
Individual evidence
- ^ William Arthur Shaw: The Knights of England. Volume 2, Sherratt and Hughes, London 1906, p. 135.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Savile, Henry |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Savile, Sir Henry (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English scholar |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 30, 1549 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Bradley |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 19, 1622 |
| Place of death | Eton |