John Greaves

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John Greaves

John Greaves (* 1602 in Alresford , Hampshire , † October 8, 1652 in London ) was a British mathematician and archaeologist .

Life

Greaves was the eldest son of John Greaves, the principal of Colemore. He received his education between 1617 and 1621 at Balliol College , Oxford . In 1630 he became professor of geometry at Gresham College , London. After traveling Europe, he went to the Middle East in 1637 , where he collected Arabic, Persian, and Greek manuscripts and measured the pyramids in Egypt more precisely than anyone before him.

After his return to Europe, he again traveled to many areas in Italy and researched old weights and measures, which made him an early researcher in metrology . In 1643 he got the " Savilian Chair " for astronomy in Oxford, founded in 1619 and named after Henry Savile . But he was soon relieved of his professorship at Gresham College in London because he had not fulfilled his duties. In 1645 he proposed a calendar reform, which, however, was not carried out. In 1648 he lost both his membership at Oxford University and his chair, probably because he belonged to the royalist faction under Oliver Cromwell . Officially, he was accused of wasting money on his university. Greaves retired to London. His fortune allowed him to marry and prosper for the last few years of his life. He was able to deal more with publications as well as the editing of books and manuscripts.

Fonts

In addition to many publications in the Philosophical Transactions , Greaves published:

  • Pyramidographia, or a description of the pyramids of Egypt . (1646)
  • A Discourse on the Roman Foot and Denarius . (1649)
  • Elementa Linguae Persicae . (1649)
  • Lemmata Archimedis, apud Graecos et Latinos iam pridem desiderata, e vestusto codice manuscripto Arabico a Johanne Gravio traducta. Revised by Samuel Foster (1659)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Greaves, John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British mathematician and archaeologist
DATE OF BIRTH 1602
PLACE OF BIRTH Alresford
DATE OF DEATH October 8, 1652
Place of death London