Marshall Clagett

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Marshall Clagett (born January 23, 1916 in Washington, DC , † October 21, 2005 in Princeton , New Jersey ) was an American historian of science specializing in Archimedes research .

Marshall Clagett studied at the California Institute of Technology and at George Washington University , where he graduated in 1937. In 1941 he received his doctorate and taught at Columbia University . From 1941 to 1946 he served in the US Navy , which he left with the rank of Lieutenant Commander . After serving in the army, Clagett returned to Columbia University, teaching history and the history of science. In 1947 he moved to the University of Wisconsin , where he was appointed professor of the history of science in 1954. From 1959 to 1964 he headed the university's own Institute for Research in the Humanities . In 1964 he finally moved to Princeton , where he taught as a professor in the Department of Historical Studies until his retirement in 1986 .

Clagett's research had two main focuses:

For one, Clagett was one of the most renowned Archimedes researchers. Above all, research into Archimedes' reception in the Middle Ages was close to his heart. His main scientific work was also the five-volume Archimedes in the Middle Ages , the first volume of which appeared in 1964, the last only 20 years later, in 1984. Clagett's achievement consisted primarily of exploring Archimedes' afterlife and the reception of antiquity via Byzantine To trace empire and the European Middle Ages to the Renaissance . The second focus of the work was the history of science in ancient Egypt . Here Clagett has published the four-volume series Ancient Egyptian Science since 1989 . A Source Book . He was working on the last and fourth volumes at the time of his death. Clagett also dealt with the medieval tradition of the elements of Euclid and was one of the first to distinguish three versions when the first translator into Latin Adelard of Bath .

In 1956, Clagett was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . Since 1960 he was a member of the American Philosophical Society . He was awarded the George Sarton Medal in 1980 and the Koyré Medal in 1981.

Fonts

  • Greek Science in Antiquity 1955, Dover Press, Dover 2000
  • Archimedes in the Middle Ages , 5 Volumes, 1964–1984 (Volume 1, Madison, Wisconsin 1964)
  • Ancient Egyptian Science. A source book , 3 volumes, American Philosophical Society, 1989–1999
  • The Science of Mechanics in the Middle Ages , Madison, Wisconsin 1959

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Marshall Clagett, The medieval latin translation from the Arabic of the Elements of Euclid with special emphasis on the versions of Adelard of Bath , Isis, Volume 44, 1953, pp. 16-42
  2. ^ Member History: Marshall Clagett. American Philosophical Society, accessed June 20, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Clagett, Marshall
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American historian
DATE OF BIRTH January 23, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH Washington, DC , USA
DATE OF DEATH October 21, 2005
Place of death Princeton , New Jersey , USA