Maximilian Curtze

Ernst Ludwig Wilhelm Maximilian Curtze (also: Maximilian Kurtze , ELWM Curtze , Ernst LWM Curtze , Massimiliano Curtze , Maximiliano Curtze or Maksymilian Curtze ; * August 4, 1837 in Ballenstedt ; † January 3, 1903 in Thorn ) was a German high school teacher, math historian and Copernicus researcher, translator and editor of numerous mathematical writings.

Life

Curtze was the fourth son of a doctor from Ballenstedt. After graduating from high school on March 18, 1857 in Bernburg , he studied philology at the University of Greifswald , where he joined the Greifswald fraternity Rugia . There he was strongly influenced by his mathematics professor Johann August Grunert , the founder of the "Archive of Mathematics and Physics", which also published historical articles. From April 1861 he completed a probationary year at the higher middle school in Lennep and from January 1862 he became a teacher at the Thorner Gymnasium , where Leopold Prowe was teaching at the same time . After passing his teaching examination in March 1864, Curtze was first the 7th full teacher at the Gymnasium in Thorn. In April 1879 he was appointed high school senior teacher and in December 1888 high school professor. On April 10, 1893, he was awarded the rank of councilor IV class, and in 1894 he retired. He was also the bearer of the Officer's Cross and the Knight's Cross of the Italian Army.

Coppernicus and mathematics historiography

Curtze, like Prowe in Thorn, joined a committee that was founded to erect a monument in honor of Nicolaus Copernicus in his native town. After a monument created by Friedrich Tieck was inaugurated in 1853 on the Old Town Market in Thorn, the Monument Committee continued its history research activities as the Coppernicus Association for Science and Art .

Curtze published the manuscripts available in the archives of Berlin, Frauenburg, Vienna, Uppsala, such as the Commentariolus he found , in the communications of the Coppernicus Association ( Inedita Copernicana , 1878, 1882). In 1873 he was the editor of the Säcular edition of Copernicus 'main work De revolutionibus , which was based on Copernicus' autograph . In 1879, in the foreword of the German translation of the main work “About the circular movements” created by Menzzer, he argued in favor of using the spelling “Coppernicus”, as he had often chosen this spelling in his own signatures. In 1899 Curtze wrote a biographical sketch about Coppernicus.

After Leopold Prowe died, Curtze gave a memorial speech at an extraordinary meeting of the association on October 10, 1887, and continued its Copernicus research. Curtze had already translated a report by Carlo Malagola and his findings in the documents of Count Malvezzi’s family archive into German in 1880 . These contained the annals of the Germanic Nation of the students in Bologna from 1200 to 1650, in which Malagola found the entries of the brothers Andreas and Nicolaus Copernicus as well as those of the uncle Lucas Watzelrode .

Since he mastered not only the classical languages, but also French and Italian, he also translated a number of contemporary Italian mathematics books into German, such as the graphic statics by Luigi Cremona , Francesco Brioschi and Eugenio Beltrami .

Curtze, along with his friend Moritz Cantor , is considered to be one of the most important German historians of mathematics in the 19th century, especially in the area of ​​the Middle Ages in Western Europe. He edited manuscripts by, among others, Nikolaus von Oresme , Bradwardine , Banu Musa , Johannes de Sacrobosco , Jordanus Nemorarius , Leonardo Mainardi , the correspondence of Regiomontanus , Al-Nayrizi , including much previously largely unknown.

Memberships

Curtze was a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina , the Academia de Padua and the Société des sciences physiques et naturelles de Bordeaux .

Works (excerpt)

• List on Google Books
• The Royal National Library of Thorn and its rarities . In: New Prussian Provincial Papers . Fourth episode. Volume 5, Königsberg 1868, pp. 141-155.
• Nicolaus <Oresmius>: The algorism proportionum of Nicolaus Oresme . 1868
• About some hitherto unknown printed writings by Domenico Maria Navara da Ferrara. In: New Prussian Provincial Papers . Fourth episode. Volume 7, Königsberg 1870, pp. 515-521 and pp. 726-527 .
• The mathematical writings of Nicole Oresme (approx. 1320–1382). 1870
• Reliquiae Copernicanae: based on the originals in the University Library at Upsala, 1875 (legacy of Copernicus)
• Inedita Coppernicana. From the manuscripts of Berlin, Frauenburg, Upsala and Vienna. 1878
• The stay of Coppernicus in Bologna ... Translated from “Della vita e delle opere di Antonio Urceo, detto Codro” by Carlo Malagola, 1880
• Additions to d. Inedita Coppernicana. 1882
• Birthplace of Nikolaus Coppernicus, in communications of the Coppernicus Association for Science and Art in Thorn, 1882
• Petrus de Dacia: In Algorismum vulgarem Johannis de Sacrobosco commentarius. 1897
• Nairīzī, Abu-'l-: In X libros priores Elementorum Euclidis Commentarii. 1899 (as a supplement to the Euclid edition by Heiberg and Heinrich Menge in Teubner, Gerhard von Cremona ’s commentary on Al-Nayrizi ’ s commentary on the first 10 books of Euclid’s elements, which Curtze found in Krakow)
• Nicolaus Coppernicus: A biographical sketch, in "Collection of popular writings", 1899
• Documents on the history of mathematics in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. 1902
• Antonio Favaro. Intorno al presunto autore della Artis metricae practicae compilatio. 1904

literature

• Joseph Warren Dauben, Christoph J. Scriba (Ed.): Writing the History of Mathematics. Birkhäuser, 2002
• Moritz Cantor: Maximilian Curtze. In: Annual report DMV. Volume 12, 1903, pp. 357-368
• Siegmund Günther: Maximilian Curtze. In: Bibliotheca mathematica. 3rd Series, Volume 4, 1903, pp. 65-81. ( Digitized version of Heidelberg University )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Life documents of Maximilian Curtze ( Memento from July 11, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
2. ↑ The library of the Coppernicus Association for Science and Art, founded in 1855, had a strictly scientific character. It was the first library in Thorn to maintain an international exchange of documents. Her Copernicana collection was complete. She also had a rich collection of scientific and astronomical literature and materials from the field of art. In 1923 there were around 5000 volumes available. - Public Voivodeship Library and Nicolaus Copernicus City Library [1]
3. ^ Announcements from the Coppernicus Association for Science and Art in Thorn (Kujawsko-Pomorska Digital Library)
4. ^ The stay of Coppernicus in Bologna, translated into German. by M. Curtze
5. ^ Joseph Warren Dauben, Christoph J. Scriba: Writing the History of Mathematics. Birkhäuser, 2002 ( digitized version ). However, there is also criticism that he often only used one copy for his editions and hardly wrote any comments. In addition, he had no access to Arabic sources, for example through contacts with orientalists.
6. ^ Edition 2004, online

Web links

Wikisource: Maximilian Curtze  - Sources and full texts

• Literature by and about Maximilian Curtze in the catalog of the German National Library
• Journal for mathematics and physics , BGTeubner publishing house 1878 Copernico in Italia - report on Carlo Malagola's discoveries
• Announcements from the Coppernicus Society for Science and Art in Torun - Kujawsko-Pomorska Digital Library, Poland.