Pierre Forcadel

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Pierre Forcadel (* around 1500 in Béziers ; † 1572 or 1573) was a French mathematician.

Life

Pierre Forcadel was the brother of the poet (and law professor in Toulouse) Étienne Forcadel (1519–1578) whose oeuvre poètique appeared in 1579. Forcadel educated himself and possibly at the University of Paris (College de Presles), where he was primarily interested in mathematics. His knowledge of Latin was not very good. He visited Italy and gave (then new) public lectures in Paris on arithmetic, about which he also published a book in French. Thanks to the protection of Pierre de la Ramée (Petrus Ramus), he became professor (Lecteur du Roi) of mathematics at the Collège de France (then Collège Royale) in 1560 as the successor to Jean de Pena, which he remained until 1573. His mathematician colleagues at the Collège de France were Pascal Duhamel (1530 until his death 1565 professor) and his successor Jacques Charpentier (1566 until his death 1574 professor).

Although he took an oath to the Catholic faith required by the French king in 1568, he was close to the Huguenots (several copies of his books are dedicated to high Huguenot leaders). Shortly before Bartholomew's Night of 1572, he lost his patron, the Comte de Brissac. He seems to have temporarily left his chair in the confusion of religion to avoid persecution.

In 1565 and 1566 his edition of the first 9 books of the elements of Euclid appeared , the first French translation. He also published translations of the writings of Euclid on music, of Archimedes (equilibrium of flat surfaces), Autolykos of Pitane , Theodosios of Bithynia and Proclus (his work on kinetics) as well as Gemma Frisius (arithmetic) and Oronce Finé (geometry), the From 1532 until his death in 1555 he was professor at the Collège Royale. He also published arithmetic books for the commercial practice (a new venture in France at the time), including a practical book on addition, subtraction and currency conversion with a system of pieces using a method of its own in 1558.

His translations are not the best (he couldn't speak Greek and his Latin wasn't very good). His teacher Petrus Ramus described him as sine litteratura, sine philosophia . He gave his lectures on arithmetic and Euclid in French. He had math skills for that.

Fonts

  • L'Arithmeticque, en laquelle sont traitées les quatre règles, Paris: Charles Périer 1556, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (Paris, Cavellat 1557)
  • Le premier livre d'Archimède, des choses également pesantes, traduict et commenté par Pierre Forcadel, de Beziès de Archimède et Pierre Forcadel, 1565
  • L'Arithmétique entière et abrégée, reveue et augmentée par le mesme Forcadel, Paris: Charles Périer, 1565, 1573
  • Les septième, huictième et neufième livres des Élémens d'Euclide, comprenans toute la science des nombres, traduits et commentez par Pierre Forcadel, 1565
  • Deux Livres de Proclus , touchant le mouvement, traduits par ledit Forcadel, et imprimés à Paris, 1565
  • Le Livre de la musique d'Euclide, traduit par P. Forcadel, Paris: Charles Périer 1566
  • Les six premiers livres des Éléments d'Euclide, traduictz par Pierre Forcadel, Paris: Charles Périer 1566
  • La Description d'un anneau horaire, demonstrée de l'invention de Pierre Forcadel, Paris: Mathurin Prevoil 1568
  • L'Arithmétique par les gects, de Pierre. Forcadel,… divisée en trois livres, de l'invention du dit Forcadel.
  • La Practique de la géométrie d'Oronce Finé, dauphinois; traduicte par Pierre Forcadel, du latin en français. En laquelle est compris l'usage du quarré géométrique, & de plusieurs autres instruments servants à même effet: esfemble la manière de bien mesurer toutes sortes de plans & quantités corporelles, avec les figures & demonflrations, Paris: Gilles Gourbin 1570
  • Deux livres; l'un de la sphère qui est meue, et l'autre du lever et coucher des estoilles non errantes. Ensemble le livre de Théodose des habitations de Autolycus et Pierre Forcadel, 1527
  • Gemma Frison , traduction Pierre Forcadel: L'arithmetique 1582

literature

  • Natalie Zemon Davis Sixteenth century french arithmetics on the business life , Journal of the history of ideas, Volume 29, 1960, pp. 18-48
  • Isabelle Pantin: Teaching mathematics and astronomy in France: The Collège Royale (1550-1650) , Science and Education, Volume 15, 2006, pp. 189-207
  • Un lettre autographe de Pierre Forcadel, Lecteur du roi en mathématiques, a Jean de Morel , Revue d´histoire litteraire de la France, year 12, 1905, 663–665 (by Richmond-Laurin Hawkin, with biographical note)
  • Claude Pierre Goujet: Mémoires historiques et littéraires sur le collège royal de France , Paris 1758, volume 2, p. 23

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Abel Lefranc Histoire du Collège de France , Paris: Hachette, p. 349, there a document from February 15, 1574 is cited, in which it is about the successor of the mathematics professors Forcadel and Charpentier, who were called deceased. On-line
  2. ^ Forcadel, Etienne on the Tolosana website, accessed on July 8, 2020.
personal data
SURNAME Forcadel, Pierre
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French mathematician and mathematician historian
DATE OF BIRTH around 1500
PLACE OF BIRTH Beziers
DATE OF DEATH 1572 or 1573