Villum Lange

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Villum Lange , German also Wilhelm Lange and Latinized Wilhelmus Langius , (born January 15, 1624 in Helsingør ; † May 22, 1682 in Copenhagen ) was a Danish mathematician, astronomer and constitutional judge.

life and work

Lange studied at the University of Copenhagen in the early 1640s. From 1646 to 1650 he went on a study trip that took him to Oxford, Paris and Leiden. In 1649 in Leiden he published a text on the Bible in which he denied the movement of the earth around the sun. He revised this position in 1667. He set the first day of creation to April 30, 4042 BC and came to the conclusion that the crucifixion of Christ took place on a Thursday. In Denmark, many scholars expressed doubts about its theological hypotheses.

Nevertheless, in 1650 he was appointed professor of mathematics at the University of Copenhagen. Until 1652 he studied further in Leipzig (1650), Padua (1651) and Florence (1652) and received his master’s degree in Copenhagen in 1653. In addition to mathematical subjects, he also dealt with astronomy at this time. In 1656 he published his work De veritatibus geometricis libri II . In this work he defended mathematics epistemologically against skeptical approaches in the manner of a Sextus Empiricus or a Marcus Meibom .

Through this work he got the attention of the Danish King Friedrich III. and Prince Christian V . From these he was involved in diplomatic and constitutional tasks of the Danish state. Lange negotiated with the Swedish peace negotiator Sten Bjelke in 1658 as a result of the war that Frederick III had started against Sweden in July 1657. In the same year he was appointed as a representative of the universities, as the 21st and last member of a commission whose task was to draft the absolutist constitution, the so-called royal law . As a result, Lange became a member of the Danish Supreme Court.

Works by Villum Lange

  • De Annis Christi Libri Duo (1649)
  • De Veritatibus Geometricis Libri. II.: Prior, contra Scepticos & Sextum Empiricum, Posterior, contra Marcum Meibomium. (1656)

literature

  • Dansk Biografisk Leksikon: Villum Lange. Retrieved May 10, 2019 (Danish).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The article is based on the information in the article “Villum Lange” in the Dansk Biografisk Leksikon.
  2. ↑ Historical Dictionary of Philosophy. Volume 9. Basel. 1995. Page 95. Article “Skepticism, Skepticism”. "Modern Times". (Author: Michael Albrecht ). Point 7 “opponents of skepticism”. here: V. Lange.
personal data
SURNAME Lange, Villum
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lange, Wilhelm; Langius, Wilhelmus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Danish mathematician and astronomer
DATE OF BIRTH January 15, 1624
PLACE OF BIRTH Elsinore
DATE OF DEATH May 22, 1682
Place of death Copenhagen