Jordanus de Nemore, 13th century mathematical innovator: an essay on intellectual context, achievement, and failure (Q1202992)

Jordanus de Nemore was the most important mechanician and one of the most significant mathematicians of the Middle Ages, hardly anything is known of his life (Ch. II). In the Chapters III and IV the author discusses the ``Latin'' and ``Christian'' quadrivium and ``Christian learning''. Ch. V (The wider context of mathematics) is introductory to the next Ch. VI: The Jordanian corpus, in which the author discusses the genuine works of Jordanus. However, the canon of Jordanian works is not quite well- established, and several of the definitely Jordanian treatises exist in two or more different versions. Ch. VII is entitled Jordanus' achievement and Ch. VIII: Failure and its reasons. Ch. IX is an appendix, discussing the evidence for the existence of a ``Jordanian circle'' in Paris towards the mid-thirteenth century. Ch. X, finally, is an epilogue dealing with the general implications of the study for the questions of (evolutionary) epistemology. Remark: A critical edition of the Arithmetica of Jordanus was published by the reviewer, Jordanus de Nemore: De elementis arithmetice artis. A medieval treatise on number theory (1991; Zbl 0732.01043).