The Knowledge of Arabic Mathematics by Clavius

DOI10.1017/S0957423902002138MaRDI QIDQ4796877zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Publication date 5 August 2003

Published in Arabic Sciences and Philosophy (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://doi.org/10.1017/s0957423902002138

History of mathematics in the 15th and 16th centuries, Renaissance (01A40)

Christopher Clavius (1537--1612) was one of the most interesting Renaissance scientists, not only because his life bridges the time span between Copernicus (d. 1543) and Galileo (d. 1642) but because he, more than anyone else, was almost single handedly responsible for the organization of the Jesuit mathematical curriculum of the time. Furthermore, he was an adamant supporter of the Ptolemaic system, despite the fact that the Copernican revolution was on the ascendancy at the time. From his position as a Jesuit mathematician, and remembering the universal appeal of the Jesuits to mathematical education that went hand in hand with their missionary activity, one can conclude that he exerted a tremendous intellectual influence that went far beyond the confines of the Jesuit order. The article under review explores the indebtedness of Clavius to Arabic mathematical sources and, by extension, the indebtedness of the Jesuit mathematical curriculum to those sources. Out of the fourteen authorities who wrote in Arabic that are cited by Clavius, and the three who wrote in Hebrew but still culturally connected to the Islamic civilization of the time, there were some of those sources that Clavius could read directly through the Latin translations, while others he would quote, and transform their ideas, through hearsay and third party quotations. One particular instance discussed in this article also highlights the general scientific atmosphere of the sixteenth century. It involves the expressed desire of Clavius to write a treatise on, and attempt to prove, Euclid's fifth postulate. In his edition of Euclid's \textit{Elements} of 1589, he expressly states that he had long heard about Arab attempts to prove that postulate, and that he had searched diligently for their works, but could not find any that were translated into Latin. He went on to complain bitterly about someone he knew who owned an Arabic copy of Euclid's \textit{Elements}, and who would not share its contents with him. This remark does not only express the justifiable frustration of a Renaissance scientist to acquire the latest in the Arabic mathematical sciences, obviously thought of as more up-to-date than the Greek sources that inspired them, but that there were people in the sixteenth century who possessed and obviously worked from the Arabic originals. For those who know the situation in astronomy and medicine, they can attest to similar instances in those disciplines as well. The present article presents a skeletal sketchy account of that vigorous, but yet frustrating, interaction between Arabic and Renaissance mathematical sources, and only hints to the possibilities that could be explored if one were to gather all the Arabic sources upon which any single Renaissance scientific work was based. From arithmetic, to algebra, trigonometry, and astronomy, as well as other mathematical disciplines such as scientific instruments, one finds similar interactions and similar contacts, all attesting to the general well-founded awareness during the Renaissance that the most up-to-date scientific results at the time were indeed to be found in the Arabic rather than the Greek sources.

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