On 31 August the New York Times published an opinion piece under the following title: Historians See Autocratic Playbook in Trump’s Attacks on Science From the headline illustration it was very obvious in which direction at least one part of … Continue reading →| The Renaissance Mathematicus
In his book, The History of the Barometer (The Johns Hopkins Press, 1964), W. E. Knowles Middleton whilst discussing the contact between Isaac Beeckman (1588–1637) and René Descarte…| The Renaissance Mathematicus
In the last post in this series, we took an in depth look at the career of the English mariner Sir Robert Dudley (1574–1649). This ended with an account of the scientific instruments that he left b…| The Renaissance Mathematicus
3 posts published by thonyc during August 2025| The Renaissance Mathematicus
We have already looked at the philosophical motivation behind the mathematisation of science in the early modern period as well as the impetus supplied by the mathematical practitioners but there i…| The Renaissance Mathematicus
Originally posted as a comment on a Facebook post, a wonderful truth expressed in a few words by the man who was responsible for me starting this blog, historian of biology John Wilkins. As I ha…| The Renaissance Mathematicus
4 posts published by thonyc during June 2025| The Renaissance Mathematicus
Back in 2020, I wrote a very positive review of Benjamin Wardhaugh’s fascination volume, The Book of Wonder: The Many Lives of Euclid’s Elements. This led me to also writing a positive review of Reading Mathematics in Early Modern Europe of which Wardhaugh was both a … Continue reading →| The Renaissance Mathematicus
Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour, manipulation, and detection of electromagnetic radiation, which for most of its history meant simply light. The study of light begins with three basic phenomena, the propagation of light, reflection, that … Continue reading →| The Renaissance Mathematicus
For historians of Tudor England, the name Robert Dudley immediately evokes the image of the 1st Earl of Leicester (1532–1588), companion to Edward VI, condemned to death by Mary Tudor for his part in the attempt to declare Lady Jane Grey … Continue reading →| The Renaissance Mathematicus
In 1618, the same year that Isaac Beeckman (1588–1637) was teaching the principle of inertia to René Descartes (1596–1650), Johannes Kepler (1571–1630) made one of the most significant discoveries in the history of astronomy and physics, his third law of … Continue reading →| The Renaissance Mathematicus
Measurement lies at the heart of many areas of science, where there is almost a fetish for ever more exact measurement. However, one thing that most people are not aware of is how much of the measurement that we use … Continue reading →| The Renaissance Mathematicus
Today we look at the life and work of the physicist and mathematician, Evangelista Torricelli (1608–1647), who is the second member of what I have termed the Galilei-Castelli school of mathema…| The Renaissance Mathematicus
Just another WordPress.com weblog| The Renaissance Mathematicus
4 posts published by thonyc during February 2025| The Renaissance Mathematicus
This is the next post in my serious on introductory books into the history of mathematics. In one sense the series started almost eight years ago when I wrote a short very negative put down of the …| The Renaissance Mathematicus
Have written far too many words damning Kate Kitagawa & Timothy Revell’s The Secret Lives of Numbers: A Global History of Mathematics & Its Unsung Trailblazers (Penguin,…| The Renaissance Mathematicus
As I stated at the start of the last episode both Niccolò Leoniceno (1428–1524) and Pandolfo Collenuccio (1444–1504), in their dispute over the quality, or lack of it, of Pliny’s His…| The Renaissance Mathematicus
