Online Seminar - Henri de Monantheuil's Astronomical Teaching

As part of the St Andrews History of Mathematics seminar, Richard J. Oosterhoff will be delivering a hybrid lecture, abstract below. The talk is expected to last one hour. If you would like to attend online, please email Isobel Falconer (ijf3@st-andrews.ac.uk) for the link.

Henri de Monantheuil's Astronomical Teaching 
Richard J. Oosterhoff, University of Edinburgh

Abstract: In 1574 Henri de Monantheuil was first appointed Royal Professor of Mathematics at the University of Paris and after a bumpy appointment process retained the post until his death in 1604. All this while, he held leading roles in the Faculty of Medicine, an example of the importance astronomy held among Renaissance physicians. He reflects the ambitious group of mathematicians who either studied with Peter Ramus or were promoted by him, including figures such as Jean Pena. In Monantheuil's published orations and the prefaces to his influential edition of (Pseudo-) Aristotle's Mechanica (1598) scholars have found a vision of mathematics that suggested that geometrical analysis of structures could lead to causal insight--a controversial and powerful idea in late sixteenth-century Europe that is tempting to link to Descartes and other mathematical philosophers of the seventeenth century. However, the sources for this interpretation have always been highly rhetorical defences of the mathematical arts, leaving open the question of what Monantheuil actually taught as professor. This talk uses Monantheuil's teaching notes on Sacrobosco's Sphere to account for what his students might have learned about the status of astronomical objects, mathematical objects, and causes.