Abstract
WHEN reference was made in these columns a year ago to the scientific centenaries in 1936, the first man of science to be recalled to mind was the famous German mathematician Johann Miiller, or Regiomontanus, who was born in 1436. In reviewing the centenaries which will fall this year the first name to be included is that of Christopher Clavius (1537-1612) whose birth occurred a century later. Born at Bamberg, in Germany, he entered the Society of Jesus, taught for many years in Romeearning for himself the appellation of “the Euclid of the 16th Century” was employed by Pope Gregory XIII on the reformation of the calendar, and in 1604 published his most important book, “Geometria Practica”. He died February 6, 1612. Another mathematical worthy of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was Henry Gellibrand, who was born in London in 1597 and died as Gresham professor of astronomy in February 1636 (o.s.) or 1637 (N.S.). It was Sir Henry Savile who turned Gellibrand's attention to mathematics, and at the Gresham College he became the close friend of Henry Briggs.
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Smith, E. Scientific Centenaries in 1937. Nature 139, 12–15 (1937). https://doi.org/10.1038/139012a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/139012a0