Oresme, N
NAME: Oresme, Nicole
ACHIEVEMENT(S): Aristotelian scholar whose work influenced the development of modern mathematics and science and of French prose.
NICKNAME/ALIAS: Nicole D'Oresme
DATE/PLACE OF BIRTH: c.1323 in Bayeux, Normandy, France
DATE/PLACE/AGE AT DEATH: 11 July 1382, at Lisieux, France. Aged around 60
DISCIPLINE: Mathematician
FIELD: Mathematics
LANGUAGE: French and Latin
PARENTS: Unknown
SIBLINGS: Henry (and possibly William)
SPOUSE: None
CHILDREN: None
EDUCATION: University of Paris, 1340s
MAJOR WORK: 'Tractatus de latitudinibus formarum', 1505
LIFE AND TIMES:
Little is known of his early life until the 1340s, when he studied philosophy and theology at the University of Paris under the celebrated scholastic philosopher <taught by> Buridan*. From 1348 he served as teacher and bursar at the College de Navarre, the theological college of the University of Paris, rising, on taking his theological mastership in 1355-56, to Grand Master of the College in 1356.
During the early 1350s, while at the College de Navarre, Oresme wrote his most important mathematico-physical work in which he developed a method of describing the key relationship between intensities ("intensio" or "latitudo") and altitudes (the "extensio" or "longitudo") [as for example in the case of describing the qualities of a heated rod, the relationship between the degree of heat at each point and the length of the rod] through his discovery of the logical equivalence between tabulating values and graphing them, and then proposing the use of a graph for plotting a variable magnitude whose value depends on another.
In established a way of using geometrical figures to represent or graph intensities in qualities, which could also be applied to velocities in motions, Oresme effectively invented coordinate geometry before the great French philosopher and mathematician
<anticipated> Descartes*.
Oresme's work also contained a major contribution to the science of kinematics (the principles and laws of motion), which evolved out of studies of the mathematical properties of uniformly accelerated motion.
During these studies, Oresme proved geometrically the Merton theorem - that the space traversed in a given period by a falling body with uniformly accelerated motion is the same as if the body moved uniformly at its speed for the middle instant of the period - and his resulting geometric equation (which showed the equality of a right triangle representing uniform acceleration with a rectangle representing a uniform motion at the velocity of the middle instant of acceleration) was to be of profound historical importance.
Its use can be traced successively through the work of, for example, the 16th-century Italian mathematician <influenced> Tartaglia*, to its use by <influenced> Galileo* when developing his acceleration law.
Another of Oresme's mathematical works from this period contains the first use of a fractional exponent, although not in modern notation. Oresme also worked on infinite series, and composed an independent tract, the 'Algorism of Ratios', in which he elucidated in an original way the rules for manipulating ratios.
At some time during the late 1350s, Oresme became friendly with the Dauphin (Crown Prince, and after 1364, King Charles V of France), who from 1356, following the capture by the English of his father, King John II at the battle of Poitiers, was acting as regent of France.
Charles appears to have held Oresme's talents and character in high esteem, for in 1360 Oresme was sent to Rouen to negotiate a loan for him, and the following year, through Charles's influence, Oresme was appointed archdeacon of Bayeux. However, his petition to be allowed to remain Grand Master while taking this new position was denied, and he chose to remain at Navarre.
Oresme finally left Navarre in November 1362 following his appointment as canon of Rouen, and a few months later he was made also canon at Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. Then, in March 1364, he was appointed dean of the cathedral of Rouen, a position which he held until 1377. He preached before Pope Urban V on Christmas Eve 1363, and from 1369 he resided mainly in Paris.
During the early 1360s, Charles began commissioning works from Oresme, which
included a famous polemic against astrology and black magic, 'Livre de divinacions' ('Book on Divinations'), and a number of works on economics.
His first such work was his celebrated treatise 'De moneta' ('On Coinage'), composed around 1360, which argued against any debasement of the national coinage. Oresme instead stated that coins should constitute a definite, consistent weight of precious metal, the fineness of which should be guaranteed by the issuing authority, and that coins remained the ultimate property of the public, not of the prince, who had no right to vary their standard, weight, or bimetallic ratio. This work was frequently referred to by those concerned with economics during the succeeding centuries, was printed in 1484 and then frequently reissued during the 16th and 17th centuries.
Following on from the success of 'De moneta', Charles was particularly interested in works that would benefit the government, and his first translation was of Aristotle's
'Ethics' (1370, printed 1488), accompanied by a 'Commentary' containing more of his ideas on economics. This was followed by translations of Aristotle's 'Politics' and 'Economics' (both 1371, printed 1489).
After studying these works, Charles V introduced notable changes in French financial affairs, particularly in accordance with Oresme's theories on the lawfulness and necessity of taxation, and on the indispensability of a stable coinage. Oresme's translations from the contemporary Latin versions of Aristotle's 'Ethics', 'Politics', and 'Economics' are also considered to have been an important contribution to the development of the French language in the 14th century, particularly its scientific vocabulary.
In 1377, Oresme was elected bishop of Lisieux, and he was consecrated the following year. During these later years of his career, he addressed his studies to problems of astronomy, in which he was influenced by the 12th-century English scholastic philosopher <influenced by> Adelard of Bath's* tendency to discuss immediate natural causation rather than explain natural phenomena in terms of the supernatural.
In two works written in French, 'Traité de la sphère' ('Treatise on the Sphere') and 'Livre du ciel et du monde d'Aristote' ("Aristotle's Book on the Heavens and the Earth", completed 1377), Oresme questioned a number of Aristotle's ideas, advocating (although finally rejecting) the possibility of several universes, and showing that the reasons proposed by Aristotle for the motion of the heavens around a stationary Earth are not valid.
However, although in this he presented a theory of earthly motion that preceded Copernicus by two hundred years (and even included a solution to religious objections based on passages from Scripture), he finally rejected this concept as unorthodox.
ASSESSMENT: In mathematics Oresme helped lay the foundation that later led to the discovery of analytic geometry, and in economics he was one of the first to advocate the necessity of a stable coinage. He was also a famed opponent of astrology.
EXTRA CONNECTIONS: He was influenced by <influenced by> Witelo*
ONELINER: Nicolas Oresme, medieval mathematician and economist
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
EB, DSB
Catholic Encyclopedia
Clagett, M., The Science of Mechanics in the Middle Ages, Madison, Wisconsin, 1969