Juan de Celaya facts for kids

Juan de Celaya (born around 1490 in Valencia, Spain – died December 6, 1558) was a very smart Spanish scholar. He was a mathematician, physicist, and philosopher. He was part of a group called the "Calculators" who used new ideas from Merton College in England. Juan de Celaya is famous for his studies on how things move (called kinetics and dynamics) and also for his work in logic, which is about how we think and reason.

Early Life and Studies

Juan de Celaya's father was a minor nobleman who helped in the Reconquest of Granada. Juan probably studied at the University of Valencia. He finished his studies in 1509 at the Collège de Montaigu in Paris, France.

While he was a student, he learned from important thinkers like Jean Gaspar Lax and Dullaert of Ghent. These teachers had a big impact on the ideas and books Celaya would later write.

Teaching Career

From 1510 to 1515, Juan de Celaya taught Physics and Logic at the College of Coqueret [fr] in Paris. He worked alongside other smart people like Alvaro Thomaz, who was very interested in how things move.

After that, from 1515 to 1524, he taught at the Collège Sainte-Barbe. Some of his students became famous scholars themselves, including Francisco de Vitoria and Domingo de Soto.

Juan de Celaya also continued his own studies. He earned his theology degree on March 24, 1522, and became a doctor on June 21, 1522.

Return to Valencia

In 1524, Juan de Celaya went back to his hometown of Valencia. Just one year later, he became the Principal and a Professor of Theology at the University of Valencia. He played a very important role in changing and improving how studies were organized at the university.

His Important Works

While he was in France, Celaya wrote many books. He mostly focused on the physics ideas of Aristotle, especially how things move. He also published many works on philosophy and logic.

He was a key person in promoting "nominalist logic" and the ideas from the Oxford Calculators. These groups had new ways of thinking about how things move and change.

Some of his most important books include:

• Expositio in primum tractatum Summularum magistri Petri Hispani (published in 1515).
• Expositio in octo libros phisicorum Aristotelis (published in 1517).
• Libros Physicorum Aristotelis cum quaestionibus eiusdem, secundum, triplicem viam Thomae, Realium et nominalium. This was a collection of four earlier works, published between 1525 and 1531.
• In libros Aristotelis de generationes et corruptiones.

See also

In Spanish: Juan de Celaya para niños