Oronce Fine facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Oronce Fine
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Oronce Fine
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| Born | 20 December 1494 Briançon, France
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| Died | 8 August 1555 (age 60) Paris, France
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| Nationality | French |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Cartography, mathematics |
Oronce Fine (or Finé; Latin: Orontius Finnaeus or Finaeus; Italian: Oronzio Fineo; 20 December 1494 – 8 August 1555) was a French mathematician, cartographer, editor and book illustrator.
Life
Born in Briançon, the son and grandson of physicians, he was educated in Paris (Collège de Navarre) and obtained a degree in medicine in 1522.
Fine grew up in an academic household and his parents contribution to sciences was notable in France at the time. Much of Fine's early childhood was shaped by his father's involvement and support of sciences. Fine's father in addition to being a physician was a strong student in astronomy. He had created many astronomical instruments and published a treatise which was one of the few astronomical incunabula of French origin.
Fine's university was known as a leading center at Paris for the study of scholastic philosophy and theology. There he fostered his editing ability and later printed many editions of writings from scholars. It is believed that his career ended abruptly when he was imprisoned, for reasons that are highly disputed.
He was imprisoned in 1524, a date that is agreed upon, probably for practicing judicial astrology.
In 1531, he was appointed to the chair of mathematics at the Collège Royal (the present Collège de France), founded by King Francis I, where he taught until his death.
In time, as the first chair of mathematics he had become the leading mathematicians of France. Arguably, one of his most significant contributions to sciences is his published compilation of the four main areas of mathematics that he named Protomathesis. Fine was known by his peers to be much more than just a mathematician, though. He taught at the French College Royal as the first Royal Lecturer in mathematics, he made instruments, and oversaw Paris's printing houses. He was also influential to the lives of students, particularly Pedro Nunes and Petrus Ramus as well as many others, and inspired them to continue their scholastic endeavors.
Although he leaves a great legacy in regard to his published papers of mathematics, he suffered financial problems and legal issues throughout his career. He worked as an illustrator and proof reader for Paris's print houses in hopes relieving the financial strain brought on by his six children and his father's death. Unfortunately, his efforts were not enough which added to his family's poverty drastically after he died. Making the matters worse for his children, his wife died shortly after Fine's death.
Mathematics
Fine is well known for his contribution to mathematics. He is known to most historians as being the first mathematics teacher as a royal lecturer. However, Fine is not necessarily known for his contributions to math discoveries, but rather popularizing mathematical teaching all over France. He was tasked with making math more transparent and to reform the curriculum that was being taught in France at the time. Fine was faced with having to incorporate practical branches of math that could be used in other areas like medicine, law, and theology.
To display his new teachings and developments, he released a collection of his work through his Protomathesis. This collection included his teaching on practical math, not only traditional mathematics. The Protomathesis also incorporated both practical and theoretical teachings, which were completely new to France, and changed the way that mathematics was taught and viewed. His study and teachings of mathematics allowed him to also be prolific in a wide range of mathematical fields, including practical geometry, arithmetic, optics, gnomonics, astronomy and instrumentalism.
A contribution that Fine proposed, and is still used today, is the value of pi. He gave the value of pi (≈ 3.14159) to be 22+2/9/7 ≈ 3.1746 in 1544. Later, he gave 47/15 ≈ 3.1333 and, in De rebus mathematicis (1556), he gave 3+11/78 ≈ 3.1410.
Astronomy and geography
In 1542 Fine published De mundi sphaera (On the Heavenly Spheres), a popular astronomy textbook whose woodcut illustrations were much appreciated. His writing on astronomy included guides to the use of astronomical equipment and methods (e.g. the ancient practice of determining longitude through the coordinated observation of lunar eclipses from two fixed points with enough distance between them to make the phenomena appear at different times of the night). He also described more recent innovations, such as an instrument he called a méthéoroscope (an astrolabe modified by adding a compass).
Explanatory work was complemented by direct contributions. His woodcut map of France (1525) is one of the first of its kind. He constructed an ivory sundial in 1524, which still exists.
Fine's heart-shaped (cordiform) map projection of 1531 may be his most famous illustration, and was frequently employed by other notable cartographers, including Peter Apian and Gerardus Mercator.
Fine attempted to reconcile discoveries in the New World with old medieval legends and information (derived from Ptolemy) regarding the Orient. Thus, on one of his two world maps, Nova Universi Orbis Descriptio (1531), the legend marked Asia covers both North America and Asia, which were represented as one landmass. He used the toponym "America" for South America, and thus Marco Polo's Mangi, Tangut and Catay appear on the shores of the present-day Gulf of Mexico. On the same map, Fine drew Terra Australis to the south, including the legend "recently discovered but not yet completely explored", by which he meant the discovery of Tierra del Fuego by Ferdinand Magellan.
Fine's cosmography was derived from the German mathematician and cosmographer Johannes Schöner. In his study of Schöner's globes, Franz von Wieser, found that the derivation of Fine's mappemonde from them was "unmistakeable (unverkennbar)"; he said "Orontius Finaeus took from Schöner not only the Brasilie Regio, but the whole Austral Continent, the Strait of Magellan, and above all the whole arrangement of lands; in a word, the mappemonde of Oronce Fine is a copy of Schöner's". Lucien Gallois also noted the undeniable ressemblance parfaite between Finé's 1531 mappemonde and Schöner's globe of 1533. As Schöner's globe of 1523, which also closely resembled Fine's mappemonde, was not identified until 1925 by Frederik (F.C.) Wieder, Gallois was forced to argue that Fine, who said he had been working on his mappemonde since 1521, had had direct or indirect personal communication with Schöner or had drawn upon his 1515 Luculentissima descriptio. Wieder's identification of Schöner's map gores of 1523 strengthens Gallois' case for Fine's reliance upon Schöner.
Death and legacy
Fine died in Paris at age 60.
Jean Clouet is said to have painted a portrait of Fine in 1530, when Fine was 36. With the original painting lost, the rendering is now known only through prints derived from the original image.
Honours
The lunar crater Orontius and Finaeus Cove in Antarctica are named after Oronce Fine, using his Latinized name. In 2014, a square named after Oronce Fine was inaugurated in Paris, France.
See also
In Spanish: Oronce Finé para niños
- Charles Hapgood
