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Mathematics General

Making Mathematical Culture

University and Print in the Circle of Lefèvre d'Étaples

by (author) Richard Oosterhoff

Publisher
Oxford University Press
Initial publish date
Sep 2018
Category
General
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780198823520
    Publish Date
    Sep 2018
    List Price
    $120.00

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Description

In 1503, for the first time, a student in Paris was able to spend his entire university career studying only the printed textbooks of his teacher thanks to the works of the humanist and university reformer Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples (c. 1455-1536). As printed books became central to the intellectual habits of following generations, Lefèvre turned especially to mathematics as a way to renovate the medieval university.

Making Mathematical Culture argues this was a pivatol moment in the cultural history of Europe and explores how the rise of the printed book contributed to the growing profile of mathematics in the region. Using student manuscripts and annotated books, Making Mathematical Culture offers a new account of printed textbooks, as jointly made by masters and students, and how such collaborative practices informed approaches to mathematics.

About the author

Contributor Notes

Richard Oosterhoff is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Cambridge, and a fellow at CRASSH where he is researching a monograph on the "untutored mind" in Early Modern Europe. Richard completed his PhD in 2013 at the University of Notre Dame, and has since worked on the cultural and intellectual history of early modern Europe in the areas of science, the book, and religion. His articles have appeared in the Journal for the History of Ideas, Intellectual History Review, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, and History of Universities.