Article ID: CBB001201307

From Pious to Polite: Pythagoras in the Res publica litterarum of French Renaissance Mathematics (2013)

unapi

Between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries, Pythagoras became a purveyor of polite secrets. To the Florentine Neoplatonist philosopher Marsilio Ficino, Pythagoras was a prophet or priest whose cryptic sayings might allow a glimpse into cosmic mysteries. By the 1650s one was as likely to find Pythagoras adorning a treatise on the theory of disciplines like swordsmanship and dancing. Numbers had come down to earth. This paper charts the first, crucial part of this inversion in meanings and importance attributed to Pythagoras---and so to mathematics---among French mathematicians in the first part of the sixteenth century. Keywords Pythagoras, mathematics, Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples, Charles de Bovelles, Oronce Fine, Jacques Peletier du Mans, French republic of letters, Renaissance, humanism, philosophy

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https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001201307/

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Authors & Contributors
Hirai, Hiro
Vengeon, Frédéric
Ulivi, Elisabetta
Robin, Diana
Rey Bueno, Mar
Prins, Jacomien
Concepts
Science and religion
Humanism
Mathematics
Philosophy
Natural philosophy
Historiography
Time Periods
15th century
16th century
Renaissance
17th century
Early modern
18th century
Places
Italy
Europe
Florence (Italy)
France
United States
Ottoman Empire
Institutions
Jesuits (Society of Jesus)
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