Biography:Hugh Sempill

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Short description: Scottish mathematician (between 1589 and 1596 – 1654)

Hugh Sempill (or Semple) (in Latin, Hugo Simpelius or Sempilius) (between 1589 and 1596 – 1654) was a Scottish Jesuit mathematician and linguist. He describes himself in his work as Craigbaitaeus, having inherited landholdings at Craigbait from his grandfather.[1]

Biography

A Jesuit, Sempill taught as professor of mathematics at the Colegio Imperial de Madrid (Imperial College of Madrid), which employed teachers from all over Europe and made courses in geometry, geography, hydrography, and horology.

He also served as procurator of the Royal Scots College in Madrid (now located in Salamanca). During Sempill's tenure the College is thought to have acquired, perhaps at Sempill's behest, a collection of Jacobean and Caroline era stage plays in quarto editions, among them The Two Noble Kinsmen by William Shakespeare and John Fletcher.[2][3][page needed]

De mathematicis disciplinis, 1635

The crater Simpelius on the Moon is named after him.[4] The name was originally assigned by Riccioli in 1651.

Works

Sempill's De Mathematicis disciplinis Libri duodecim (Antwerp, ex officina B. Moreti, 1635), dedicated to Philip IV of Spain, was a work that was read across Europe (his work was cited, for example, by the Jesuit Philippus Brietius in the Frenchman's own Parallela Geographie). Sempill's work was essentially a compilation and many pages consist of little but a list of names of writers in various scientific genres.

Sempill also wrote Experientia Mathematice. De compositione et divisione numerum, linearum, quadratorum... (Madrid, 1642), and Dictionarium Mathematicum, which was prepared for the press but never published.

Bibliography

References

Citations

Sources

Further reading

  • Capel, Horacio (November 1980). "La geografía como ciencia matemática mixta. La aportación del círculo jesuítico madrileño en el siglo XVII" (in es). Geo Crítica (30). ISSN 0210-0754. http://www.ub.edu/geocrit/geo30.htm. 
  • Ortiz, Eduaro L.. "Sempill, Hugh (1596–1654)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/25072.  (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  • Sáiz, Patricio (2005). "El peluquero de la Reina" (in es). Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. doi:10.2139/ssrn.3495888. https://www.aehe.es/wp-content/uploads/2005/10/b14_saiz_gonzalez.pdf. 
  • Wald-Fuhrmann, Melanie (2005). "Sic ludit in orbe terrarum aeterna Dei sapientia" - Harmonie als Utopie: Untersuchungen zur Musurgia universalis von Athanasius Kircher ["It plays out in a world of eternal wisdom" - Harmony as Utopia: Investigations into Athanasius Kircher's "Musurgia universalis"] (Dr.phil. dissertation) (in Deutsch). University of Zurich. Retrieved 2021-02-09.