John Smith Gallery

Joseph Justus Scaliger(1540-1609). Cyclometrica Elementa Duo. [Elements of Circle Measurement]. Leiden, 1594. [D.1.30]

As the most famous classicist and humanist of his age it is not surprising that Smith took a keen interest in the writings Joseph Justus Scaliger (1540–1609), many of whose interests coincided directly with those of his own (in particular, Scaliger’s agenda to expand the notion of classical history to include Persian, Babylonian, Jewish and ancient Egyptian history is clearly reflected in Smith’s book collecting).

However, in writing this famous volume on geometry Scaliger had strayed from his principal area of expertise. In 1590 he announced that he had solved three longstanding problems of ancient Greek mathematics: the circle quadrature, the trisection of the angle, and the construction of two mean proportional. Sadly some of Scaliger’s pompously phrased proscriptions as published in this publication proved to be flawed. Their rejection by a number of contemporary commentators via letters and publications stands as an interesting document to how academia was conducted in the 17th century.