Cornelis de Waard (born 19 August 1879 in

Bergen op Zoom Bergen op Zoom (; called ''Berrege'' in the local dialect) is a municipality and a city located in the south of the Netherlands. Etymology The city was built on a place where two types of soil meet: sandy soil and marine clay. The sandy soil p ...

, died in

Vlissingen Vlissingen (; zea, label=Zeelandic, Vlissienge), historically known in English as Flushing, is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and a city in the southwestern Netherlands on the former island of Walcheren. With its strategic l ...

on 6 May 1963) was a

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

mathematics teacher and a historian who specialized in researching science and mathematics of the seventeenth century.

Biography

De Waard studied mathematics and physics in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

and was then a teacher in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

Winschoten Winschoten (; gos, Winschoot) is a city with a population of 18,518 in the municipality of Oldambt in the northeast of the Netherlands. It is the largest city in the region of Oldambt in the province of Groningen which has 38,213 inhabitants. ...

, and from 1909 until retirement in 1944, lived in

Historical work

de Waard was particularly concerned with mathematicians of the first half of the 17th century such as

René Descartes René Descartes ( or ; ; Latinized: Renatus Cartesius; 31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650) was a French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician, widely considered a seminal figure in the emergence of modern philosophy and science. Mathem ...

Pierre de Fermat Pierre de Fermat (; between 31 October and 6 December 1607 – 12 January 1665) was a French mathematician who is given credit for early developments that led to infinitesimal calculus, including his technique of adequality. In particular, he ...

Gilles Personne de Roberval Gilles Personne de Roberval (August 10, 1602 – October 27, 1675), French mathematician, was born at Roberval near Beauvais, France. His name was originally Gilles Personne or Gilles Personier, with Roberval the place of his birth. Biography ...

Blaise Pascal Blaise Pascal ( , , ; ; 19 June 1623 – 19 August 1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, and Catholic Church, Catholic writer. He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen. Pa ...

Girard Desargues Girard Desargues (; 21 February 1591 – September 1661) was a French mathematician and engineer, who is considered one of the founders of projective geometry. Desargues' theorem, the Desargues graph, and the crater Desargues on the Moon are ...

. He discovered and published several original writings of scholars of the seventeenth century, including 8 volumes of the correspondence

Marin Mersenne Marin Mersenne, OM (also known as Marinus Mersennus or ''le Père'' Mersenne; ; 8 September 1588 – 1 September 1648) was a French polymath whose works touched a wide variety of fields. He is perhaps best known today among mathematicians for ...

and the journals of

Isaac Beeckman Isaac Beeckman (10 December 1588van Berkel, p10 – 19 May 1637) was a Dutch philosopher and scientist, who, through his studies and contact with leading natural philosophers, may have "virtually given birth to modern atomism".Harold J. Cook, in ...

. He assisted

Étienne Gilson Étienne Henri Gilson (; 13 June 1884 – 19 September 1978) was a French philosopher and historian of philosophy. A scholar of medieval philosophy, he originally specialised in the thought of Descartes; he also philosophized in the tradition o ...

in the preparation of his edition of Descartes' ''

Discourse on the Method ''Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One's Reason and of Seeking Truth in the Sciences'' (french: Discours de la Méthode Pour bien conduire sa raison, et chercher la vérité dans les sciences) is a philosophical and autobiographical ...

''. In his 1906 “De uitvinding der verrekijkers” ("The Discovery of the Telescope"), one of the first modern works on the subject, he put forward evidence that supported Middelburg spectacle-maker

Zacharias Janssen Zacharias Janssen; also Zacharias Jansen or Sacharias Jansen; 1585 – pre-1632) was a Dutch spectacle-maker who lived most of his life in Middelburg. He is associated with the invention of the first optical telescope and/or the first truly ...

as the inventor of the device.Albert Van Helden, Sven Dupré, Rob van Gent, The Origins of the Telescope, Amsterdam University Press - 2010, page 37-39

Published works

* “De uitvinding der verrekijkers” (The Hague, 1906) ("The Discovery of the Telescope") * The expedition of

Cornelis Evertsen the Younger Cornelis Evertsen the Younger (Flushing, Netherlands, Flushing, 16 April 1628 – Flushing, 20 September 1679) was a Dutch Admiral from the 17th century. Cornelis was the son of Lieutenant-Admiral Johan Evertsen and the nephew of Lieutenant-A ...

* L'experience barometrique. Ses antecedents et ses explications, (Imprimerie Nouvelle, Thouars, 1936) A historical study * (in collaboration with

Paul Tannery Paul Tannery (20 December 1843 – 27 November 1904) was a French mathematician and historian of mathematics. He was the older brother of mathematician Jules Tannery, to whose ''Notions Mathématiques'' he contributed an historical chapter. Thoug ...

and

Charles Henry Charles, Charlie, or Chuck Henry may refer to: Sportsmen *Charlie Henry (baseball) (1900–1972), American Negro leagues baseball player *Charles Henry (basketball), Gonzaga basketball coach for the 1943–44 season *Charlie Henry (footballer, bor ...

) Works of Fermat (1891–1922, 5 vols.), Paris. * (in collaboration of Paul Tannery and René Pintard) Correspondence of P. Marin Mersenne, minor religious (1932–1988), Presses universitaires de France, XVII volumes * Journal of

from 1604 to 1634 (1939–1953, 4 vols.), Ed. Martinus Nijhoft, The Hague.

Biography

Historical work

Published works

References

Further reading