Gerard of Brussels (french: Gérard de Bruxelles, la, Gerardus Bruxellensis) was an early thirteenth-century geometer and

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

known primarily for his Latin book ''Liber de motu'' (''On Motion''), which was a pioneering study in

kinematics Kinematics is a subfield of physics, developed in classical mechanics, that describes the Motion (physics), motion of points, Physical object, bodies (objects), and systems of bodies (groups of objects) without considering the forces that cause ...

, probably written between 1187 and 1260. It has been described as "the first Latin treatise that was to take the fundamental approach to kinematics that was to characterize modern kinematics." He brought the works of

Euclid Euclid (; grc-gre, Wikt:Εὐκλείδης, Εὐκλείδης; BC) was an ancient Greek mathematician active as a geometer and logician. Considered the "father of geometry", he is chiefly known for the ''Euclid's Elements, Elements'' trea ...

and

Archimedes Archimedes of Syracuse (;; ) was a Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, astronomer, and inventor from the ancient city of Syracuse in Sicily. Although few details of his life are known, he is regarded as one of the leading scientists ...

back into popularity and was a direct influence on the

Oxford Calculators The Oxford Calculators were a group of 14th-century thinkers, almost all associated with Merton College, Oxford; for this reason they were dubbed "The Merton School". These men took a strikingly logical and mathematical approach to philosophical ...

(four kinematicists of

Merton College Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 1260s when Walter de Merton, ch ...

) in the next century. Gerard is cited by

Thomas Bradwardine Thomas Bradwardine (c. 1300 – 26 August 1349) was an English cleric, scholar, mathematician, physicist, courtier and, very briefly, Archbishop of Canterbury. As a celebrated scholastic philosopher and doctor of theology, he is often call ...

in his ''Tractatus de proportionibus velocitatum'' (1328). His chief contribution was in moving away from

Greek mathematics Greek mathematics refers to mathematics texts and ideas stemming from the Archaic through the Hellenistic and Roman periods, mostly extant from the 7th century BC to the 4th century AD, around the shores of the Eastern Mediterranean. Greek mathem ...

and closer to the notion of "a ratio of two unlike quantities such as distance and time", which is how modern physics defines

velocity Velocity is the directional speed of an object in motion as an indication of its rate of change in position as observed from a particular frame of reference and as measured by a particular standard of time (e.g. northbound). Velocity is a ...

Joseph Mazur Joseph C. Mazur (born in the Bronx in 1942) is Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at Marlboro College, in Marlboro, Vermont. He holds a B.S. from Pratt Institute, where he first studied architecture. He spent his junior year in Paris, studyi ...

(2007), ''Zeno's Paradox: Unraveling the Ancient Mystery of the Science of Space and Time'' (London: Plame), 50–51.

Modern editions

* Clagett, Marshall. "The ''Liber de motu'' of Gerard of Brussels and the Origins of Kinematics in the West," ''Osiris'', 12(1956):73–175.

References

External links

Kinematics in the 13th and 14th Centuries
by Teun Koetsier. Abstract: The paper deals with kinematical work by Gerard of Brussels, the Merton College group, Casali and Oresme. {{Authority control 13th-century philosophers Geometers 13th-century mathematicians 13th-century Latin writers Medieval physicists People from the Duchy of Brabant