Juan de Alcega was a 16th-century

tailor A tailor is a person who makes or alters clothing, particularly in men's clothing. The Oxford English Dictionary dates the term to the thirteenth century. History Although clothing construction goes back to prehistory, there is evidence of ...

and

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

from Basque country, Spain.

Life and work

Little is known about the life of Juan de Alcega. He was born in the province of

Gipuzkoa Gipuzkoa (, , ; es, Guipúzcoa ; french: Guipuscoa) is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the autonomous community of the Basque Country. Its capital city is Donostia-San Sebastián. Gipuzkoa shares borders with the French depa ...

, probably in the town of

Hondarribia es, fuenterribense , population_note = , population_density_km2 = auto , blank_name_sec1 = Official language(s) , blank_info_sec1 = Basque, Spanish , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , ti ...

. In 1580 he published in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

the book entitled ''Libro de Geometría, practica, y traça (Book on Geometry, Practice, and Pattern)'', reedited in 1589. This book is a clear example of the application of mathematics to technology in its first modern states. It was also the subject of studies on

philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and writing, written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defin ...

by his terminology and by his exposition of the mode of his times. In the introduction to his book, he states that he had some difficulties publishing it due to the resistance of the medieval guild of tailors, who thought that he was revealing the secrets of his art., page 247.

References

Bibliography

* * * *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Alcega, Juan De 16th-century Spanish people 16th-century Spanish mathematicians People from Hondarribia Spanish tailors Basque academics