Juan de Celaya (Valencia, c.1490 – 6 December 1558) was a Spanish mathematician, physicist, cosmologist, philosopher and theologian. He was a member of the so-called Calculators, using ideas from

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 ...

. He is known for his work on motion (in

kinetics Kinetics ( grc, κίνησις, , kinesis, ''movement'' or ''to move'') may refer to: Science and medicine * Kinetics (physics), the study of motion and its causes ** Rigid body kinetics, the study of the motion of rigid bodies * Chemical ki ...

and dynamics) and in

logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from premises ...

Life

The son of a minor gentleman who participated in the Reconquest of

Granada Granada (,, DIN 31635, DIN: ; grc, Ἐλιβύργη, Elibýrgē; la, Illiberis or . ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the fo ...

, he probably studied at the

University of Valencia The University of Valencia ( ca-valencia, Universitat de València ; also known as UV) is a public research university located in the city of Valencia, Spain. It is one of the oldest surviving universities in Spain, and the oldest in the Vale ...

, ending his studies in 1509 at the

Collège de Montaigu The Collège de Montaigu was one of the constituent colleges of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Paris. History The college, originally called Collège des Aicelins, was founded in 1314 by Gilles I Aycelin de Montaigu, Archbishop of Narbo ...

, Paris. During his studies he was a student of the

Nominalist In metaphysics, nominalism is the view that universals and abstract objects do not actually exist other than being merely names or labels. There are at least two main versions of nominalism. One version denies the existence of universalsthings th ...

Jean Gaspar Lax and of Dullaert of Ghent, who exerted considerable influence on the ideas and works Celaya would write. He taught

Physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

and

Logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from premises ...

in the from 1510 to 1515, along with Alvaro Thomaz (who was interested in physics, in particular in the study of dynamics) and the Scot (1483−1544). From 1515 to 1524 he taught at the

Collège Sainte-Barbe The Collège Sainte-Barbe is a former college in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, France. The Collège Sainte-Barbe was founded in 1460 on Montagne Sainte-Geneviève (Latin Quarter, Paris) by Pierre Antoine Victor de Lanneau, teacher of religiou ...

. Among his students were

Francisco de Vitoria Francisco de Vitoria ( – 12 August 1546; also known as Francisco de Victoria) was a Spanish Roman Catholic philosophy, philosopher, theology, theologian, and jurist of Renaissance Spain. He is the founder of the tradition in philosophy known ...

Francisco de Soto Francisco de Soto (ca. 1500 – 1563) was a Spanish composer and organist. He worked in the Royal Court at Madrid. He was one of the Franciscan Twelve, a group of twelve Franciscan missionaries who arrived in the newly founded Viceroyalty of N ...

(who later changed his name to

Domingo de Soto Domingo de Soto, O.P. (1494 – 15 November 1560) was a Spanish Dominican priest and Scholastic theologian born in Segovia (Spain), and died in Salamanca (Spain), at the age of 66. He is best known as one of the founders of international law a ...

) and Juan Ribeyro. He continued his theological studies, graduating on March 24, 1522 and achieving his doctorate on 21 June 1522. In 1524 he returned to his native city, and a year later became Principal and Professor of Theology at the

, where he played an important role in the reforming the structure of studies.

Works

During his time in France, Celaya was a prolific writer, dealing mainly with the physics of

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...

, in particular the study of

motion In physics, motion is the phenomenon in which an object changes its position with respect to time. Motion is mathematically described in terms of displacement, distance, velocity, acceleration, speed and frame of reference to an observer and mea ...

. He also published numerous works on philosophy and logic. He was one of the main promoters of nominalist logic and 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 ...

ideas about Dynamics and

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 ...

. Some of his most important works are: * ''Expositio in primum tractatum Summularum magistri Petri Hispani'', (1515). * ''Expositio in octo libros phisicorum Aristotelis'', (1517). * ''Libros Physicorum Aristotelis cum quaestionibus eiusdem, secundum, triplicem viam Thomae, Realium et nominalium''. This is a reprint in one volume of four previous works, published between 1525 and 1531. * ''In libros Aristotelis de generationes et corruptiones''.

Sources

Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography
William A. Wallace (2008)
Wallace, W. A. ''Prelude to Galileo. Essays on Medieval and Sixteenth-Century Sources of Galileo's Thought''
Dordrecht: Springer, 1981
Brotóns, V. N. (2000) ''Matemáticas y astronomía. Historia de la Universidad de Valencia: El estudio general''

Amparo Felipo Orts (1993) ''La Universidad de Valencia durante el siglo XVI (1499-1611)''

Scholasticon
(Database on Medieval Scholars - in French) * La Universidad de Paris durante los Estudios de Francisco de Vitoria O.P. (1507-1522), by Ricardo G. Villoslada S.I., Gregorian University, 1938 {{DEFAULTSORT:Celaya, Juan De 1490 births 1558 deaths Medieval European mathematics Catholic philosophers 16th-century Spanish Roman Catholic theologians Scholastic philosophers 16th-century Spanish mathematicians 16th-century Spanish philosophers