Wikinventia — Atlas of discoveries and inventions · Middle Age

Scientia de ponderibus (Science of Weights) — Jordanus de Nemore

~1230 AD · Transmission: Global
MathematicsPhysicsTreatiseMethodFrench

Considered the most important mechanician of medieval Europe, Jordanus de Nemore is an enigmatic 13th-century figure: no biographical record survives, and all that is known comes from his own works. His Elementa Jordani super demonstrationem ponderum offered the first rigorous demonstration of the lever principle via virtual work, combining Aristotelian dynamics with Archimedean mathematical physics — influential in medieval and Renaissance statics. He also wrote the Liber philotegni on triangles, the Arithmetica in ten books, and De numeris datis on algebraic problem-solving.

InstitutionUniversity of Paris (teaching activity not documented with certainty, but supported by manuscript concentration)
Historical regionParis, Kingdom of France (reasoned hypothesis; biographical origin undocumented)
Secondary sourceMacTutor History of Mathematics; Encyclopedia.com/DSB; Folkerts, M.
Original languageLatin
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