Oronce Fine

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Born: 20 Dec 1494 in Briançon, France
Died: 8 Aug 1555 in Paris, France

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Oronce Fine was educated in Paris obtaining a medical degree from the Collège de Navarre in 1522. He spent a while in prison in 1518 before completing his degree and again in 1524 he spent some time in prison. Whether he worked on a sundial while in prison is uncertain but he certainly constructed an ivory sundial in 1524 which still exists.

Like many mathematicians of his time Fine was an expert on fortifications. He worked on fortifications of Milan.

He was appointed to the chair of mathematics at Collège Royal in Paris in 1531 where he taught until his death.

Fine wrote on astronomical instruments and astronomy suggesting that eclipses of the moon could be used to determine the longitude of places. He invented a map projection and, around 1519, he produced a map of the world using his projection. He also produced maps of France in 1525 and on another map of the world which he produced in 1531 the name "Terra Australia" appears for the first time.

Fine also wrote on arithmetic and geometry. He gave the value of p to be (22 ²/₉)/7 in 1544, later he gave ⁴⁷/₁₅ and, in De rebus mathematicis (1556), he gave 3 ¹¹/₇₈ .

Texto original por: J J O'Connor and E F Robertson

JOC/EFR December 1996	School of Mathematics and Statistics University of St Andrews, Scotland
The URL of this page is: http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/Mathematicians/Fine.htm