Celaya, Juan de

1. Dates

Born: Valencia, Spain, c. 1490

Died: Turia, Spain, 6 December 1558

Dateinfo: Birth Uncertain

Lifespan: 68

2. Father

Occupation: Gentry

A knight who fought in the reconquest of Granada.

No information on financial status.

3. Nationality

Birth: Spanish

Career: French and Spanish

Death: Spanish

4. Education

Schooling: Valencia; Paris, D.D.

It is relevant that Celaya was the son of a knight who fought in the reconquest of Granada.

Began education at Univ. of Valencia.

To Univ. of Paris, (College de Montaigu): B.A. 1509 D.D. 1522.

5. Religion

Affiliation: Catholic

6. Scientific Disciplines

Primary: Scholastic Philosophy

7. Means of Support

Primary: Academic Position

Celaya stayed in Paris, teaching, until 1524. During these years he maintained a prolific output in logic and natural philosophy; his commentary on the Physics is especially important for its discussion of motion.

Celaya returned to Spain about 1524. He became the Rector and professor of theology at the University of Valencia. He appears to have stayed in that position until the end of his life.

8. Patronage

Types: Aristocracy, Ecclesiastical Officials, Court

See the dedications of his works. His first one, 1516, is to his magnanimous lord Don Luis de Carros. He second to his "generous lord" Francois de Fenollet, chevalier de Saint-Jacques. When republished in 1527, this work was dedicated to a Spanish noble. a work in 1521 was dedicated to another "lord," the Prince Don Rodrigue de Mendoza Adzanete.

He dedicated another to Jeronimo Cavanilles, commander of the King of Spain's Guard and later Spanish ambassador to France.

He dedicated works to Estaban Gabriel de Merino, the Papal Nuncio to France, and one to Juan Rodriguez de Fonseca, Archbishop of Burgos.

He dedicated a theological work on the Sentences to Charles V, who later invited Celaya to live at the court. When the Univ. of Valencia urged that Charles rather name Celaya Rector of the university, he did so.

9. Technological Involvement

Types: None

10. Scientific Societies

Memberships: None Note that he was part of the Spanish group prominent in Paris in the early 16th century.

Sources

1. José Maria Lopez Piñero, et al., Diccionaria historico de la ciencia moderna en España, 2 vols. (Barcelona: Ediciones Peninsula, 1983). Jose Maria Lopez Pinero, Ciencia y tecnica en la sociedad espanola de los siglos XVI y XVII, (Barcelona: Labor, 1979), Pierre Duhem, Etudes sur Leonarda da Vinci, 3, passim, esp. pp. 135-41, 242-6, and 543-55.
2. Hubert Elie, "Quelques maitres de l'université de Paris vers l'an 1500," Archives d'historie doctrinale de littéraire du moyen age, 25-6 (1950-51), 193-243.
3. William Wallace, " The Enigma of Domingo de Soto," Isis, 59 (1968), 384-401.
4. _____, "The Calculatores in Early 16th Century Physics," British Journal for the History of Science, 4 (1968-9), 221-32.
5. Ricardo Garcia Villoslada, "Juan de Celaya," La Universidad de Paris durante los estudios de Francisco de Vitoria, vol. 14 of Analecta Gregoriana, Series Fac. Hist. Ecc. Sectio B, num. 2 (Roma, 1938), pp. 384-401.

Not Available and Not Consulted

1. J. Gallego Salvadores, "La Facultad de Teologia y la Universidad de Valencia durante la primera mitad del siglo XVI," Escritos del Vedat, 5 (1975), 81-132.

Compiled by:

Richard S. Westfall

Department of History and Philosophy of Science

Indiana University

Note: the creators of the Galileo Project and this catalogue cannot answer email on geneological questions.