Magnitsky, Leonty Filippovich

1. Dates

Born: 9 June 1669

Died: 30 Oct. 1739

Dateinfo: Dates Certain

Lifespan: 70 2. Family: Agr Magnitsky was the son of a poor peasant, Filipp Magnitsky of Tver province (today the Kalininskaya region). From his earliest days he was obliged to work.

2. Father

Occupation:

3. Nationality

Birth: Russian

Career: Russian

Death: Russian

4. Education

Schooling: No University

He learned to read and write in his childhood. In 1684 he was sent to the Iosifo-Volokolamsky Monastery. When he turned out to be literate, he was allowed to stay in the monastery to read sacred books. Later he was sent to the Simonov Monastery in Moscow to become a priest. From 1685 to 1694 he was at the Slavonic, Greek and Latin Academy in Moscow. (Although I do not know much about Russian religious orders, I strongly doubt that this education was similar to that in the West, and I am not listing it in the way that I would list education within the Jesuit or Dominican orders.)

5. Religion

Affiliation: Russian Orthodox

6. Scientific Disciplines

Primary: Mathematics, Navigation

His Arithmetic (1703) was the first guide to the new mathematics published in Russia. Combining the tradition of Russia mathematical literature of the 17th century with that of the western European mathematical schools, the work served as the basic texbook of mathematics in Russia for half a century.

He also participated in the preparation of a Russia edition (1703) of the logarithmic table of Vlacq(1618).

He co-edited Tables for Navigation (1722).

7. Means of Support

Primary: Schoolmastering, Patronage

From 1694 to 1701 he tutored the children of Moscow nobles.

Peter I provided special monetary support for his work on Arithmetic; from 2 Feb. 1701 to 1 Jan 1702, Magnitsky received forty-nine rubles. In 1704 Peter had a house built in Moscow for Magnitsky's family.

Teacher at the Navigation School in Moscow, 1702-1715.

Director of the Navigation school, 1715-1739, with a salary of 260 rubles a year.

From 1733 he directed the office of the Moscow Academy.

Magnitsky was one of many non-nobles to rise to prominence under Peter.

8. Patronage

Type: Court Official

In 1701 Peter the Great founded the Navigation School in Moscow, and in 1702 Peter brought Magnitsky there to teach. Add all of the rest above.

9. Technological Involvement

Types: Navigation, Military Engineering

In addition to the work on navigation, in 1707, on the occasion of the Swedish invasion, Peter set Magnitsky to work on the fortifications of the city of Tver.

10. Scientific Societies

Memberships: None

The Moscow Academy, in which Magnitsky appears to have been prominent, was not connected with the famous imperial academy in St. Petersburg. It was based rather on an earlier Kiev Academy. I am not listing it.

Sources

1. D.D. Galanin, Leonty Filippovich Magnitsky i yego "Arifmetika", 3 vol., (Moscow, 1914).
2. Enciklopediceskij slovak.
3. Not consulted: A.P. Denisov, Leonty Filippovich Magnitsky, (Moscow, 1967).
4. QA29.M28D39

Compiled by:

Richard S. Westfall

Department of History and Philosophy of Science

Indiana University

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