Mydorge, Claude

1. Dates

Born: Paris, 1585

Died: Paris, July 1647

Dateinfo: Dates Certain

Lifespan: 62

2. Father

Occupation: Lawyer, Government Official

Mydorge belonged to one of France's richest and most illustrious families. His father was conseiller at the Parlement of Paris and Judge of the Grand Chambre. His mother was the sister of the "président Chrétien de Lamoignon."

3. Nationality

Birth: French

Career: French

Death: French

4. Education

Schooling: No University

5. Religion

Affiliation: Catholic

6. Scientific Disciplines

Primary: Mathematics, Optics

Subordinate: Astronomy

His work in geometry was directed to the study of conic sections. His work on the subject, first published in two volumes in 1631 and enlarged to four in 1639, was reprinted several times under the title De sectionibus conicis. His works on conic sections contain hundreds of problems published for the first time, as well as a multitude of ingenious and original methods that later geometers frequently used. According to Baillet, he succeeded Viète as the premier mathematician of his day.

He studied the properties and nature of light and refraction, and he studied vision.

He also carried out extensive astronomical observations.

7. Means of Support

Primary: Personal Means

Secondary: Government

He pursued a legal career. He was, first, conseiller at the Chatelet, then treasurer of the generalité of Amiens (which appears to have been nothing more than a title to hold).

Mydorge had such extensive personal means that he could afford to devote his activities to mathematics.

In 1613 he married the sister of La Haye, the French ambassador to Constantinople.

8. Patronage

Type: None

9. Technological Involvement

Types: Cartography, Navigation

He determined the latitude of Paris with great precision.

He was a member of the commission appointed to judge Morin's method of determining longitude.

10. Scientific Societies

Memberships: None

Intimate friendship with Descartes. Mydorge met Descartes about 1625 and became one of his most faithful friends. In 1627 Mydorge spent more than 100,000 ecus to make various lenses and optical instruments for Descartes, to aid him in his search for an explanation of vision. He also played a role in the reconciliation between Descartes and Fermat after 1638.

Sources

1. Biographie universelle, 29, (Paris, 1860), 666. CT153.B6
2. Nouvelle biographie générale, 37, 88.
3. M. Cantor, Vorlesungen uber Geschichte der Mathematik, 2, (Leipzig, 1913), 673-4, 768-9. QA26.C2
4. P. Humbert, "Les astronomes françaises de 1610 à 1667," Bulletin de la Société d'études scientifiques et archéologiques de Draguignan et du Var, 42 (1942), pp. 5-72.

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.