Ortega, Juan de

1. Dates

Born: Madrid, before 1512 died, probably Spain, after 1542

Died: fl

Dateinfo: Dates Certain

Lifespan:

2. Father

Occupation: No Information

No information on financial status.

3. Nationality

Birth: Madrid, Spain

Career: Italy and Spain

Death: probably Spain

4. Education

Schooling: No University

One source says he was educated in Paris, but his pattern of life makes this seem dubious to me.

5. Religion

Affiliation: Catholic

A Dominican.

6. Scientific Disciplines

Primary: Mathematics

Tractado subtilisimo d'aritmetica y de geometria, (Barcelona, 1516), a work largely of practical mathematics, of interest because it gives values for square roots that seem to indicate some method. The work was translated into French and Italian, and edition in Spanish in 34, 37, and 42.

Cursus quattuor mathematicarum artium liberalium, (Paris, 1516).

7. Means of Support

Primary: Schoolmaster

He is reported to have taught arithmetic and geometry, privately and publicly in Spain and Italy. Clearly it was commercial arithmetic and geometry, not a university subject.

8. Patronage

Type: None

9. Technological Involvement

Type: Applied Math

10. Scientific Societies

Memberships: None

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), p. 174.
2. Cantor, Vorlesungen, 2, 388.

Not Available and Not Consulted

1. J. Ray Pastor, "Los matematicos expañoles del siglo XVI," Biblioteca scientia, #2 (1926), 67. I gather that Rey Pastor has been a major figure in insisting on the significance of Ortega's method of square roots.
2. G. Enestrom, Biblioteca Mathematica, s. III, 14 (1914), 175-6.
3. The fact is, there is precious little information about Ortega.

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.