Between Galilei and Descartes: the arithmetician and engineer Johannes Faulhaber from Ulm (Q2735055)

Faulhaber (1580--1635) was a German reckon master (Rechenmeister) and engineer who sold his knowledge about cubic algebraic equations to students without revealing general methods. In his book ''Arithmetischer Cubicossischer Lustgarten'' (1604) he even did not publish solutions to the assignments. The author describes Faulhaber's conflicts with another reckon master, Peter Roth, who published ''Arithmetica Philosophica'' (1608) as a competing work. Schneider discusses critically the report given by D. Lipstorp on Descartes' visit to Ulm in 1619/20. The author calls Faulhaber a ''professional mathematician'' of his day while scientific mathematics in the modern sense (including generality of methods and communication habits) was rather represented by ''amateurs'' as Descartes. Schneider comes to the conclusion that Faulhaber's main merit was to have been visited by Descartes. The article does not contain numerical examples. Nor is, somewhat contrary to its title, Galilei discussed.NEWLINENEWLINEFor the entire collection see [Zbl 0964.00032].