Abū al-Wafā' Latinus? A study of method
type: Item
instance of: scholarly article
title: Abū al-Wafā' Latinus? A study of method
zbMATH Open document ID: 1253.51003
author: Dominique Raynaud
published in: Historia Mathematica
publication date: 2012-01-13T00:00:00Z
full work available at URL: Abu al-Wafa latinus.pdf
review text: The book titled \textit{Book on the geometric constructions needed by craftsmen} and written by the Moslem mathematician Abū al-Wafā' al-Būzjānī (940--997/998) is one of the oldest manuals on practical geometric constructions that were needed by artisans, builders, carpenters, and other craftsmen. The book consists of 171 constructions of varying difficulty and interest, and must have played a vital role in the development of Islamic decorative art. About two thirds of these constructions appeared later in the works of European scholars of the Renaissance, such as Cardan, Tartaglia, Benedetti, Marolois, Schwenter, and others. The author of the paper under review is concerned with comparing Abū al-Wafā's constructions with those of the Renaissance, and with investigating whether these later European constructions are original or borrowings from of those of Abū al-Wafā'. He starts with giving a brief but adequate exposition of opposing views of different historians on this matter. These include F. Woepcke (1855), who supported the thesis that the Renaissance geometers in Europe borrowed their constructions from Abū al-Wafā', C. Henry (1883), who believed in independent discoveries, and H. L'Huillier, who, in his earlier works in 1975, did not consider Renaissance constructions as borrowings from Abū al-Wafā', but who, later in 2003, endorses the opposite thesis. The author then expresses the feeling that the two opposing opinions are poorly supported and can be viewed, at best, as ``intimate convictions''. He also looks at the fact that Cardan, Tartaglia, and Benedetti used, in their constructions, fixed opening calipers (i.e., a rusty compass) instead of the ordinary compass, seemingly following the recommendation made by Abū al-Wafā', could simply have been a result of a universal constraint pertaining to need for precision, and that it does not provide evidence for possible borrowings. He supports this viewpoint by observing that Leonardo Da Vinci had already given…
reviewed by: Mowaffaq Hajja
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 51-03
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 01A30
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 01A40
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 51M15
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 51M04
zbMATH DE Number: 5996995
zbMATH Keywords: Abū al-Wafā' al-Būzjānī
zbMATH Keywords: Kamāl al-Dīn Ibn Yūnus
zbMATH Keywords: Woepcke
zbMATH Keywords: Henry
zbMATH Keywords: L'Huillier
zbMATH Keywords: Cardan
zbMATH Keywords: Tartaglia
zbMATH Keywords: Marolois
zbMATH Keywords: Schwenter
zbMATH Keywords: practical geometry
zbMATH Keywords: Renaissance geometry
zbMATH Keywords: geometric constructions
zbMATH Keywords: approximate constructions
zbMATH Keywords: calipers
zbMATH Keywords: compass
zbMATH Keywords: rusty compass
zbMATH Keywords: historical transmission
zbMATH Keywords: decorative art
zbMATH Keywords: Islamic art
zbMATH Keywords: Islamic legacy
zbMATH Keywords: European borrowings
describes a project that uses: DRaFT
MaRDI profile type: Publication
OpenAlex ID: W2001104265
Wikidata QID: Q56475392
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DOI: 10.1016/J.HM.2011.09.001
description: scientific article; zbMATH DE number 5996995