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This book presents high-quality papers on the History of Mathematical Sciences, focusing on Portugal and East Asia, a testament to ongoing international collaboration in uncovering the rich, interwoven histories of science, culture, and diplomacy across continents. This volume explores the profound impact of mathematical and scientific exchanges between Europe, and in particular, Portugal, and East Asia, emphasizing how time, space, and cosmological understanding were shaped and transformed through intercultural contact. Chapters range from Jesuit mechanical clocks in Japan to reinterpretations of Euclidean logic in Chinese translations, from the mapping of early Portuguese planispheres to Qing dynasty astronomical reform. Featuring contributions by leading historians of science, this collection sheds light on the individuals Jesuits, scholars, artisans who bridged cultures and shaped knowledge across early modern Eurasia. It offers a unique lens into how mathematics and cosmology were not only tools of measurement but also vehicles of cross-cultural dialogue and power. This book is essential for historians of science, mathematics, and East-West relations.
List of contents
Preface.- Acknowledgements.- Part I: Time.- Chapter 1. Diplomacy, spirituality, and the making of mechanical clocks in the Jesuit Painting Seminary in Japan (Alexandra Curvelo).- Part II: Western mathematical influence in East Asia.- Chapter 2. On interpretation of Euclid s logic in the translation of the Elements by Matteo Ricci and Xu Guangqi (Alexei Volkov).- Chapter 3. Measuring Heaven and Earth in a mathematical manual in eighteenth-century Korea- Hong Taeyong s Calculations for practical uses (Hong Yujin).- Part III: Maps.- Chapter 4. History of cartography and national narratives: the case of the earlier Portuguese planispheres (1502-1559) (Francisco Roque de Oliveira).- Part IV: Cosmology.- Chapter 5. The Jesuits, Cosmology and accommodation in early seventeenth-century Macao (Luís Miguel Carolino).- Chapter 6. Buddhist-cosmological concepts in Japanese Buddhist world maps of the 14th-19th centuries (Yang Wei-Ting).- Part V: Official astronomy in China.- Chapter 7. Christian astronomer families of the Qing Astronomical Bureau: as exemplified by the Bao family (Chang Ping-Ying).- Part VI: Measurements in the service of the State.- Chapter 8. Pierre Jartoux: manual worker in the Forbidden City, imperial cartographer, mathematician (Ugo Baldini).- Chapter 9. Pierre Jartoux s Brevis vitae ratio: an annotated edition (Davor Antonucci and Ugo Baldini).- Chapter 10. Measuring Our Heaven with Imperial Astronomy: S My ng ng and S Hosu s Astronomical Reform Project in Late Eighteenth-Century Korea (Lim Jongtae and Kim Seulki).- Index.
About the author
Luis Saraiva
is a retired Associate Professor of the Department of Mathematics of the University of Lisbon, and a researcher of the Interuniversity Centre for the History of Science and Technology (CIUHCT). He is a full member of the International Academy of the History of Science. He is the editor of the History of Mathematics section of the Bulletin of the Portuguese Society of Mathematics. He has been one of the main organizers of the series of meetings "History of Mathematical Sciences: Portugal and East Asia” since its start, and has been the editor or co-editor of its Proceedings.
Jongtae Lim
received his PhD in 2003 at Seoul National University, with a dissertation examining the literati’s understanding of the Jesuits’ geographical knowledge in early modern China and Korea. Since 2006, he has been teaching the history of East Asian science at the Program in History and Philosophy of Science, Seoul National University. He currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Korean Journal for the History of Science.
Summary
This book presents high-quality papers on the History of Mathematical Sciences, focusing on Portugal and East Asia, a testament to ongoing international collaboration in uncovering the rich, interwoven histories of science, culture, and diplomacy across continents. This volume explores the profound impact of mathematical and scientific exchanges between Europe, and in particular, Portugal, and East Asia, emphasizing how time, space, and cosmological understanding were shaped and transformed through intercultural contact. Chapters range from Jesuit mechanical clocks in Japan to reinterpretations of Euclidean logic in Chinese translations, from the mapping of early Portuguese planispheres to Qing dynasty astronomical reform. Featuring contributions by leading historians of science, this collection sheds light on the individuals—Jesuits, scholars, artisans—who bridged cultures and shaped knowledge across early modern Eurasia. It offers a unique lens into how mathematics and cosmology were not only tools of measurement but also vehicles of cross-cultural dialogue and power. This book is essential for historians of science, mathematics, and East-West relations.
