Petrus de Dacia (mathematician)

Not to be confused with Petrus de Dacia (Swedish monk).

Petrus de Dacia, also called Philomena and Peder Nattergal (Peter Nightingale), was a Danish scholar who lived in the 13th century. He worked mainly in Paris and Italy, writing in Latin. He published a calendar of new moon dates for the years 1292-1367. In 1292, he published a book on mathematics that contained a new method for the calculation of cubic roots. He also described a mechanical instrument to predict solar and lunar eclipses as seen from Paris.

Editions

• Corpus Philosophorum Danicorum Medii Aevi vol. X, ed. Fritz Saaby Pedersen. Copenhagen 1983.
• Petri Philomeni de Dacia in Algorismum vulgarem Johannis de Sacrobosco commentarius, edited by Maximilian Curtze, year 1897. This text by Petrus Philomena de Dacia is a commentary about elementary methods in arithmetic. Its primary notability is that it has a better method for extracting cube roots (better than the pre-existing method reported by Johannes de Sacrobosco).

References

• Pedersen, Olaf (in: Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. 2008. http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-2830903368.html)
• Rasch, G. (1932) Petrus de Dacia, pp. 12-15 in: Meisen, V. Prominent Danish Scientists through the Ages. University Library of Copenhagen 450th Anniversary. Levin & Munksgaard, Copenhagen