Leurechon, Jean

(b. Bar-le-Duc, France, ca. 1591;d. Pont-à-Mousson, France, 17 January 1670),

mathematics.

Leurechon was a Jesuit who taught theology, philosophy, and mathematics in the cloister of his order at Bar-le-Duc, Lorraine. Very little is known of his personal life. In his earlier years he wrote several tracts on astronomy and an inconsequential work on geometry.

Leurechon is remembered chiefly for his collection of mathematical recreations, some of which were published under other names. Issued at a time when interest in recreational mathematics was rapidly rising, this work obviously appealed to popular fancy, for it passed through some thirty editions before 1700. Based largely on the work of Bachet de Méziriac, it included, besides many original problems, some taken from Cardano. It served in turn as a foundation for the works of Mydorge, Ozanam, Montucla, and Charles Hutton. For the most part Leurecheon borrowed only Bacht’ s simpler and easier problems, completely bypassing the more significant sections. Leurechon’ s work was characterized by Montucla as “a pathetic jumble” and by D.E. Smith as “a poor collection of trivialities.”

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I. Original Works. Leurechon’s tracts on astronomy include Pratiques de quelques horloges et du cylinder (Pont-à-Mousson, 1616); Ratio Facillima describendi quaniplurima et omnis generis horolgia brevissimo tempore (Pont-à-Mousson, 1618); and Discours sur les observations de la cométe de 1618 (paris-Rheims, 1619). His work on geometry was Selectae propositions in Iota sparism mathematica pulcherrime propositae (Pont-à-Mousson, 1622).

His collection of mathematical recreations, published under the pseudonym Hendrik van Etten, was La récréation mathématique ou entretien facétieux sur plusieurs plaisants problèmes, en fait arithmétique… (Pont-à Mousson, 1624); 2nd ed., rev. and enl. (paris, 1626). Many subsequent eds. and translations appeared: the first English trans., by William Oughtred, was Mathematicall Recreations (London, 1633).

II. Secondary Literature. On Leurechon and his work, see Moritz Cantor, Vorlesungen über Geschichte der Mathematik, II (Leipzig, 1913), 673-674; 768-769; and Poggendorff, I, 1438. See also H. Zeitlinger, Bibliotheca chemico-mathermatica (London, 1921), I, 61; II, 536.

William L. Schaaf