Immanuel ben Jacob Bonfils (c. 1300 – 1377) was a French-Jewish mathematician and astronomer in medieval times who flourished from 1340 to 1377, a rabbi who was a pioneer of exponential calculus and is credited with inventing the system of decimal fractions.[1] He taught astronomy and mathematics in Orange and later lived in Tarascon, both towns in the Holy Roman Empire that are now part of modern-day France.[2] Bonfils studied the works of Gersonides (Levi ben Gershom), the father of modern trigonometry[citation needed], and Al-Battani and even taught at the academy founded by Gersonides in Orange.[3][4]
Bonfils preceded any attempt at a European decimal system by 150 years,[5] publishing the treatise Method of Division by Rabbi Immanuel and Other Topics (Hebrew: דרך חילוק) on the general theory of decimal fractions around 1350. This was a forerunner to Simon Stevin, the first to widely distribute publications on this topic, and employed decimal notation for integers, fractions, and both positive and negative exponents.[2][6][7]
While living in Tarascon in 1365, Bonfils published the work for which he would become best known, Sepher Shesh Kenaphayim (Book of Six Wings) (Hebrew: שש כנפים), a manuscript on eclipses that featured astronomical tables predicting future solar and lunar positions (divided into six parts).[1][8] The book included data for every important date on the Jewish calendar and even correction factors necessary for those who lived as far away as Constantinople.[6] Breaking the tables into six parts was an allusion to the six wings of the seraphim as mentioned in the Bible in Isaiah 6:2, earning Bonfils the nickname master of the wings.[1]
For 300 years, Bonfils' calculations which were extensively used by sailors and explorers well into the 17th century.[5] The book was translated from Hebrew into Latin in 1406 by Johannes Lucae e Camerino and into Greek in 1435 by Michael Chrysokokkes. The book inspired Chemist George Sarton to publish his own version of Six Wings nearly 600 years later.[1] Bonfils translated a number of books from Latin to Hebrew. He also wrote a treatise on the relationship between the diameter and circumference of a circle and methods of calculating square roots.[2]
^ abcdVucinich, Alexander (1963). Science in Russian Culture, A History to 1860. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press
^ abc"Bonfils, Emmanuel Ben Jacob". JewishEncyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2015-02-20.
^Dimont, Max I. (2004). Jews, God, and History. Signet Classics
^Shatzmiller, Joseph (2013). Cultural Exchange; Jews, Christians, and Art in the Medieval Marketplace. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press
^ abBlech, Benjamin (2004). The Complete Idiot's Guide to Jewish History and Culture. Indianapolis, IN: Alpha Books
^ abSuzuki, Jeff (2009). Mathematics in Historical Context. Washington, DC: The Mathematical Association of America
^Ben-Menahem, Ari (2009). Historical Encyclopedia of Natural and Mathematical Sciences. Springer Verlag
^Solon, Peter (1971). "The Six Wings of Immanuel Bonfils and Michael Chrysokokkes". Centaurus. 15: 1–20. Bibcode:1971Cent...15....1S. doi:10.1111/j.1600-0498.1971.tb00147.x.
Immanuel ben Jacob Bonfils (c. 1300 – 1377) was a French-Jewish mathematician and astronomer in medieval times who flourished from 1340 to 1377, a rabbi...
al-Uqlidisi written in the 10th century. The Jewish mathematician ImmanuelBonfils used decimal fractions around 1350 but did not develop any notation...
al-Uqlidisi as early as the 10th century. The Jewish mathematician ImmanuelBonfils used decimal fractions around 1350, but did not develop any notation...
Tibbon, who made other translations from Arabic. In the 14th century ImmanuelBonfils translated the Historia de Preliis directly from Latin into Hebrew...
1393) Guillaume de Machaut, French priest, poet and composer (d. 1377) ImmanuelBonfils, French mathematician and astronomer (d. 1377) Jakov of Serres, Serbian...
Andre Michael Lwoff (1902–1994), microbiologist, Nobel Prize (1965) ImmanuelBonfils (c. 1300 – 1377), mathematician and astronomer Maurice Block (1816–1901)...
in the second half of the fourteenth century. He was a disciple of ImmanuelBonfils in Orange. He translated from Latin into Hebrew, under the title Sefer...
Baume Pluvinel Michel Benoist Bernard of Verdun Guillaume Bigourdan ImmanuelBonfils Jean-Marc Bonnet-Bidaud Alphonse Borrelly Jean Bosler Joseph Bossert...
decimal fractions and the application of the exponential calculus by ImmanuelBonfils of Tarascon (c. 1350)", Isis 25 (1936), 16–45. Solomon Gandz: "Studies...
1793 and has been attributed to Markus Herz, a German physician, pupil of Immanuel Kant. The Treatise on Logic (Arabic: Maqala Fi-Sinat Al-Mantiq) has been...
Tabitha back from the dead; Napoleon is believed to have stayed there. Immanuel Church, built 1904, serves today a Lutheran congregation with services...
(1280—1345), prominent Jewish medieval philosopher, lived in Tarascon Immanuel ben Jacob Bonfils (c. 1300 – 1377), Jewish mathematician and astronomer, lived in...
Tosafist. (c. 1140-1237) Eliezer ben Samuel of Verona, 13th century Tosafist. Immanuel of Rome, 14th century Italian poet (1261-c. 1335) Benjamin ben Judah, 14th...
movement in 1818 with his Etwas. Another important father of the movement was Immanuel Wolf whose essay Über den Begriff einer Wissenschaft des Judentums (On...
in Benevento Alberto di Morra (c.1100 - 1187), later Pope Gregory VIII Immanuel Ben Jekuthiel of Benevento, a Jewish grammarian and corrector of the press...
he-'Arukh (1655), probably known also as Arukh he-Hadash, according to Immanuel Löw, devoted itself particularly to the Greek and Latin derivatives, leaning...
by Marcus Jastrow (Dictionary of the Targumim, s.v. צתרי), who, citing Immanuel Löw and William Smith, writes that the word has the meaning of Satureia...
Global Information