Brève n° 259
Billet du 28 février 2009 sur le
site de l’Université de Gothenburg. Greek
mathematics is considered one of the great intellectual achievements of
antiquity. It has been decisive to the academic and cultural development of
Western civilisation. The three Roman authors Varro, Cicero and Vitruvius were
all, in their own way, influenced by Greek knowledge and transferred it to Roman
literature. In his dissertation, Erik Bohlin, at the University of Gothenburg,
Sweden, studied the traces of Greek influence on these authors with regard to
the mathematical branch of geometry. Most
people have heard of the great Greeks Euclid and Archimedes. And who is not
familiar with Pythagoras’ theorem? When Rome usurped political power around the
Mediterranean, the Romans came into close contact with Greek culture, its
literature and science. According
to some sources, the Roman author Varro is supposed to have written a book on
the subject of geometry. This book has not been preserved however. In Erik
Bohlin’s view, after critical examination of the collective historic evidence,
very little can be established with reasonable probability about its contents.
Earlier research has attempted to claim, for example, that Varro’s book was
used by later Roman authors as a source of geometric teaching matter. This
assertion does not stand up to critical examination, however, and must be seen
as a more or less unfounded hypothesis according to Bohlin. Cicero’s
rhetorical and philosophical writings contain many passages that deal with or
touch on the subject of geometry. Geometry and geometric knowledge are
fundamental in Vitruvius’ De architectura (On architecture). There are many
passages in which geometry is applied practically or which assume that the
reader is familiar with it. The dissertation comments on and interprets a
selection of significant passages from both these authors. For
Vitruvius, the practical use of geometry does of course come first: geometric
designs are required in architecture, not least, to achieve exact drawings. In
general, the scientific view of the Romans was strongly influenced by limiting
utilitarianism: only knowledge with immediate practical use was worth
cultivating. According
to the author of the dissertation, this picture ought to be nuanced, however,
especially with regard to the authors Cicero and Vitruvius who essentially had
an open and appreciative attitude to the Greek advances in mathematics and
studies of geometry – even if practical use came first. Bohlin finds a clearly
expressed ideological dimension to the significance of geometry in both Cicero
and Vitruvius. Geometry is regarded as an integrated part of civilisation and
refined human culture. As such, an inherent cultural value, which is thereby
also universal, is attached to geometry. For
Cicero and, in particular, for Vitruvius, this ideological dimension was not
independent of practical use, but both aspects were seen as linked. “With
this perspective, the actual differences between that which is Roman and that
which is Greek can be toned down, and in this we find a motivation for Cicero’s
and Vitruvius’s more open attitude to geometry and Greek knowledge in general,”
says Bohlin. DATE DE PUBLICATION EN LIGNE : 22 AVRIL 2009