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Jorge Juan y Santacilia

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Born
5th January, 1713
Novelda, Alicante, Spain
Died
June 21, 1773
Madrid, Spain
Summary
Jorge Juan was a mathematician and seaman who took part in the famous Franco-Spanish expedition to South America to measure a degree of meridian at the Equator. He introduced the study of Newton to Spain, supervised the modernisation of the Spanish Navy and set the basis for the future Spanish Academy of Sciences.
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Biography

Jorge Juan Santacilia was born in the town of Novelda (Alicante) on January 5, 1713 into a family of minor nobility without title. He was the son of the gentleman Bernardo Juan Canicia (Alicante, 1666-1715) and the lady Violante Santacilia Soler de Cornellá (Elche [Alicante], 1681-1760), both widowed and with several children from their previous unions [13].

Fatherless since he was two years old, he was educated by his paternal uncle Cipriano Juan Canicia, a knight of the Order of Saint John in which he would come to hold positions of great responsibility. Jorge went first to the Jesuit school in Alicante and later went with his uncle to Saragossa, where for a year he studied grammar, which was then a preparatory education for other higher studies. After that, he applied for admission to the Order of Malta, for which he had to carry out the mandatory tests of nobility, legitimacy and purity of blood. Cipriano obtained for his nephew the appointment of page of the Grand Master of the Order Antonio Manuel de Villena and, when he was barely twelve years old, he sent him to Malta, where he remained for nearly four years, after which he was granted the commandery of Aliaga. In mid-1729, Juan returned to Spain and applied to join the Royal Company of Marine Guards of Cadiz, to begin his training as an officer in the Spanish Navy [3].

The decision taken by the Spanish Hapsburgs to assume the role of champions of the Catholic Church against the Protestant Reformation, coinciding with the reopening by Copernicus of the cosmological dispute, had a negative influence on the development of sciences in Spain [19]. In fact, at the beginning of the 18th century, Spanish universities continued to be anchored in the most stale scholasticism, prioritising the chairs of humanities over those of medicine, calculus, astronomy, geometry or natural sciences. The principles postulated by Galileo and Newton, which confirmed the heliocentric system of Copernicus, were broadly admitted in Europe. Nevertheless, scholars in Spain only accepted the geocentric system of Ptolemy, the only one according to the Holy Scriptures. The fear of reprisals and of being the target of the Holy Office of the Inquisition forced Hispanic scientists to teach in public what they repudiated in private. Hence, the support of Philip V (grandson of Louis XIV of France) and, to a greater extent, of Ferdinand VI and Charles III to the promotion of applied sciences and technical knowledge did not occur, for obvious reasons, in the universities but in newly founded institutions. The new science in Spain had to follow alternative paths since the university was not receptive to changes. In its interest in promoting the so-called "useful sciences", the monarchy chose to "militarise" them by resorting to the Army and the Navy, superimposing another educational and scientific structure on top of the military structure. For this reason, much of the scientific-technical activity developed in the first two thirds of the Spanish 18th century was closely linked to the armed forces of the State and the institutions born in its shadow, as the Academy of Marine Guards of Cadiz (1717) and the Military Academy of Mathematics of Barcelona (1720), the Colleges of Surgery created in the same cities in the years 1748 and 1764, the Cadiz Astronomical Observatory (1753) or the Artillery Academies Barcelona and Cadiz (1751) and that of Segovia (1762) ([35], [36]).

At the Academy of Marine Guards of Cadiz, Juan combined the study of scientific subjects such as Calculus, Geometry, Trigonometry, Cosmography, Nautical Sciences, Fortification, etc., with the acquisition of knowledge and social skills such as languages, fencing or dancing [37]. All this was necessary for the performance of their commissions, since in the course of their professional lives, seamen represented the Spanish crown wherever they were and had to know how to function in all kinds of environments and situations: navigate and direct a ship, develop military actions, repel attacks, negotiate surrenders, behave appropriately at receptions, have diplomatic skills, etc. During the following four years, Juan alternated his studies with participation in different naval actions in the Mediterranean, such as the one in 1731 that led the Infante Don Carlos to take possession of the duchies of Parma, Piacenza and Tuscany, or the one in 1732 that reconquered Oran. His last destination dates from the end of 1733. Juan embarked on the ship "León", as a member of the squadron commanded by Blas de Lezo, He patrolled the Gulf of Tunisia for several months until a typhus epidemic decimated the entire squadron and was about to end his life at the age of 20 [3]. He then landed in Malaga and, once recovered, he returned to Cadiz and continued his classes in the Company of Marine Guards. At the end of that same year, his remarkable progress in the studies of mathematics, specially in astronomy, determined that Juan was chosen to take part in the Spanish-French geodesic expedition to the Viceroyalty of Peru, probably the best known of all scientific voyages, which became a model for later ventures ([33], [44]).

The eighteenth century began with the scientific world divided between supporters of two theories regarding the shape of the Earth. For the followers of Descartes, this responded to that of an elongated geoid in the direction of the poles, a position defended by Picard and the Cassinis, father and son and both directors of the Paris Observatory, based on different measurements made by themselves. As an alternative, the hypothesis put forward by Isaac Newton in his Principia Mathematica referring to the flattening of the Earth by the poles had been gaining popularity for years. The discussion between Cartesians and Newtonians was not trivial because precision in navigation, the preparation of reliable maps and many other important issues of a not only scientific but also political, strategic and economic nature depended on the correct knowledge of the shape and size of the planet Earth. The Newtonian doctrine was full of connotations that were hostile to the post-Trent Catholic orthodoxy, which was quite entrenched in France. Voltaire himself, who was part of a group of dissidents from the official French doctrine -- the young geometers -- intervened in the discussion and publicly defended Newtonianism. All this would give great popularity to the expedition organised in 1733 by the Académie Royale des Sciences in order to settle the debate on the shape and dimensions of the Earth by measuring one degree of the terrestrial meridian at the Equator, in the Viceroyalty of Peru [21].

The institution mobilised its most prestigious members. Together with the mathematician Louis Godin, director of the expedition, were the naturalist and mathematician Charles Marie de La Condamine, the hydrographer Pierre Bouguer, the naturalist Joseph Jussieu, the surgeon Jean Séniérgues, the naval engineer Jean Joseph Verguin, the mechanic-watchmaker Théodore Hugot, the assistant geographers Godin des Odonnais and Couplet and the draftsman Jean-Louis de Moranville. Simultaneously, another expedition under the command of Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis, would go to Lapland to carry out identical work near the polar circle and thus be able to contrast the results. Since Peru was Spanish territory, the French crown had to request permission from Felipe V, who granted it; but following the opinion of his minister José Patiño, he demanded the incorporation of two young marine guards who were immediately promoted to ship lieutenants to try to equate their category with that of the French commissioners. The choice fell on Jorge Juan and Antonio de Ulloa [61], who had to collaborate with the French -- and monitor them --, develop their own observations and prepare various reports on the situation of the viceroyalty.

Juan and Ulloa set foot in America in July 1735 and, a few months later, they met the French commissioners in Cartagena de Indias, thus beginning a true scientific adventure that would keep them in the American continent until the end of 1744. The measurement of the meridian degree had to be carried out by the triangulation procedure and, for this purpose, the expeditionaries established the base line in the Yaruqui plain, an extension of more than 12 Km, which is located between two mountain ranges to the southwest of Quito. Once the measurement of the fundamental base was determined, they were divided into two groups that travelled 400 Km, each on their own, carrying out triangulation operations in a north-south direction to thus measure a portion of the terrestrial meridian. The length travelled was equivalent to a little more than 3° of latitude. The measurement work was carried out in the midst of great hardship, because in order to carry out the triangulations they had to ascend to high-altitude peaks such as Pichincha, Corazón or Sinasaguan [42] and withstand extreme cold and violent storms. Juan and Ulloa, in addition to making the astronomical observations, geodetic measurements and mathematical calculations necessary to determine the measure of the meridian degree, were also responsible for collecting data on the society, geography, history and military and political situation of those territories. Both seamen saw their task hampered by the continuous disputes that arose among the French academics, who ended up divided into two groups. Their work aroused misgivings among the indigenous population, as well as the animosity of the local authorities and those of the viceroyalty, which they had to confront on occasions due to the impediments that were put in their way to carry out their task. They were also involved in very serious public altercations such as the one that confronted them with the president of the High Court of Quito, José de Araujo y Río, or the one that cost the life of the surgeon of the expedition, the Frenchman Jean Seniergues, lynched in the bull ring of Cuenca by a mob instigated by the local clergy and oligarchy ([11], [21], [31], [33]).

When England and Spain went to war in 1740, Juan and Ulloa had to attend to the requirements of the Viceroy Marquis de Villagarcía, who commissioned them to organise the defense of the Pacific coasts and strongholds, undertaking the fortification works of Lima, Guayaquil and other enclaves, before the attacks of the English squadron of Commodore George Anson who, after going around Cape Horn, had sacked Paita's harbour. Both seamen had to prepare, arm, and direct two frigates with which they patrolled the coasts of Chile and the islands of Juan Fernández for months in search of the above mentioned squad; they took advantage of this circumstance, as they did since their departure from Cadiz, to write down courses, routes, currents, winds, make astronomical, barometric, latitude and pendulum observations, as well as to draw plans of the coasts, bays and cities along which they passed [44].

All these circumstances made the scientific endeavor last almost ten years. The Spanish seamen had to finish the task alone, since several of the French expeditionaries returned to Europe as they concluded their measurements. At the end of 1744, Juan and Ulloa embarked separately for Europe. The crossing was very eventful for the second, as his boat fell into English hands and he was taken prisoner; although upon arriving in London and demonstrating his status as a scientist and member of the expedition for the measurement of the meridian, he was released and, later, proposed and accepted as a member of the Royal Society. For his part, Jorge Juan, after ten months of sailing, landed in Brest at the end of October 1745 and from there he went to Paris, where the Académie Royale des Sciences named him corresponding member. He finally arrived in Spain at the beginning of 1746 while his companion Antonio de Ulloa did so a few months later [16].

In court they were received by the powerful minister Marquis de la Ensenada [57] who, noting the importance of the work carried out by the two young seamen, encouraged the publication of the results of the trip. But despite the support of the minister and the support of qualified court intellectuals such as the Jesuit Andrés Marcos Burriel, the inquisitorial censorship paralysed the edition due to its evident Copernicanism and Newtonianism. Certain pressures on the general inquisitor and the insertion of a brief comment alluding to "hypotheses" and not "theories" in the preliminaries of the book, facilitated the authorisation and prevented a formal retraction by Jorge Juan [3]. And so, in 1748, Jorge Juan and Antonio de Ulloa, anticipating the French scientists, jointly published the Astronomical and Physical Observations Made by Order of His Majesty in the Kingdoms of Peru [27] and the four volumes of the Historical Report of the Trip to Southern America [28]. Although both works were signed jointly by the two seamen, the authorship of the first corresponds to Jorge Juan, who was in charge of systematising the astronomical observations, the geodetic measurements and the mathematical calculations applied to determine the measure of the degree of the meridian whose value he established in 56,767,788 toises, a calculation that was the most precise measurement of all those obtained by the expeditionaries [32].

In 1749 they published the Historical and Geographical Dissertation on the Demarcation Meridian between the Dominions of Spain and Portugal [29]; and from the long stay in America also comes the Discourse and Political Reflections on the present state of the kingdoms of Peru, a detailed report reserved for the exclusive use of the Government in which Juan and Ulloa denounced the deficient defense of the ports and strongholds of the coasts of the Pacific and the social, ecclesiastical, economic and administrative situation of the Spanish colonial empire in America. This report remained hidden until David Barry published it in London in 1826 under the title Secret News of America ([30], [53]).

The Astronomical Observations, organised into 9 chapters or books, reveal the great theoretical apparatus used by Jorge Juan -- Newton, Huygens, Picard, Boyle-Mariotte, Feuillé or Bouguer, among others --, the assumption of the Copernican system and his profound knowledge of infinitesimal calculus and Newtonian physics [8]. Antonio de Ulloa, for his part, was in charge of writing the Historical Report on the trip to South America in which he makes a splendid approach to the reality of those territories and provides important information on history, geography, ethnography and many other topics on the Peruvian viceroyalty. Both works collected different plans and drawings, the map of the meridian measured in Quito and the chart of the South Sea and, despite the obstacles of the Holy Office, they made known to the world, before the French academics, the scientific conclusions of the trip and brought fame and recognition to their authors [44].

From 1748 on, Jorge Juan became an essential part of the reformist projects initiated by the Marquis de la Ensenada, who undertook a vast plan presided over by scientific-technical renewal, the promotion of naval construction and the empowerment of the Navy ([1], [20]). This program of reforms required, for its development, the knowledge and application of all the novelties and technical advances circulating in Europe; especially all those related to the improvement and modernisation of the Navy and its ships and arsenals. For this reason, Juan was sent by the minister to England to carry out a mission of authentic industrial espionage that took place between March 1749 and April 1750. Carrying very precise secret instructions, using an encrypted code to send messages and sometimes adopting a false identity, Juan managed to hire nearly eighty specialists in shipbuilding and the manufacture of rigging, canvas and all kinds of supplies [22], managing to transfer them to Spain with their families. He also obtained important technical information about the operation of steam engines, the activity of sail and rigging factories, the organisation of English arsenals and the progress made in the design and construction of ships. He sent complete plans of all the pieces of their ships, as well as those of a machine to whiten wax and another for the dredger of harbours, acquired matrices for printing types, obtained the formula for the sealing wax, and technical details on the manufacture of English cloths. He also bought books and scientific instruments for the College of Surgery and the Academy of Marine Guards of Cadiz, the Academy of Engineers in Barcelona and other institutions. Parallel to this activity, Juan frequented political and scientific circles in London and managed to be admitted as a fellow of the Royal Society. Additionally, John Bevis dedicated to Juan the last of the 51 celestial maps collected in his Uranographia Britannica. But in April 1750 his espionage work was discovered so, faced with the risk of being arrested and imprisoned, he had to flee to France, from where he arrived in Spain having satisfactorily fulfilled the mission entrusted to him ([34], [45]). That same year the King of Prussia, Frederick II, appointed him a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Berlin, for which he had been proposed by Maupertuis, who was Academy president and former director of the expedition to Lapland to measure a degree of meridian.

Upon his return from England, Jorge Juan was promoted to captain and was commissioned by the Marquis de la Ensenada to direct the works on the arsenals, as well as the renovation and modernization of all naval construction. His experience with the problems of the manufacture and mechanics of the ship went back to his days in Peru due to the close coexistence with Pierre Bouguer, member of the expedition and author of the Traité du navire Ⓣ, a book published in 1746 which he drafted during the time of his commission. It was also due to the circumstance of having to supervise and direct, together with Ulloa, the conditioning work of two merchant frigates that were destined to defend the coasts of the viceroyalty from English attacks. The drawback of the Spanish ships, built with the Gaztañeta system, was their poor manoeuverability, their heaviness and slowness, as well as the excessive consumption of wood in their manufacture. During his stay in London observing English techniques, Juan had verified the advantages of their ships, more agile and faster, so he applied himself to the study and reflection of a new method based not only on practice but on mathematical calculation and Principles of Physics applied to the movement of ships in water. After multiple tests with models built to scale, in 1752 Juan gathered in Madrid all the technicians brought from England and for nine months he designed and drew the plans of all kinds of ships and their different parts, establishing a uniform set of rules and drafting a new method of shipbuilding in which he applied his knowledge of mechanics, hydraulics and differential and integral calculus, and in which the innovations were not limited to the ship's carpentry but also included the rigging and arrangement of the rigging in the ship. This method, which was improperly called "English", was implemented in the Spanish Navy until the moment when, in 1765, it was relegated to the French system imported by the engineer François Gautier [46]. Juan also undertook the construction and reform of the arsenals of Cadiz, Ferrol and Cartagena and carried out fundamental modernisation works on them, such as the incorporation of dry docks, an innovation that significantly increased the average life of ships.[50].

In 1751 he went to Ferrol to supervise the work of the new arsenal that was being built in Esteiro to replace the already obsolete existing shipyard in La Graña. At the end of 1753, and helped by the engineer Francisco Llobet, he began to direct the works establishing a series of improvements in the draft of the docks and in the location of the maintenance workshops and also planning a village attached to the naval base to house workers and military personnel. With twelve tiers of construction, this arsenal was the largest in Europe in its time. He also designed its two careening dry docks, supervised the start-up of the first of them and moved the Sada rigging and canvas factories to Ferrol in 1762. In the Cadiz arsenal of La Carraca, the intervention of Jorge Juan, in 1753, consisted of drawing up a project together with José Barnola to adapt the facilities to the new techniques. In 1754 he moved to Cartagena to participate in the works of its docks, based on the plans of the military engineer Sebastián de Feringán, building in his dock the first two dry careening docks in the Mediterranean, which were completed in 1759 ([12], [43], [48], [51], [52], [63]).

In addition to his continuous trips to direct the works of the arsenals, Jorge Juan held different commissions in fields as diverse as cartography, mining, hydraulics or the steel industry that would force him to move continuously from one edge of the country to another. The mathematician Benito Bails says, in his Praise of Juan, that he made 'more than twenty-four trips from one edge of Spain to the other, which he made by order of the Court' [9]. Thus, in 1750 he travelled to the Alcaráz Range to study the feasibility of a canal that would irrigate the lands of Lorca and Totana with the waters of the Castril and Guardal rivers. He also visited the most important mines in the country on several occasions. In 1758 he inspected the lead mines in Linares and he was in the mercury ones in Almadén in the years 1751 and 1752 (in which he devised a ventilation system for the galleries). He went again in 1756 to assess the damage caused up to that date by the fire of January of the previous year that hindered the work of extracting mercury and taking the necessary steps to extinguish it, as well as in 1758 and 1765. In 1754 he was in the La Cavada iron and steel complex in Santander, an important producer of cannons for the Spanish Navy, and supervised the factory set up there. That same year he was appointed member of the General Board of Commerce and Currency with the task of studying how to improve the weight, alloy and tuning of metals for the manufacture of coins. To satisfy one of the prime objectives of the Marquis de la Ensenada, between 1751 and 1752 Juan wrote, together with Antonio de Ulloa, some Instructions for the survey of the map of Spain following strict geodetic and astronomical observations ([41], [58]) and, in 1752, together with Louis Godin and José Carbonel, he drew up the statutes for a Royal Society of Sciences of Madrid which, as in other European states, was to ensure the teaching and dissemination of physical and mathematical sciences. But both initiatives would be paralysed after the fall in disgrace, in mid-July 1754, of the Marquis de la Ensenada ([15], [55]).

Another important activity carried out by Juan was in the educational field. In 1751 he was appointed captain of the Cadiz Navy Guards Company and director of its Academy. He immediately put into practice an ambitious project to reform the teachings that were taught in the latter, since he considered it essential that the students achieve a solid theoretical training of a scientific nature in order to obtain officers trained in nautical sciences and mathematics, thus joining their status as military and scientists. To this end, he hired new and more competent teachers; modified the study plans, promoting the teaching of mathematics and introducing the study of differential and integral calculus; he instituted public contests and obtained permission to write and print new textbooks and scientific monographs in the Academy itself without the need to go through prior censorship ([10], [16], [37]). The first of these, published in 1757, was his Compendium of Navigation for the use of Knight Midshipmen [23].

However, among all the improvements made by the seaman, perhaps the one that stood out the most interesting was the use of mock-ups for teaching the cadets. The innovation introduced by Juan consisted of having ship mock-ups or scale models built as a teaching tool to familiarise the midshipmen with the problems of naval construction and navigation, but also as a useful instrument with which to experiment with the limits of a theory, since Juan also used scale models to carry out demonstrations with which to test specific projects and convince technicians, ministers or even the monarch himself of their viability. He did so at the end of 1759 when, after managing to repair certain damage to the small dyke of Cartagena, he went to the court taking with him a model of the dyke, explaining with its help the method used, which was the one that would have to be followed to also recompose the big dyke. He also suggested the use of a scale model when exposing in 1765 the system he had devised to carry out the complicated maneuver of moving three sinking ships that were blocking the mouth of Havana Harbour [3]. The use of mock-ups meant the introduction in Spain of a new technique that emerged at the beginning of the century in the English shipyards, began to spread throughout Europe, and is another example of Juan's application of the experimental method as a source of knowledge advocated by Newton [62].

Another very important contribution of Jorge Juan during his stay in Cadiz was the creation in 1753 of the first astronomical observatory in Spain, a project he carried out together with Luis Godin, his former partner in the scientific expedition to Peru and who since November 1753 served as director of the Academy. The observatory was conceived as an institution attached to the Academy to complement the teaching of the cadets. It was equipped with books and scientific instruments acquired by Juan in London and was located in the old tower of the Guardias Marinas Castle in Cadiz until, in 1798, it was moved to the island of León [37]. An example of the international prestige that the observatory achieved in a few years is the laudatory mention made by the astronomer Joseph Jerôme le François de la Lande when referring to the facilities of the establishment in Cadiz : L'Observatoire de la Marine `a Cadix est très solide, très comode et garni de très bons instruments ... Ⓣ [38]. And another initiative of Juan in the intellectual field was the creation, in 1755, of a salon which he called the Friendly Literary Assembly and which included professors from the Academy of Marine Guards and the College of Surgery of Cadiz. In its sessions the scientific reports prepared by its members were discussed and Juan himself came to expose ten of them on astronomy and navigation ([15], [47]).

In September 1766, Juan was appointed plenipotentiary ambassador to the Moroccan court to close a peace and trade treaty whose preliminaries had been negotiated during that year by Sidi Ahmet el Gacel on behalf of the sultan of Morocco. The mathematician and seaman left Cadiz in mid-February of the following year and in May 1767 managed to sign the first Treaty of Peace and Trade between the Spanish Crown and Morocco under very favorable conditions for Spanish interests: peace between the two kingdoms on sea and land, freedom of navigation, use of Moroccan ports for Spanish ships, concessions of fishing factories in the Atlantic, express recognition of all the strongholds and prisons that Spain had on the Moroccan coast, establishment of consulates, etc. ([7], [40], [56]).

In May 1770, King Charles III appointed him director of the Seminary of Nobles, an institution created in 1725 by Philip V to educate the sons of the nobility and which was aimed at training the future ruling classes within the military career and the state administration. The institution had been in charge of the Jesuits, but after their expulsion it went into frank decline, with a small number of students and unsustainable expenses. Juan managed to revitalise the Seminary after undertaking a profound academic and administrative reform. He managed to clean up the finances by reducing the price of the pension paid by each schoolboy, so that, in the three years he was in charge of it, the number of students grew to eighty-two. He also reformed the curriculum, promoting the teaching of mathematics, including astronomy, and physics, and modified the cadre of teachers, firing unnecessary or incompetent ones and hiring highly qualified ones, such as the mathematician Francisco Subirás, as well as renowned technicians for the maintenance of the instruments, such as the watchmaker Diego Rostriaga, the first physics machinist of the Seminary ([6], [49]).

During his time at the head of the Seminary of Nobles Jorge Juan concluded his masterpiece, the two volumes of the Maritime Examination [24]. The first volume deals with general mechanics and contains two novel studies on the theory of shock and friction, while the second volume deals with the application of mechanics to ships. Published in 1771, it was quickly translated into English and French and would be regarded in 18th-century Europe as one of the leading books on naval engineering and fluid mechanics ([17], [59], [60]). Years later, in 1793, the seaman and scientist Gabriel Císcar y Císcar reissued the first volume of the Maritime Examination [26].

But the intense pace of work that Juan had endured for years ended up affecting his health. Miguel Sanz, his personal secretary, refers in the short biography he wrote after his death that his absolute dedication to work, constant travel and growing responsibilities were undermining his health forcing him to frequently interrupt his activities to go to spas such as those in Arnedillo, Aguas de Busot, Trillo or Sacedón to recover from the epileptic seizures that struck him with some frequency during the last third of his life, leaving him disabled of his hands [3]. At the beginning of June 1773, after a stay in Alicante to restore his health, he returned to Madrid and resumed his duties as director of the Seminary. But an apoplexy attack again prostrated him in bed and on June 21, 1773, after a week of agony, he died at his home in Madrid at the age of 60 [14].

Upon his death the reissue of the Astronomical and Physical Observations was in press [25], which was his 1748 publication which led to so many problems with the Inquisition. Juan had the intention of taking advantage of the new edition of the work to include in it, as introduction, a document entitled State of Astronomy in Europe in which he made a firm statement in favour of Newtonian laws or principles he had written in 1765 and that he failed to publish it. Jorge Juan had publicly read the above mentioned booklet during a Physics class that he taught on the 15th of that month at the Seminary of Nobles, but due to his sudden death six days later, he could not see his project finished. So, it was eventually his secretary, Miguel Sanz, who finally got permission from the Council of Castile to publish [25]. Although already deceased, Jorge Juan finally made official a scientific system whose mere mention in Spain, at that point in the 18th century, still scared the ignorant.
Other Mathematicians born in Spain
A Poster of Jorge Juan

References (show)

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Written by R Die, A Alberola and M A Goberna (University of Alicante)
Last Update February 2022