Hermann of Reichenau

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Hermann of Reichenau is also called Hermann the Lame or Hermann Contractus.

Hermann entered the Cloister School at Reichenau in September 1020. He became a monk at the Benedictine Monastery at Reichenau in 1043, becoming Abbot of the Monastery.

Hermann is called 'the Lame' or 'Contractus' for very good reason. He was extremely disabled, having only limited movement and limited ability to speak. Despite these disabilities he was a key figure in the transmission of Arabic mathematics, astronomy and scientific instruments from Arabic sources into central Europe. In other words he published in Latin much scientific work which before this time had been only available in Arabic.

One would expect, from this description, that he would be an Arabic speaker but it is thought almost certain that he could not read Arabic.

Hermann introduced three important instruments into central Europe, knowledge of which came from Arabic Spain. He introduced the astrolabe, a portable sundial and a quadrant with a cursor.

His works include De Mensura Astrolabii and De Utilitatibus Astrolabii (some parts of these works may not have been written by Hermann).

Hermann's contributions to mathematics include a treatise dealing with multiplication and division, although this book is written entirely with Roman numerals. He also wrote on a complicated game based on Pythagorean number theory which was derived from Boethius.

As well as his scientific work, Hermann wrote poetry and hymns.

Article by: J J O'Connor and E F Robertson

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Cross-references in MacTutor

1. Chronology: 900 to 1100

JOC/EFR © February 1997 Copyright information	School of Mathematics and Statistics University of St Andrews, Scotland
The URL of this page is: http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Hermann_of_Reichenau.html