Hugh Sempill
Encyclopedia
- "Hugh Sempill" is also the name of several Lords SempillLord SempillLord Sempill is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created in circa 1489 for Sir John Sempill, founder of the collegiate Church of Lochwinnoch. Sempill was killed at the Battle of Flodden in 1513. His grandson, the third Lord, was known as "The Great Lord Sempill"...
.
Hugh Sempill (or Semple) (in Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
, Hugo Simpelius or Sempilius) (between 1589 and 1596 – 1654) was a Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
Jesuit mathematician
Mathematician
A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
and linguist. He describes himself in his work as Hugo Sempilius Craigbaitaeus, probably making him the Hew Sempill of Craigbait and Langside found in local genealogies
Genealogy
Genealogy is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members...
, where his birth is given as 1590.http://www.gbnf.com/genealog3/maclaren/html/d0259/I26201.HTM
A Jesuit, Sempill taught as professor of mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
at the Colegio Imperial de Madrid
Colegio Imperial de Madrid
Colegio Imperial de Madrid was the name of a Jesuit teaching institution in Madrid....
(Imperial College of Madrid), which employed teachers from all over Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and made courses in geometry
Geometry
Geometry arose as the field of knowledge dealing with spatial relationships. Geometry was one of the two fields of pre-modern mathematics, the other being the study of numbers ....
, geography
Geography
Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
, hydrography
Hydrography
Hydrography is the measurement of the depths, the tides and currents of a body of water and establishment of the sea, river or lake bed topography and morphology. Normally and historically for the purpose of charting a body of water for the safe navigation of shipping...
, and horology
Horology
Horology is the art or science of measuring time. Clocks, watches, clockwork, sundials, clepsydras, timers, time recorders and marine chronometers are all examples of instruments used to measure time.People interested in horology are called horologists...
.
He also served as procurator of the Royal Scots College
Royal Scots College
The Royal Scots College is a Roman Catholic seminary in Salamanca, Spain for the church in Scotland. It was located originally at Madrid, then Valladolid, and then Salamanca .-History:...
in Madrid (now located in Salamanca
Salamanca
Salamanca is a city in western Spain, in the community of Castile and León. Because it is known for its beautiful buildings and urban environment, the Old City was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988. It is the most important university city in Spain and is known for its contributions to...
).
Sempill's De Mathematicis disciplinis Libri duodecim (Antwerp, ex officina B. Moreti, 1635), dedicated to Philip IV of Spain
Philip IV of Spain
Philip IV was King of Spain between 1621 and 1665, sovereign of the Spanish Netherlands, and King of Portugal until 1640...
, was a work that was read across Europe (his work was cited, for example, by the Jesuit Philippus Brietius
Philippus Brietius
Philippus Brietius was a seventeenth-century French Jesuit historian and cartographer.-List of works:...
in the Frenchman's own Parallela Geographie). Sempill's work was essentially a compilation and many pages consist of little but a list of names of writers in various scientific genres.
Sempill also wrote Experentia Mathematice. De compositione et divisione numerum, linearum, quadratorum... (Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, 1642).
The crater Simpelius
Simpelius (crater)
Simpelius is an impact crater that lies in the southern part of the Moon. It lies to the north-northwest of the somewhat larger crater Schomberger, and east-southeast of the prominent Moretus....
on the Moon
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
is named after him. The name was originally assigned by Riccioli in 1651.