Peter of Maricourt
Encyclopedia
Floruit
Floruit , abbreviated fl. , is a Latin verb meaning "flourished", denoting the period of time during which something was active...
1269) was a 13th century French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
scholar who conducted experiments on magnetism
Magnetism
Magnetism is a property of materials that respond at an atomic or subatomic level to an applied magnetic field. Ferromagnetism is the strongest and most familiar type of magnetism. It is responsible for the behavior of permanent magnets, which produce their own persistent magnetic fields, as well...
and wrote the first extant treatise describing the properties of magnet
Magnet
A magnet is a material or object that produces a magnetic field. This magnetic field is invisible but is responsible for the most notable property of a magnet: a force that pulls on other ferromagnetic materials, such as iron, and attracts or repels other magnets.A permanent magnet is an object...
s. His work is particularly noted for containing the earliest detailed discussion of freely pivoting compass
Compass
A compass is a navigational instrument that shows directions in a frame of reference that is stationary relative to the surface of the earth. The frame of reference defines the four cardinal directions – north, south, east, and west. Intermediate directions are also defined...
needles, a fundamental component of the dry compass soon to appear in medieval navigation. He also wrote a treatise on the construction and use of a universal astrolabe
Astrolabe
An astrolabe is an elaborate inclinometer, historically used by astronomers, navigators, and astrologers. Its many uses include locating and predicting the positions of the Sun, Moon, planets, and stars, determining local time given local latitude and longitude, surveying, triangulation, and to...
.
Pierre’s text on the magnet is titled in many of the manuscripts as Epistola Petri Peregrini de Maricourt ad Sygerum de Foucaucourt, militem, de magnete ("Letter on the Magnet of Peter Peregrinus of Maricourt to Sygerus of Foucaucourt, Soldier"), but it is more commonly known by its short title, Epistola de magnete. Pierre's letter is thus addressed to an otherwise unknown Picard
Picardie
Picardy is one of the 27 regions of France. It is located in the northern part of France.-History:The historical province of Picardy stretched from north of Noyon to Calais, via the whole of the Somme department and the north of the Aisne department...
countryman named Sygerus (Sigerus, Ysaerus) of Foucaucourt
Foucaucourt-en-Santerre
Foucaucourt-en-Santerre is a commune in the Somme department in Picardie in northern France.-Geography:The commune is situated on the N29 road, some east of Amiens.-Population:-Places of interest:* The war memorial...
, possibly a friend and neighbor of the author; Foucaucourt borders on Pierre's home area de Maricourt, in the department of the Somme
Somme
Somme is a department of France, located in the north of the country and named after the Somme river. It is part of the Picardy region of France....
, near Péronne
Péronne, Somme
Péronne is a commune of the Somme department in Picardie in northern France.It is close to where the Battles of the Somme took place during World War I...
.
The letter also bears the closing legend (but in only one of the 39 manuscript copies) Actum in castris in obsidione Luceriæ anno domini 1269º 8º die augusti ("Done in camp during the siege of Lucera
Lucera
Lucera is a town and comune in the Province of Foggia, in the Apulia region of southern Italy.-Ancient era and early Middle Ages :Lucera is an ancient city founded in Daunia, the centre of Dauni territory . Archeological excavations show the presence of a bronze age village inside the city boundaries...
, August 8, 1269"), which might indicate that Pierre de Maricourt was in the army of Charles
Charles I of Sicily
Charles I , known also as Charles of Anjou, was the King of Sicily by conquest from 1266, though he had received it as a papal grant in 1262 and was expelled from the island in the aftermath of the Sicilian Vespers of 1282...
, duke of Anjou and king of Sicily, who, in 1269, laid siege to the city of Lucera. But given that only one manuscript attests this, the argument is weak. There is no indication of why he received the sobriquet Peregrinus ("pilgrim") but it suggests that he may have been either a pilgrim at one point or a crusader; and the 1269 attack on Lucera had been sanctioned as a crusade by the Pope
Pope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
. So Pierre de Maricourt may have served in that army.
"You must realize, dearest friend," Pierre writes, "that while the investigator in this subject must understand nature and not be ignorant of the celestial motions, he must also be very diligent in the use of his own hands, so that through the operation of this stone he may show wonderful effects."
The content of the Epistola de magnete
Pierre's letters explain how to identify the poles of the compasses. He also describes the laws of magnetic attractionElectromagnetism
Electromagnetism is one of the four fundamental interactions in nature. The other three are the strong interaction, the weak interaction and gravitation...
and repulsion
Electric charge
Electric charge is a physical property of matter that causes it to experience a force when near other electrically charged matter. Electric charge comes in two types, called positive and negative. Two positively charged substances, or objects, experience a mutual repulsive force, as do two...
. The letters also contain a description of an experiment with a repaired magnet, as well as a number of compasses, one of which "you will be able to direct your steps to cities and islands and to any place whatever in the world." Indeed, the increasing perfection of magnetic compasses during the thirteenth century allowed navigators such as Vandino and Ugolino Vivaldi
Vandino and Ugolino Vivaldi
Vandino and Ugolino Vivaldi were two brothers and Genoese explorers and merchants....
to strike out on voyages to unknown lands.
Inductive reasoning
Inductive reasoning, also known as induction or inductive logic, is a kind of reasoning that constructs or evaluates propositions that are abstractions of observations. It is commonly construed as a form of reasoning that makes generalizations based on individual instances...
based on definite experiences, and setting forth the fundamental laws of magnetism. He did not discover these laws, but presented them in logical order. Part One discusses the physical (but not the occult) properties of the lodestone
Magnetite
Magnetite is a ferrimagnetic mineral with chemical formula Fe3O4, one of several iron oxides and a member of the spinel group. The chemical IUPAC name is iron oxide and the common chemical name is ferrous-ferric oxide. The formula for magnetite may also be written as FeO·Fe2O3, which is one part...
and provides the first extant written account of the polarity of magnets. He was thus the first to use the word “pole
Magnet
A magnet is a material or object that produces a magnetic field. This magnetic field is invisible but is responsible for the most notable property of a magnet: a force that pulls on other ferromagnetic materials, such as iron, and attracts or repels other magnets.A permanent magnet is an object...
” in this context. He also provides methods for determining the north and south poles of a magnet. He also describes the effects magnets have upon one another, showing that like poles repel each other and unlike poles attract each other. He also treats the attraction of iron by loadstones the magnetization if iron by loadestones; and the ability to reverse the polarity in such an induced magnet. Pierre attributed the Earth's magnetism to the action of celestial poles, rather than to the terrestrial poles of the planet itself.
Part Two (three chapters): This section describes three devices that utilize the properties of magnets. He treats the practical applications of magnets, describing the “wet” floating compass as an instrument in common use, and proposing a new “dry” pivoted compass in some detail. He also attempts to prove that with the help of magnets it is possible to realize perpetual motion
Perpetual motion
Perpetual motion describes hypothetical machines that operate or produce useful work indefinitely and, more generally, hypothetical machines that produce more work or energy than they consume, whether they might operate indefinitely or not....
(see History of perpetual motion machines
History of perpetual motion machines
The history of perpetual motion machines dates back to the Middle Ages. For millennia, it was not clear whether perpetual motion devices were possible or not, but the development of modern theories of thermodynamics has indicated that they are impossible. Despite this, many attempts have been made...
). His device is a toothed wheel which passes near a lodestone so that the teeth are alternately attracted by one pole and repelled by the other.
The universal astrolabe text
Astrolabe
An astrolabe is an elaborate inclinometer, historically used by astronomers, navigators, and astrologers. Its many uses include locating and predicting the positions of the Sun, Moon, planets, and stars, determining local time given local latitude and longitude, surveying, triangulation, and to...
which could be used at a variety of latitudes without changing the plates. Unlike al-Zarqālī’s more famous universal astrolabe in which vertical halves the heavens were projected onto a plane through the poles, this one had both the northern and southern hemispheres projected onto a plane through the equator (which was also the limit of projection). There are no known surviving astrolabes based on this treatise. The use of such an astrolabe is very complicated, and since it is probable that most sophisticated users were not frequent travelers, they were more likely happier with the traditional (and simpler) stereographic planispheric astrolabe.
Roger Bacon
The literature often mentions that Pierre was praised by Roger BaconRoger Bacon
Roger Bacon, O.F.M. , also known as Doctor Mirabilis , was an English philosopher and Franciscan friar who placed considerable emphasis on the study of nature through empirical methods...
, who called him a “perfect mathematician” and one who valued experience over argument. But the association of the praise with Pierre de Maricourt appears only in a marginal gloss to Bacon’s Opus tertium and only in one of the five manuscripts used in the critical edition, which leads us to conclude that it was a later comment added by someone else. That Bacon’s praise was for Pierre de Maricourt is open to serious debate.
Legacy
The influence of de Maricourt’s astrolabe was virtually nil. His reputation derives mainly from his work on magnetism. The De magnete became a very popular work from the Middle AgesMiddle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
onwards, as witnessed by the large number of manuscript copies.
The first printed edition of it was issued at Augsburg
Augsburg
Augsburg is a city in the south-west of Bavaria, Germany. It is a university town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is an urban district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is, as of 2008, the third-largest city in Bavaria with a...
, in 1558, by Achilles Gasser
Achilles Gasser
Achilles Pirmin Gasser was a German physician and astrologer. He is now known as a well-connected humanist scholar, and supporter of both Copernicus and Rheticus.-Life:...
. In 1572, Jean Taisner
Jean Taisner
Jean Taisner was a priest. In 1572, Taisner published from the press of Johann Birkmann of Cologne a work entitled Opusculum perpetua memoria dignissimum, de natura magnetis et ejus effectibus, Item de motu continuo...
published from the press of Johann Birkmann of Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
a work entitled Opusculum perpetua memoria dignissimum, de natura magnetis et ejus effectibus, Item de motu continuo. This is considered a piece of plagiarism
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work, but the notion remains problematic with nebulous...
, as Taisnier presents, as though his own, the Epistola de magnete of Pierre de Maricourt and a treatise on the fall of bodies by Gianbattista Benedetti.
William Gilbert acknowledged his debt to Pierre de Maricourt and incorporated this thirteenth century scientist's experiments on magnetism into his own treatise, called De magnete
De Magnete
De Magnete, Magneticisque Corporibus, et de Magno Magnete Tellure is a scientific work published in 1600 by the English physician and scientist William Gilbert and his partner Aaron Dowling...
.
The Epistola de magnete was later issued by Guillaume Libri (Histoire des sciences mathématiques en Italie, vol 2 [Paris, 1838], pp. 487–505), but, based on only one manuscript, this edition was full of defects; corrected editions were published by Timoteo Bertelli (in Bulletino di bibliografia e di storia delle scienze matematiche e fisiche pubblicata da B. Boncampagni, 1 (1868), 70-80) and G. Hellmann (Rara magnetica 1269-1599 [Neudrucke von Schriften und Karten über Meteorologie und Erdmagnetismus, 10], [Berlin, 1898]) .
The modern critical edition was prepared by Loris Sturlese and appears in Petrus Peregrinus de Maricourt, Opera (Pisa, 1995), pp. 63–89.
A translation into English has been made by Silvanus P. Thompson ("Epistle of Peter Peregrinus of Maricourt, to Sygerus of Foucaucourt, Soldier, concerning the Magnet", [London: Chiswick Press, 1902]); by Brother Arnold [=Joseph Charles Mertens] ("The Letter of Petrus Peregrinus on the Magnet, A. D. 1269", with introductory note by Brother Potamian [= M. F. O’Reilly], [New York, 1904]); and H. D. Harradon, (“Some Early Contributions to the History of Geomagnetism - I,” in Terrestrial Magnetism and Atmospheric Electricity [now Journal of Geophysical Research] 48 [1943], 3-17 [text pp. 6–17]).
The modern critical edition of the astrolabe text was prepared by Loris Ron B. Thomson and appears in Petrus Peregrinus de Maricourt, Opera (Pisa, 1995), pp. 119–196.
The European Geosciences Union
European Geosciences Union
The European Geosciences Union is an interdisciplinary non-profit learned society open to individuals who are professionally engaged in or associated with geosciences, planetary and space sciences, and related studies.The mission statement of the EGU is "Dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in...
(EGU) established the Petrus Peregrinus Medal in recognition for outstanding scientific contributions in the field of magnetism.
External links
- Encyclopædia Britannica: Peter Peregrinus of Maricourt
- Catholic Encyclopedia: Pierre de Maricourt
- Peter Peregrinus at IET Archives
- The letter of Petrus Peregrinus on the magnet, A.D. 1269 (translated 1904)
- Andreas Kleinert, Wie funktionierte das Perpetuum mobile des Petrus Peregrinus?, in NTM N.S. 11 (2003), 155–170, abstract