Hugh Sempill

This article is about the mathematician. For the soldier, see Hugh Sempill, 12th Lord Sempill.

Hugh Sempill (or Semple; in Latin Hugo Simpelius or Sempilius; between 1589 and 1596 – 1654) was a Scottish Jesuit mathematician and linguist. He describes himself in his work as Craigbaitaeus, having inherited landholdings at Craigbait from his grandfather.

Biography

Born in 1589, he was the son of Robert Semple of Craigbait, Renfrewshire. He was a cadet of the noble family of Sempill. He entered the Jesuit novitiate of the Province Toledo in 1615, and studied at the University of Alcalá. Sempill taught as professor of mathematics at the Colegio Imperial de Madrid (Imperial College of Madrid), which employed teachers from all over Europe and made courses in geometry, geography, hydrography, and horology.

He also served as procurator of the Royal Scots College in Madrid (now located in Salamanca). During Sempill's tenure the college is thought to have acquired, perhaps at Sempill's behest, a collection of Jacobean and Caroline era stage plays in quarto editions, among them The Two Noble Kinsmen by William Shakespeare and John Fletcher.

He died in the Colegio Imperial de Madrid on 13 September 1654.

The crater Simpelius on the Moon is named after him. The name was originally assigned by Riccioli in 1651.

Works

De mathematicis disciplinis, 1635

Sempill's De Mathematicis disciplinis Libri duodecim (Antwerp, ex officina B. Moreti, 1635), dedicated to Philip IV of Spain, was a work that was read across Europe (his work was cited, for example, by the Jesuit Philippus Brietius in the Frenchman's own Parallela Geographiae). It is divided into twelve chapters, the first two being the most interesting. In chapter one he discusses the position of pure mathematics in relation to science. He gives a short historical account, with references to contemporary mathematicians, and then contrasts the views of Aristotle (which he follows) with more contemporaneous authors who cast doubts on the possibility of fitting mathematics as a science into the cadre of knowledge. In the second chapter he discusses mathematics from the aspect of its various applications. In the remaining chapters he considers: geometry and arithmetic, which are dealt with briefly; optics; statics, in which a variety of mechanical topics including pyrotechnics and automata are considered; music; cosmography; geography, in which he includes a discussion on the Americas, using Spanish as well as Latin in the heading of a table concerning rents of metropolitan churches and cathedrals; hydrography, air, atmosphere, the sunset, meteorites, volcanoes, and comets; astronomy, in which a reference is made to Copernicus' astronomical observations; astrology, in which he discusses licit and illicit astrology, and reproduces the papal bull of Pope Sixtus V refuting astrology; and, in the last chapter, the calendar. The book ends with a large index, of over sixty pages. This section of the book may be a preliminary version of a 'Dictionarium mathematicum' of his, which was never published.

In 1642 Sempill published, in Madrid, Experientia mathematica de compositione numerorum, linearum, quadratorum, &c. , in which he discusses basic algebra. The Biblioteca Nacional de España possesses four more of his works in manuscript: Historia de Regimine Philippi IV; Parecer sobre el riego de los prados de Aranjuéz y lugares vecinos en tiempos de Felipe IV; Parecer sobre las señales que se vieron en el cielo, año 1637; and Discurso contra los ministros codiciosos. Sempill's significance lay in the scope of his desire to promote the application of mathematics to science.

Bibliography

• Semple, Hugh (1635). De mathematicis disciplinis Libri XII (in Latin). Antuerpiae: Officina Plantiniana, Balthasar Moretus.
• Experientia Mathematica (Madrid 1642)
• Dictionarium Mathematicum

References

Sources

• Alderson, Reevel (19 September 2020). "Edition of Shakespeare's last play found in Scots college in Spain". BBC News. Archived from the original on 2021-01-01.
• Cocks, Elijah E.; Cocks, Josiah C. (1995). Who's Who on the Moon: A Biographical Dictionary of Lunar Nomenclature. Tudor Publishers. ISBN 9780936389271.
• Ludovici, Carl Günther, ed. (1743). "Sempilius, Hugo". Grosses vollständiges Universal-Lexicon aller Wissenschafften und Künste (in German). Vol. 36. Leipzig: Johann Heinrich Zedler. p. 911. Retrieved 2021-02-09.
• MacGregor, John (1910). "Sempill, Lord Sempill". In Paul, James Balfour (ed.). The Scots Peerage. Vol. VII. Edinburgh: David Douglas. pp. 526–568. OCLC 1085415288.
• Oliver, George (1845). "Semple, Hugh". Collections towards illustrating the biography of the Scotch, English, and Irish members, of the Society of Jesus (in English and Latin) (2nd ed.). London: Charles Dolman. p. 37. OCLC 1042144780.
• Stone, John (September 2020). "The Two Noble Kinsmen and Eighteen Other Newly Discovered Early Modern English Quartos in an Hispano-Scottish Collection". Notes and Queries. 67 (3): 367–374. doi:10.1093/notesj/gjaa089.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Cooper, Thompson (1897). "Sempill, Hugh". In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 51. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 235.

Further reading

• Capel, Horacio (November 1980). "La geografía como ciencia matemática mixta. La aportación del círculo jesuítico madrileño en el siglo XVII" [Geography as a mixed mathematical science. The contribution of the Madrid circle of Jesuits in the 17th century]. Geo Crítica (in Spanish) (30). ISSN 0210-0754. Archived from the original on 2020-07-16.
• Ortiz, Eduaro L. "Sempill, Hugh (1596–1654)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/25072. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• Sáiz, Patricio (2005). "El peluquero de la Reina" [The Queen's Hairdresser] (PDF). Department of Economic Analysis. UAM Working Papers in Economic History (in Spanish). Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. doi:10.2139/ssrn.3495888. ISSN 1885-6888. SSRN 3495888. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-02-09. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
• Wald-Fuhrmann, Melanie (2005). "Sic ludit in orbe terrarum aeterna Dei sapientia" - Harmonie als Utopie: Untersuchungen zur Musurgia universalis von Athanasius Kircher ["It plays out in a world of eternal wisdom" - Harmony as Utopia: Investigations into Athanasius Kircher's "Musurgia universalis"] (Dr.phil. dissertation) (in German). University of Zurich. Retrieved 2021-02-09.