Jakub Kresa

Jakub Kresa (, ; 19 July 1648 – 28 July 1715) was a Czech mathematician. He was one of the most important mathematicians of the Baroque era in the Kingdom of Bohemia.

Biography

Early life Jakub Kresa was born into a smallholder's family at Smržice near Prostějov. He studied at the Jesuit gymnasium (school) in Brno. There he proved to be an extraordinary student. He not only displayed rare skills in mathematics, but he also became a polyglot, able to speak fluently Hebrew, German, Latin, Italian, Spanish, French and Portuguese, in addition to his Czech mother-tongue.

In 1669–1670 he taught at the gymnasium (school) in Litoměřice. Then he went to Prague, where he studied at the Faculty of Philosophy of Charles University between 1670 and 1673. After spending a short time back in Litoměřice, he returned to Prague in 1675 and continued his studies in mathematics and theology. Kresa was ordained a priest in 1680. After this he spent a short time in Telč.

Back in the Czech Crown lands Following the death of spanish king Charles II in 1700 Kresa went back to Prague. He obtained a doctorate in theology at Charles University and also started to teach theology there. At the same time he was privately teaching mathematics and was acquiring mathematical apparatus for the Department of Mathematics. He was engaged in arithmetic, fractions and logarithms, trigonometry, astronomy, algebra, as well as military architecture. One of his private students, Count Ferdinand Herbert, published Kresa's ideas in magazine Acta Eruditorum in 1711.

Late life The Emperor Leopold I appointed Kresa as confessor of his second son, the Archduke Charles. He remained in this position after Charles took over the Spanish throne, within the War of the Spanish Succession, and therefore returned to Spain with him (1704–1713). on mathematical theories in Brno, where he died in 1715.

Legacy Cover of Kresa's Spanish translation of Euclides's Elements. Kresa's manuscripts were transcribed for printing by his students František Tillisch and Karel Slavíček, who both later taught at Olomouc.

The lectures Kresa gave at Charles University were recorded by student called Kryštof John, who published them under the title Mathematica in universitate Pragensi tradica a P. Jacobo Kreysa ... excerpta anno 1685. The manuscript is today stored at the library of Strahov Monastery.

In Kresa's era the Trigonometric functions were derived using geometry. Kresa was the first to introduce algebraic number to trigonometry.

Kresa's death was followed by a decline in mathematics and science in the Czech Crown lands due to the dogmatic application of Catholic Church doctrines. With Slavíček having gone to China, scientific work largely disappeared from the Czech lands for two decades. Although the theories of Isaac Newton, Jacques Cassini and Edmond Halley were well known, local scientists (such as Josef Player or Jan Slezina) were continued to work with the obsolete theories of Ptolemaios and Aristoteles. It was only a quarter of a century later, that scientific work was resumed by peoples such as Jan Antonín Scrinci (1697–1773) and Joseph Stepling (1716–1778).

Major works ... , 1688 , etc., Brussels 1689 , Prague 1715 , etc. Prague 1720