Bockstaele, Paul Petrus (1920-2009)

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Mathematician, born in Melle on 7 February 1920 and died in Oud-Heverlee on 3 August 2009.

Biography

Paul Bockstaele was born on 7 February 1920 in Melle. In 1940 he obtained a baccalaureate in Thomistic Philosophy. In 1951 he obtained a doctorate in mathematics. In 1944 he was ordained as a priest in Ghent. In 1967 he became honorary canon at the St Bavo chapter (Sint Baafskapittel) in the Diocese of Ghent.
Between 1947 and 1953, he was a teacher at the Sint-Vincentiuscollege in Eeklo. From 1953 to 1962 he taught at the Episcopal Normal School in Sint-Niklaas.
In 1962 he became a lecturer and from 1963 to 1967 a lecturer at the Faculty of Science at the Catholic University of Leuven (KUL). In 1967 he was appointed full professor at the Faculty of Science. Here he taught, among other things, a basic course in analysis entitled Differential and Integral Calculus, as well as two courses in the History of Mathematics. One course dealt with mathematics from the Ancient Far East to contemporary mathematics, the second with the work of mathematicians from Leuven. He was the inspirer of the Department of History and Foundations of Mathematics. In the period between 1968 and 1971, he was a visiting professor at the Lovanium University in Kinshasa.
He was admitted to emeritus status on 1 August 1986.

In 1973 he was elected member of the National Committee for Logics, History and Philosophy of Science, of which he would be vice-president for almost 20 years. On 9 November 1983 he was elected corresponding member of the Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie van België voor wetenschappen en kunsten, working member on 8 March 1989 and honorary member in 1995. In 1984 he became a member of the Permanent Commission for the History of Sciences of the KVAB, of which he became chairman in 1985, a position he was to hold for fifteen years. Within the KVAB he was also a member of the Standing Committee of the J. Gillis Prize, the Committee of the National Biographical Dictionary and the Committee Centre for European Culture. Paul Bockstaele became a corresponding member in 1971 and an effective member of the Académie internationale d'Histoire des Sciences in 1988. Furthermore, he alos was a corresponding member of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Geschichte der Medizin, Naturwissenschaft und Technik.
In 1959 he was a founding member and between 1988 and 1992 chairman of the Zuidnederlands Genootschap voor de Geschiedenis der Geneeskunde, Wiskunde, Natuurwetenschappen en Techniek. He was also a member of the editorial board of Scientiarum Historia, the journal published by this society. He represented Belgium at the International Commission for the History of Mathematics for years.

Paul Bockstaele was a great collector of old books and prints. At the K.U.Leuven, he was also responsible for the development of the science history collections. Paul Bockstaele was appointed in 1969 as representative of the Faculty of Science in the library council, of which he became vice-president in 1974. In the academic year 1976-1977 he became chairman of the reformed library council, at which time he was already chairman of the Campus Library Council of Sciences. In 1980 he became acting head librarian. In 1981 he resigned as chairman and member of the library council. He left his huge and valuable library to KULeuven.

From 1992 to 2005, Paul Bockstaele was involved in the archaeological excavations at the ancient Roman city of Sagalassos in present-day Turkey under the direction of archaeologist Marc Waelkens. Paul Bockstaele filmed the excavations.

On the proposal of the Academy, Paul Bockstaele received the high distinction of Grand Officer in the Order of Leopold in 1996.
He died in Oud-Heverlee on 3 August 2009.

Works

Paul Bockstaele was an authoritative expert on the history of mathematics. His interest in the history of mathematics stemmed from his years of study at the seminary, where he came into contact with the work of the Jesuit Henri Bosmans. From the 1950s onwards, he devoted himself increasingly to the study of mathematics in the Renaissance, with a particular interest to the Low Countries. Paul Bockstaele published on Simon Stevin and the Leuven mathematician Adriaan van Roomen, among others. The latter he considered the founder of mathesis universalis, a precursor of Descartes. He also published on the debate on the foundations of mathematics among the French intuitionists, the introduction of the infinitesimal calculus in Belgium, old arithmetic books in the Netherlands and astrology at the University of Leuven. His treatise on French intuitionist mathematicians (Het intuïtionisme bij de Franse wiskundigen), for which he received his licentiate degree, was awarded a prize by the Academy and published in 1949 in its series of treatises.
He also wrote a number of textbooks on plane and spatial geometry for secondary schools, which included historical notes.

Publications

• Het intuïtionisme bij de Franse wiskundigen, "Verhandelingen, Letteren en Schoone Kunsten van België Vlaamsche Academie voor Wetenschappen Klasse der Wetenschappen", Brussel, 1949, 123 p.
• "De geschiedenis van de wetenschappen in het Middelbaar Onderwijs", in: Scientiarum Historia, 1 (1959), 25-27.
• "Bibliografie van de geschiedenis der wetenschappen", in: Scientiarum Historia, 1 (1959), 31-52.

• "Het oudste gedrukte Nederlandse rekenboekje", in: Scientiarum Historia, 1 (1959), 53-71.
• "Het oudste gedrukte Nederlandse rekenboekje en zijn vertalingen", in: Scientiarum Historia, 1 (1959), 117-127.
• "Bibliografie van de geschiedenis van de wetenschappen in de Nederlanden", in: Scientiarum Historia, 1 (1959), 107-116, 4 (1962), 91-112, 5 (1963), 178-194, 6 (1964), 97-107 en 222-235, 7 (1965),127-136 en 229-240, 8 (1966), 114-124, 9 (1967), 48-60 en 91-105, 10 (1968), 42-55, en 234-245, 11 (1969), 190-208 en 14 (1972), 65-94.
• "Adriaan van Roomen. 'Medicus et Mathematicus' ", in: Scientiarum Historia, 3 (1961) 169-178.
• "Enkele recente publicaties over Adam Riese", in: Scientiarum Historia, 2 (1960) 189-190.
• "Nieuwtjes uit de historisch-wetenschappelijke wereld", in: Scientiarum Historia, 4 (1962), 226-230.
• "Kroniek", in: Scientiarum Historia, 5 (1963), 68-71.
• Adriaan van Roomen en Polen. Zijn onderwijs te Zamość en zijn invloed op Jan Broźek, 1963, 44 p.
• "Negentiende eeuwse discussies in België over de fundering van de analyse", in: Scientiarum Historia, 7 (1965), 185-201.
• "Adriaan van Roomen", in: Nationaal biografisch woordenboek, Brussel, 1966, kol. 751-765.
• "Ignatius de Jonghe et sa Geometrica inquisitio in parabolas numero et specie infinitas", in: Janus LIV, (1967), 228-235.
• "Een vergeten werk over de kwadratuur van parabolen en hyperbolen : Ignatius de Jonghe's "Geometrica Inquisitio" (1688)", in: Scientiarum historia. Tijdschrift voor de geschiedenis van de geneeskunde, wiskunde en natuurwetenschappen, 4(1967), 175-181.
• "Pierre de la Ramée, Jan Brozek, Adriaan van Roomen, and Giovanni Camillo Gloriosi on isoperimetrical figures", in: XIVth International Congress of the History of Science, volume Proceedings no 2: Plenary Lectures; Antiquity, Middle Ages and Renaissance; Mathematics; Physics and Astronomy; Chemistry, Tokyo and Kyoto, Japan, Science Council of Japan, 1974
• "Een Leuvens mathematisch pamflet uit 1638," in: Liber americorum professor emeritus Dr. H. Florin, Leuven, 1975, 45-61.
• "The correspondence of Adriaan van Roomen," in: Lias, III (1976), 85-129 en 250-299.
• "Mathematics in the Netherlands from 1750 to 1830", in: Janus, LXV (1978), 67-95.
• "Een onbekende arithmetica van Anthoni Smyters", in: Tijdschrift voor de Geschiedenis der Geneeskunde,Natuurwetenschappen, Wiskunde en Techniek, 2 (1979), 45-51.
• "Die waerachtige const der Geometrien 1513. Het oudst gedrukte Nederlandse meetkundeboek", in: Liber amicorum Gaspard Bosteels -Vrienden van het KA Berchem, 1979, 29–42.
• "Adrianus Romanus and Giovanni Camillo Glorioso on isoperimetric figures," in: Joseph W. Dauben (ed.) Mathematical perspectives. Essays on Mathematics and Its Historical Development, New York-London, 1981, 1-11.
• "Het oudst bekende, gedrukte Nederlandse meetkundeboek: Die waerachtige const der geometrieen (1513)", in: Tijdschrift voor de Geschiedenis der Geneeskunde, Natuurwetenschappen en Techniek, 7 (1984), 79-92.
• "Gielis van den Hoecke en zijn Sonderlinghe boeck in dye edel conste arithmetica", in: Academiae Analecta. Mededelingen van de Koninklijke Academie voor wetenschappen, letteren en schone kunsten van België. Klasse der wetenschappen, 47 (1985), 3-29.
• "La théorie des tangentes aux courbes algébriques dans l'oeuvre de René-François de Sluse", in: Bulletin de la Société Royale des Sciences de Liège, LV (1986), 135-144.
• "Astrologie te Leuven in de zeventiende eeuw", in: De zeventiende eeuw, 1989, 172-181.
• "Adrianus Romanus and the trigonometric tables of Georg Joachim Rheticus", in: Demidov, S.S. e.a. (red.), Amphora: Festschrift for Hans Wussing on the occasion of his 65th birthday, Basel- Boston- Berlijn, 1992, 55-66.
• "A challenge to the mathematicians of the University of Leuven as a New Year's gift for 1639", in: Folkerts, M. & Hogendijk, J.P. (red.), Vestigia Mathematica, Amsterdam-Atlanta, 1993, 15-27.
• "In memoriam. Pater Omer Van de Vyver S.J. (1915-1997)", in: Scientiarum Historia, 23 (1997), 109-111.
• "De wiskunde", in: Robert Halleux, Carmélia Opsomer en Jan Vandersmissen (red.), Geschiedenis van de wetenschappen in België van de Oudheid tot 1815, Gemeentekrediet/Dexia, Brussel, 1998, 113-144.
• "Meester Thomas Montis en de zondvloed voorspeld voor het jaar 1524," in: J. Hanselaer, C. Coppens, J. Deschamps, Jos.M.M. Hermans, J. Storm van Leeuwen (red.), E Codicibus Impressisque. Opstellen over het boek in de Lage Landen voor Elly Cockx-Indestege (Miscellanea Neerlandica 18-20), 3 vol., Leuven, 2004, vol. 2, 3-18.
• "The mathematical and the exact sciences" in: Walter Rüegg (red.), A History of the University in Europe, Vol. III: Universities In the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004, 493-518.
• "Between Viète and Descartes: Adriaan van Roomen and the Mathesis Universalis", Archive for History of Exact Sciences, 63 (2009), 433-470.
  

School books

• Meetkunde van de ruimte voor het middelbaar en normaal onderwijs, Standaard,Antwerpen, 1971.
  

Bibliography

• In memoriam by Jan Roegiers.
• In memoriam by Jan Beirlant.
• Wikipedia: Paul Bockstaele
• Website GEWINA
• Website Kerknet
• Website opgravingen Sagalassos
• "Bockstaele Paul", in: De Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie van België voor wetenschappen en kunsten en haar leden, Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie van België voor wetenschappen en kunsten, 2010, p.22.
  
• Vanpaemel, Geert, "Paul Bockstaele (1920-2009)", in: Studium: Tijdschrift voor Wetenschaps- en Universiteitsgeschiedenis / Revue de l’Histoire des Sciences et des Universités, 3 (2010), nr. 4, 191-193.
• Vanpaemel, Geert, "‘Beginnen is de allereerste voorwaarde om iets te verwezenlijken’. Paul Bockstaele (1920–2009) en de academisering van de wetenschapsgeschiedenis in België," Studium: Tijdschrift voor Wetenschaps- en Universiteitsgeschiedenis / Revue de l’Histoire des Sciences et des Universités, 6 (2013), 3/4, 311-313.