Aguillon Franciscus
(1567-1617)
François d'Aguilon (also d'Aguillon or in Latin Franciscus
Aguilonius) (4 January 1567, Brussels – 20 March 1617, Tournai), was a
Belgian Jesuit mathematician, physicist and architect.
He became a Jesuit in 1586. In 1611, he started a special school of
mathematics, in Antwerp, which intended to perpetuate the mathematical
research and study in the Jesuit society. This school produced geometers
like André Tacquet and Jean Charles della Faille.
Illustration by Rubens for "Opticorum libri sex philosophis juxta ac
mathematicis utiles", by François d'Aiguillon. It demonstrates how the
projection is computed.His book, Opticorum Libri Sex philosophis juxta
ac mathematicis utiles (Six Books of Optics, useful for philosophers and
mathematicians alike), published in Antwerp in 1613, was illustrated by
famous painter Peter Paul Rubens. It was notable for containing the
principles of the stereographic and the orthographic projections, and it
inspired the works of Desargues and Christiaan Huygens.
