Abstract
Richard Swineshead (fl. c. 1340–1355, Oxford, England) is most famous as the author of the Book of Calculations (Liber calculationum), which treats various topics of natural philosophy using a mixture of logic and verbal mathematics. The book was apparently meant to support students in the Arts Faculty at Oxford who were taking part in required disputations.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Bibliography
Primary Sources
Swineshead Richard. (c. 1345). Liber calculationum, is available in many manuscripts, not all of which are complete. It was published in Padua c. 1477; Pavia 1498; Venice 1520; Salamanca 1520; and in other editions. Treatise XI on the rod falling through the earth, was published by Hoskin M, Molland AG (1966) Swineshead on falling bodies: an example of fourteenth-century physics. Br J Hist Sci 3:150–182. There is an outline in Latin of the main points of the Book of calculations, mostly but not entirely using Swineshead’s words in Edith Sylla (1970, 1991) The Oxford calculators and the mathematics of motion, 1320–1350. Physics and measurement by latitudes. Harvard PhD dissertation. (Reprinted Garland Publishing, pp. 648–714).
The short opuscula, De motu, De motu locali, and De caelo, are found in MS Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College 499/268, ff. 204r–215r.
Secondary Sources
Clagett, M. (1950). Richard Swineshead and late medieval physics. Osiris, 9, 131–151.
Murdoch, J. E., Sylla, E. D. (1976). Swineshead (Swyneshed, Suicet, etc.), Richard. Dictionary of scientific biography (Vol. 13, pp. 184–213). New York: Charles Scribner; Sylla, E., supplement to this article. (2008). Complete dictionary of scientific biography (Vol. 24, pp. 562–563). Available online through Gale Virtual Reference Library.
Sylla, E. D. (2008). Calculationes de motu locali in Richard Swineshead and Alvarus Thomas. In J. Biard & S. Rommevaux (Eds.), Mathématiques et théorie du mouvement XIVe–XVIe siècles (pp. 131–146). Villeneuve d’Ascq: Presses Universitaires du Septentrion.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature B.V.
About this entry
Cite this entry
Sylla, E.D. (2020). Richard Swineshead. In: Lagerlund, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Medieval Philosophy. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1665-7_444
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1665-7_444
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-024-1663-3
Online ISBN: 978-94-024-1665-7
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities