Home Page
dedicated to
Simon Stevin (1548-1620)
In 1998 we celebrate Simon Stevin's 450-th birthday. In the low countries he is
not only remarkable for his contributions to mathematics, physics and many other
fields of knowledge, but also for his influence on the Dutch language.
Like his contemporary Galilei he preferred to publish his findings in his native language
and he coined new Dutch terms when necessary, many of which are still in use today.
Those who see the WWW as the means par excellence for the dissemination of knowledge will
find it appropriate that a home page be dedicated to this remarkable figure who did
so much to spread knowledge using the means that were modern in his own time.
We hope to extend and improve this home page in the course of the memorial year 1998.
One aspect of the Dutch version of this home page might escape those who are not familiar
with that language: In what we hope is a playfull appreciation of Stevin's significance
for the Dutch language, we will avoid the use of foreign words in the Dutch version of
this home page. This makes the enterprise of building this home page similar to Stevin's
work in one respect: whereas he had to coin new words for notions that were commonly
expressed in Latin, we will have to coin new words for concepts that are normally referred
to by English words.
Here you will find a short biographical note, a transcription of the
titelpages of his works and a discussion of his significance for the
Dutch language. (In Dutch)
Click here for a complete edition with notes of "De Thiende". This little
booklet has had an enormous impact in Europe since very soon after its publication
translations appeared: A French translation (by Stevin himself), an English translation
(by Robert Norton) and an adaptation in Danish (by Christoffer Dybvad).
A transcription of these translations will be made available. The visitors are kindly
requested to draw our attention to other 17-th century translations.
Click here for a transcription of Stevin's booklet "Vita politica: Burgherlick Leven".
In this booklet Stevin describes how a good citizen should behave. He indicated that
one of the reasons for writing it, was to show that the Dutch language could be used
for discussing topics of a more philosophical nature. This page is in 16-th century Dutch.
Click here for a drawing by an unknown artist showing Stevin's famous land yacht
and the illustrious company of Prince Maurice of Orange.
Source: Atlas van Stolk, Rotterdam
In his "Beghinselen der Weeghconst" Stevin offers a very elegant proof for the
law which states that weights on two declining planes are in balance if the weights
are proportional to the lengths of the planes in question.
Click here for a discussion of the various methods people have used to represent
numbers and an explanation of positional system in general and the decimal system
in particular. Still only in Dutch. An English version will be available soon.
This page describes our plans with this home page for the near future.
Throughout this site we try to indicate precisely our sources. We do so by giving
the name of the author and the year of publication. This hypertext link will give you
an alphabetical list containing not only all the sources used, but also as many references
to work on Stevin as we can find.
Use this hyperlink if you have any suggestions that may make this home page more useful.
U bent bezoeker nummer:
The proof with the string of beads from "De Beghinselen der Weeghconst"