Diego Rodriguez (mathematician)

Diego Rodríguez (Atitalaquia, c.1596 - Mexico City, 1668) is one of the most important figures of the period of scientific enlightenment that took place in the Viceroyalty of New Spain in the second half of the seventeenth century. He religious Mercedarian, mathematician, astronomer and technological innovator who had great influence on the scientific community that appeared in that period.

Biography

In 1613, he entered the Order of La Merced as a friar and in 1620 he began his astronomical and mathematical studies. He was so outstanding that the cloister of the Royal and Pontifical University chose him to occupy the first Chair of Astronomy and Mathematics, in 1637. In it he would stand out as one of the most important figures for the development of Mathematics in New Spain. Numerous doctors, engineers, and surveyors were beneficiaries of his modern teachings. In addition, he participated in many important engineering works for Mexico City, such as the construction of the bell towers of the cathedral or the great drainage that helped prevent the great floods that frequently occurred in the city.

Father Rodríguez shows in his writings a detachment from the exact sciences of metaphysics and theology. The scientific community headed by him in Mexico accepted these radical changes some 30 years before his Spanish colleagues did. This advantage is due, in part, to the fact that modern science books from Protestant countries were rejected by the Spanish censors, so booksellers, in order not to lose their investments, smuggled them to America. Melchor Pérez de Soto, a member of the community headed by Fray Diego and master builder of the cathedral, suffered an inquisitorial process thanks to which the catalog of his library survived to this day, with more than 1660 volumes; many of which dealt with modern science in contemporary Europe, along with many others of traditional content.

Fray Diego wrote numerous works, some of them true revolutionary contributions to mathematics (such as his extensive treatise on logarithms), astronomy and engineering, as well as technological treatises, such as the one dealing with the construction of precise clocks. Many of these works were developed for his own courses at the university, others were made to support his own research, such as the treatise for the prediction and exact measurement of eclipses, which would be essential for the precise calculation of geographic positions (longitudes). since an eclipse allows to synchronize the time in which the event was recorded in different geographical places. This and his work to improve clocks allowed him to measure the position of Mexico City with greater accuracy than Alejandro de Humboldt did a century and a half later and with better means. Noted Peruvian student and active correspondent of his, Francisco Ruiz Lozano, used the same technique to measure the position of his native Lima, Peru.

It is curious that so many and such valuable contributions from a single character and his students have not left much of an imprint in historical memory beyond their applications for the needs of the colony. His methods of calculating positions were not used by Spanish navigators, who would have derived great benefit from them. Most of Fray Diego's writings remained in manuscript. In the colony it was very difficult to print them, not only because of the high costs but because there were not even special types for, for example, the mathematical notation of that time, and above all there was no market to justify it. For this reason, some of these manuscripts were sent to Spain, but there was no interest there and they were frankly disdained. On the death of fray Diego, in 1668, most of his manuscripts were buried in the library of his order and the rest were dispersed in private collections