Philip Picatoste

Felipe Picatoste y Rodríguez (Madrid, April 30, 1834-Madrid, September 29, 1892) was a Spanish mathematician, educator, journalist, politician and polygraph.

Biography

His father, a national militiaman during the Liberal Triennium (1820-1823), accompanied the Cortes to Cádiz during the invasion of the One Hundred Thousand Sons of San Luis and was retaliated during the Ominous Decade because of his liberal convictions. Felipe Picatoste, an ardent liberal like his father, also joined the National Militia during the Vicalvarada or liberal revolution of 1854. He was substitute professor of Mathematics at the San Isidro Institute in Madrid, between 1852 and 1857 The friendship with Ángel Fernández de los Ríos made him enter in 1860 as one of the editors of the progressive newspaper Las Novedades; He will also collaborate in the Universal Library of cheap books that his friend created, publishing several of his works there. His studies on an eclipse of the sun, around 1862, brought him international fame, and his articles were praised in scientific journals in Berlin, St. Petersburg and Rome. He entered Freemasonry.

As a consequence of the triumph of the revolution of 1868, in whose struggles he had courageously participated, in 1869 he was appointed chief of business in the Ministry of Public Works under the ministry of Ruiz Zorrilla, favoring the creation of popular libraries, and the reform of education, provisions that in some cases he wrote personally, and among which was the one that provided that the State recover the jewels of the Nation deposited in the cathedrals.

In 1872 he began to hold the posts of director of the National Printing and Gaceta de Madrid until the Restoration of Alfonso XII, since from the beginning of his reign Picatoste continued to be counted among the enemies of the dynasty Bourbon, directing in 1881 the newspaper El Manifesto, a newspaper that supported the policies of Ruiz Zorrilla. He later collaborated in the Heraldo de Madrid until his death. He was the father of Valentín Picatoste y García.

Pressed by economic needs, he abandoned active politics, continuing under the ministries of Sardoal and Montero Ríos, the head of the central Fomento bureau. In June 1890 he became part of the Corps of Archivists and Librarians as head of the second degree.

Work

He left important works, some deserving significant awards. Among them are: Notes for a Spanish scientific library of the 16th century: biographical and bibliographic studies of exact physical and natural sciences and their immediate applications in that century (1891), awarded by the National Library of Madrid and where he gathers the biobibliographical data of the Spanish scientists who during the XVI century stood out in their respective fields, without forgetting that until In the 16th century Spanish hegemony was evident in fields such as geography, cosmography and navigation (both English and French pilots learned to navigate in the texts of Pedro de Medina, Fernández de Enciso and Martín Cortés, among others). The text is the result of the patriotic indignation that José Echegaray's entrance speech into the Academy of Sciences produced in the author, where he insulted the Spanish scientific tradition

He also wrote Explanation of the new legal system of weights and measures (1853); Principles and exercises of arithmetic and geometry: written for the use of high school students (1861); Syllabus of a course in elementary geography (1863); Walk and see: excursion to the northern provinces and the south of France (Madrid: Imprenta de Las Novedades, 1865); Elements of mathematics (Madrid: 1860); Elements of mathematics: geometry (1879); Elements of mathematics: arithmetic (1881); The universe in ancient science, (Madrid: Biblioteca Universal, 1881); a Bibliography and critical study of Calderón de la Barca; Memories of the Buen Retiro concerts (1870); Don Juan Tenorio (1883); Elements of Mathematics (6 editions of 2 volumes in 4th); Elements of Physics and Chemistry (1889, with 229 engravings and a work containing the latest advances of his time and a clear exposition of Organic Chemistry. Elements of Natural History (1889); Compendium of Spanish History (1884); Compendium of Universal History (1890); Report on popular libraries presented to His Excellency Mr. José Echegaray, Minister of Public Works (Pontevedra, 1870); Elements of Geography; Aesthetics in nature, science and art: elemental forms (1881), Popular dictionary of the Castilian language (1882); French-Spanish dictionary (1886); Mathematical technicality in the Dictionary of the Spanish Academy (Madrid: Imp. de Segundo Martínez, 1873), Mathematical-etymological vocabulary (1862), Cervantes' house in Valladolid (1888), The Spaniards in Italy (Madrid: Imprenta de la Viuda de Hernando y Cª, 1887), Photography Manual (Madrid: Typ. by G. Estrada, 1882), Famous Phrases: Study on Phrases in Religion, Science, Literature, History and Politics (1879), Studies on the Greatness and Decline of Spain (1883-1887), Calderon's Centenary: memory awarded by the Royal Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences in the open contest on February 12, 1881 and Last writings, with a prologue by Cristino Martos (Madrid, 1892). Many of these works were widely republished, and he also wrote articles in scientific journals.

He edited, prefaced and annotated The dialogues of bachelor Juan Pérez de Moya (Madrid: printing press of F. Iglesias and P. García, 1875) and some Unpublished poems by Pedro Calderón de la Barca, (Madrid, Biblioteca Universal Press, 1881) and translated some novels by Jules Verne.

The titles of his works reveal the all-encompassing desire for research and the didactic restlessness that animate his works. He has rightly been considered an encyclopedic talent, perhaps the last of his time.