Guillaume Postel

Guillaume Postel (1510 - 1581), was a French linguist, astronomer, Cabbalist, diplomat, professor, and religious universalist. Image File history File links Guillaume_Postel. ... Image File history File links Guillaume_Postel. ... 1510 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Events January 16 - English Parliament outlaws Roman Catholicism April 4 - Francis Drake completes a circumnavigation of the world and is knighted by Elizabeth I. July 26 - The Northern Netherlands proclaim their independence from Spain in the Oath of Abjuration. ...

Born in 1510 in the village of Barenton in Basse-Normandie, Postel made his home in the vicinity of Paris. 1510 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Capital Caen Land area¹ 17,589 km² Regional President Philippe Duron (PS) (since 2004) Population  - Jan. ... City flag City coat of arms Motto: Fluctuat nec mergitur (Latin: Tossed by the waves, she does not sink) Location Coordinates Time Zone CET (GMT +1) Administration Country France Région ÃŽle-de-France Département Paris (75) Subdivisions 20 arrondissements Mayor Bertrand Delanoë  (PS) (since 2001) City Statistics Land...

Adept at Arabic, Hebrew, and Syriac and other Semitic languages, as well as the Classical languages of Ancient Greek and Latin, he soon came to the attention of the French court. In 1536, seeking an alliance with the Ottoman Turks, Francis I sent Postel as the official interpreter of the French embassy to the Turkish sultan Suleiman the Magnificent in Constantinople. Postel was also apparently assigned to gather interesting Eastern manuscripts for the royal library. The Arabic language ( ), or simply Arabic ( ), is the largest member of the family of Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family (classification: South Central Semitic) and is closely related to Hebrew, Amharic, and Aramaic. ... Hebrew redirects here. ... Syriac ( Suryāyā) is an Eastern Aramaic language that was once spoken across much of the Fertile Crescent. ... 14th century BC diplomatic letter in Akkadian, found in Tell Amarna. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in Latium, the region immediately surrounding Rome. ... Events February 2 - Spaniard Pedro de Mendoza founds Buenos Aires, Argentina. ... The Ottoman Turks were the ethnic subdivision of the Turkish people who dominated the ruling class of the Ottoman Empire. ... Francis I (François Ier in French) (September 12, 1494 – March 31, 1547), called the Father and Restorer of Letters (le Père et Restaurateur des Lettres), was crowned King of France in 1515 in the cathedral at Reims and reigned until 1547. ... Sultan (Arabic: سلطان) is an Islamic title, with several historical meanings. ... Suleiman I (Modern Turkish: Süleyman; Arabic: ‎ Sulaymān) (November 6, 1494 – September 5/6, 1566), was the tenth Sultan from the House of Osman of the Ottoman Empire, and its longest-serving, reigning from 1520 to 1566. ... Map of Constantinople. ...

In Linguarum Duodecim Characteribus Differentium Alphabetum Introductio, An Introduction to the Alphabetic Characters of Twelve Different Languages, published in 1538, Postel became the first scholar to recognize the inscriptions on Judean coins from the period of the Great Jewish Revolt as Hebrew written in the ancient "Samaritan" characters. Events Treaty of Nagyvarad. ... Map of the southern Levant, c. ... It has been proposed below that Great Jewish Revolt be renamed and moved to First Jewish-Roman War. ... The Israelite Samaritans [Updated: November 2006] Written by: Benyamim Tsedaka HISTORY & UNIQUENESS The Samaritan Israelites are the remnant of an ancient people, descended from the ancient Kingdom of Israel , whose attempts to achieve peace among the people of Israel was rejected by the leaders of the descendants of the Kingdom...

In 1544, in De orbis terrae concordia, Concerning the Harmony of the Earth, Postel advocated a universalist world religion. The thesis of the book was that all Jews, Muslims and heathens could be converted to the Christian religion once all of the religions of the world were shown to have common foundations and that Christianity best represented these foundations. He believed these foundations to be the love of God, the praising of God, the love of Mankind, and the helping of Mankind. Events April 11 - Battle of Ceresole - French forces under the Comte dEnghien defeat Imperial forces under the Marques Del Vasto near Turin. ... In comparative religion, a universalist religion is one that holds itself true for all people; it thus allows all to join, regardless of ethnicity. ... A Muslim is a believer in or follower of Islam. ... This article is becoming very long. ...

Postel was a relentless advocate for the unification of all Christian churches, a common concern during the period of the Reformation, and remarkably tolerant of other faiths during a time when such tolerance was unusual. The Protestant Reformation was a movement which began in the 16th century as a series of attempts to reform the Roman Catholic Church, but ended in division and the establishment of new institutions, most importantly Lutheranism, Reformed churches, and Anabaptists. ...

Postel is believed to have spent the years 1548 to 1551 on another trip to the East, travelling to the Holy Land and Syria to collect manuscripts. After this trip, Postel earned the appointement of Professor of Mathematics and Oriental Languages at the College Royal. After several years, however, Postel resigned his professorship and travelled all over Central Europe, including Austria and Italy, returning to France after each trip. Events Mary I of Scotland sent to France Births September 2 - Vincenzo Scamozzi, Italian architect (died 1616) September 29 - William V, Duke of Bavaria (died 1626) Francesco Andreini, Italian actor (died 1624) Giordano Bruno, Italian philosopher, astronomer, and occultist (burned at the stake) 1600 (died 1600) Honda Tadakatsu, Japanese general... Events Russia, Reforming Synod of the metropolite Macaire, Orthodoxy: introduction of a calendar of the saints and an ecclesiastical law code ( Stoglav ) Major outbreak of the sweating sickness in England. ... Terra Sancta sive Palæstina with Israelite tribal allotments shown. ... The Coll ge de France is a higher education teaching and research establishment located in Paris, France. ...

Through Postel's efforts at manuscript collection, translation, and publishing, he brought many Greek, Hebrew and Arabic texts into European intellectual discourse in the Late Renaissance and Early Modern periods. Among these texts are: Raphael was famous for depicting illustrious figures of the Classical past with the features of his Renaissance contemporaries. ... The early modern period is a term used by historians to refer to the period in Western Europe and its first colonies, between the Middle Ages and modern society. ...

• Euclid's Elements, in the version of the astronomer Nasir al-Din al-Tusi;
• astronomical works by al-Tusi and other Arabic astronomers, which may have influenced Copernicus's theory of epicycles;
• Latin translations of the Zohar, the Sefer Yetzirah, and the Sefer ha-Bahir, the fundamental works of Jewish Kabbalah, printed in 1552, predating the first Hebrew printing of these works by ten years;
• as well as other Cabbalistic texts, such as his own commentary on the Cabbalistic significance of the Menorah, which he published in 1548 in Latin and subsequently in Hebrew.

During one of his trips to Venice, Postel, who had long harbored millenarian ideas, fell under the influence of the Venetian mystic Joanna, who claimed to be the incarnation of Jesus. On a subsequent trip, Postel was jailed for this heresy and shipped off to the Papal prisons in Rome. He was released when the prison was opened upon the death of Paul IV. After several years in Paris, he was sentenced to house arrest by the parlement of Paris and spent the last eleven years of his life in the monastery of St. Martin des Champs. The frontispiece of Sir Henry Billingsleys first English version of Euclids Elements, 1570 Euclids Elements (Greek: ) is a mathematical and geometric treatise, consisting of 13 books, written by the Hellenistic mathematician Euclid in Alexandria circa 300 BC. It comprises a collection of definitions, postulates (axioms), propositions (theorems... An astronomer or astrophysicist is a person whose area of interest is astronomy or astrophysics. ... Nasir Tusi or Abu Jafar Muhammad Ibn Muhammad Ibn al-Hasan Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (1201–1274, near Baghdad) was a Persian scientist, of Shia islamic belief, born in Tus, Khorasan (then Persia, present time Iran). ... A giant Hubble mosaic of the Crab Nebula, a supernova remnant. ... Nicolaus Copernicus (in Latin; Polish Mikołaj Kopernik, German Nikolaus Kopernikus - February 19, 1473 – May 24, 1543) was a Polish astronomer, mathematician and economist who developed a heliocentric (Sun-centered) theory of the solar system in a form detailed enough to make it scientifically useful. ... In the Ptolemaic system of astronomy, the epicycle (literally: on the cycle in Greek) was a geometric model to explain the variations in speed and direction of the apparent motion of the Moon, Sun, and planets. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Sefer Yetzirah (Hebrew, Book of Creation[1], ספר יצירה) is the title of the earliest book on Jewish esotericism. ... The Bahir (Hebrew for Illumination) is a pseudepigraphic mystical work attributed to Nehunya ben ha-Kanah, a first century rabbinic sage, and a contemporary of Johanan ben Zakkai (first century), because it begins with the words, R. Nehunya ben ha-Kanah said. It was first published in the 12th century... This article is about traditional Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism). ... Events April - War between Henry II of France and Emperor Charles V. Henry invades Lorraine and captures Toul, Metz, and Verdun. ... A coin issued by Mattathias Antigonus, c. ... Venice (Italian: Venezia, Venetian: Venexia) is the capital of the region of Veneto and the province of the same name in Italy. ... Millenarianism or millenarism is the belief by a religious, social, or political group or movement in a coming major transformation of society after which all things will be changed in a positive (or sometimes negative or ambiguous) direction. ... Mysticism from the Greek μυστικός (mystikos) an initiate (of the Eleusinian Mysteries, μυστήρια (mysteria) meaning initiation[1]) is the pursuit of achieving communion or identity with, or conscious awareness of, ultimate reality, the divine, spiritual truth, or God through direct experience, intuition, or insight; and the belief that such experience is an... Look up Incarnation in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Incarnation, which literally means enfleshment, refers to the conception, and live birth of a sentient creature (generally human) who is the material manifestation of an entity or force whose original nature is immaterial. ... Jesus (8–2 BC/BCE to 29–36 AD/CE),[1] also known as Jesus of Nazareth, is the central figure of Christianity. ... Heresy, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is a theological or religious opinion or doctrine maintained in opposition, or held to be contrary, to the Catholic or Orthodox doctrine of the Christian Church, or, by extension, to that of any church, creed, or religious system, considered as orthodox. ... The current Pope is Benedict XVI (born Joseph Alois Ratzinger), who was elected at the age of 78 on 19 April 2005. ... Nickname: The Eternal City Motto: SPQR: Senatus PopulusQue Romanus Location of the city of Rome (yellow) within the Province of Rome (red) and region of Lazio (grey) Coordinates: Region Lazio Province Province of Rome Founded 21 April 753 BC Mayor Walter Veltroni Area    - City 1,285 km²  (496. ... Paul IV, né Giovanni Pietro Carafa (June 28, 1476 – August 18, 1559) was Pope from May 23, 1555 until his death. ... Parlements in ancien régime France — contrary to what their name would suggest to the modern reader — were not democratic or political institutions, but law courts . ... Foucault pendulum at the Musée des arts et métiers The Musée des Arts et Métiers is a museum in Paris that houses the collection of the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, which was founded in 1794 as a depository for the preservation of scientific...

Sources

• Jeanne Peiffer, article in Writing the History of Mathematics: Its Historical Development, edited by Joseph Dauben & Christoph Scriba
• Marion Kuntz, Guillaume Postel: Prophet of the Restitution of All Things, His Life and Thought, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Hague, 1981
• Whose Science is Arabic Science in Renaissance Europe?

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Guillaume Postel