CHARLES DE BOUVELLES’ INTRODUCTION TO STAR POLYGONS

Charles de Bouvelles (1471-1553) was a canon of the cathedral of Noyon, where he dedicated most of his energies to scholarly pursuits centering around mathematics, philosophy and theology. His introduction to geometry (1511), written for the instruction of prospective craftsmen and artisans, was the first geometry text to be published in French instead of Latin. The work was not very successful and, thus, was re-elaborated and republished in 1542. The present text investigates Bouvelles’ presentation of star polygons in the 1542 text, relating it to his investigations of figurate numbers and placing it in its cultural context.