Antoine Thomas, SJ, and his Synopsis Mathematica: biography of a Jesuit mathematical textbook for the China mission

Abstract

This article is an examination of a nearly forgotten massive two-volume octavo textbook of introductory (theoretical and practical) mathematics published in Douai in 1685, with a second issuing of it in 1729. The theme of mathematical training has been central to the understanding of the Jesuits in China in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, and this discussion gives a detailed survey of the mathematical ‘baggage’ of the author, Antoine Thomas, SJ, (1644-1709). Here we consider his teaching at the Colégio das Artes in Coimbra, Portugal, in the late 1670s, when he synthesized basic mathematical knowledge. Most importantly, Thomas’s Synopsis was explicitly written for the use of Jesuit candidates for the China mission, and describes in detail the minimum level of mathematical, and especially astronomical, knowledge and skills that were expected from them. Despite its two issues and its well-targeted didactic program, the book’s reception—which spans a period from 1685 until at least 1756, when there is evidence that it was still being recommended—was actually quite limited; this reception can mainly be gauged from the twenty-six extant copies, and some references in auction catalogues. These data reveal a restricted geographic spread, with some notable exceptions, including some copies which made it to South America. Soon after its appearance, the Synopsis found a secondary use outside the context of the Jesuit mission to China as a textbook of mathematics. It later enjoyed a reception as a ‘collector’s item’, although it had no further scholarly impact.