In Pursuit of Monge’s Ideal: The Introduction of Descriptive Geometry in the Educational Institutions of Greece During the Nineteenth Century

Abstract

From 1824, during his teaching Ioannis Carandinos introduced descriptive geometry, as well as Monge’s classical treatise in the Ionian Academy. A few years later in independent Greece, the newly founded Military School, inspired by the model of the Ecole polytechnique, included in the curriculum the teaching of descriptive geometry from Monge’s book. Konstantine Negris , a former student at the Ecole polytechnique, tried to diffuse the spirit and methods of Monge during his period at the University of Athens. In the Polytechnic School of Athens, Monge’s treatise was also adopted in the teaching of descriptive geometry as a useful tool for the instruction of craftsmen and engineers. Moreover, the translation of Louis-Benjamin Francœur’s book on linear drawing, as well as that of Jean-Pierre Thenot’s on perspective, gave a considerable impulse in spreading the basic notions of descriptive geometry into secondary schools during the last decades of the nineteenth century when the first treatises on descriptive geometry appeared written in Greek.