Diego Rodríguez was a mathematician

Mathematician

A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....

, astronomer

Astronomer

An astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...

, educator, and technological innovator in New Spain

New Spain

New Spain, formally called the Viceroyalty of New Spain , was a viceroyalty of the Spanish colonial empire, comprising primarily territories in what was known then as 'América Septentrional' or North America. Its capital was Mexico City, formerly Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire...

. He was one of the most important figures in the scientific field in the colony in the second half of the seventeenth century.

Background

In 1613 he entered the (Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy

Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy

The Royal, Celestial and Military Order of Our Lady of Mercy and the Redemption of the Captives also known as Our Lady of Ransom is a Roman Catholic religious order established in 1218 by St...

). "Descubrimientos Científicos y Tecnológicos de los siglos XV - XVII"

Scientific revolution

For thirty years Father Rodríguez maintained in his writing and teaching the separation of the exact sciences from metaphysics and theology. He tried to propound the heliocentric theory of Nicolaus Copernicus

Nicolaus Copernicus

Nicolaus Copernicus was a Renaissance astronomer and the first person to formulate a comprehensive heliocentric cosmology which displaced the Earth from the center of the universe....

 without, in his writings, openly breaking with the scholastic

Scholasticism

Scholasticism is a method of critical thought which dominated teaching by the academics of medieval universities in Europe from about 1100–1500, and a program of employing that method in articulating and defending orthodoxy in an increasingly pluralistic context...

 tradition. He wrote on the astronomical findings of Galileo Galilei

Galileo Galilei

Galileo Galilei , was an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the Scientific Revolution. His achievements include improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations and support for Copernicanism...

, but without directly endorsing them or attacking the classical cosmology. Nevertheless, these were radical steps, and the scientific community he headed in Mexico accepted them about 30 years before their colleagues in Spain. One reason for this surprising difference is that the books of modern science originating in Protestant countries were refused entry into Spain by the censors. Booksellers, in order not to lose their investments, often sent the contraband books on to America. Because of this aspect of Rodriguez's work, he was a target of Mexican Inquistion.

Rodríguez was at the center of a small circle of intellectuals that met semiclandestinely in private homes to discuss the new ideas. The 1640s, however, brought them to the attention of the Inquisition

Inquisition

The Inquisition, Inquisitio Haereticae Pravitatis , was the "fight against heretics" by several institutions within the justice-system of the Roman Catholic Church. It started in the 12th century, with the introduction of torture in the persecution of heresy...

. A series of investigations and trials followed, continuing into the mid-1650s. A frantic hiding of books followed the Inquisition's 1647 edict imposing careful censorship on scientific works. In July 1655 the Inquisition required all Mexico City's booksellers (six) to submit their book lists to the Holy Office for approval, on pain of fine and excommunication.

Melchor Pérez de Soto, one of the group of scientific modernizers headed by Diego Rodríguez and chief architect at the cathedral, was subjected to the Inquisition. Thanks to this process, a catalog of his library, more than 1,660 volumes, has come down to us. Many of the works dealt with the modern science of contemporary Europe; many others had more traditional content.

Works

Rodríguez wrote many works, some of them truly revolutionary contributions to mathematics (like his treatise on logarithms), astronomy and engineering. He also wrote treatises on technology, such as the one dealing with the construction of precise clocks. Many of these works were developed for his own courses in the university; others were written to support his own investigations. In the latter category is the report on the prediction and exact measurement of eclipses, which is fundamental for calculation of exact geographic positions (longitude), because the eclipse permits synchronization of the time with that in other geographic localities. This and his work on the improvement of clocks allowed him to measure the longitude of Mexico City with a precision greater than Alexander von Humboldt

Alexander von Humboldt

Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander Freiherr von Humboldt was a German naturalist and explorer, and the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt...

 was able to make a century and a half later, even with improved methods. Rodríguez's Peruvian student and correspondent, Francisco Ruiz Lozano

Francisco Ruiz Lozano

Francisco Ruiz Lozano was a Peruvian soldier, astronomer, mathematician and educator.Ruiz Lozano was born in Oruro . He studied with the Jesuits in Lima at the College of San Martín. It was here that he acquired his love of mathematics. He also studied hydrography, as a mathematical science...

, used the same technique to measure the position of his birthplace, Lima

Lima

Lima is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the central part of the country, on a desert coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms a contiguous urban area known as the Lima...

, Peru

Peru

Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....

.

Evaluation

It is strange that the many valuable contributions of Rodríguez and his students did not make a bigger impact on the history of the colony. His methods of calculating positions were not used by Spanish navigators, who could have benefited greatly from them. Most of his writings were never publishing, remaining in manuscript. In New Spain it was difficult to print them, not only because of high costs but also because special type faces were unavailable, for example, for mathematical symbols. And there was no market for the published works. For that reason some of his manuscripts were sent to Spain, but there was no greater interest there and they were ignored. At his death in 1668, most of his manuscripts were buried in the library of his order; the rest were dispersed in private collections or were irretrievably lost.

Rodríguez's successors in the chair of astronomy and mathematics occupied the position only briefly, and are of little interest, up until Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora

Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora

Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora was one of the first great intellectuals born in the Spanish viceroyalty of New Spain. A polymath and writer, he held many colonial government and academic positions.-Early career:...

took over the position in 1672.