Immanuel Bonfils
Immanuel Bonfils · Science & Medicine
Mathematician and astronomer; pioneered a system of decimal fractions and exponential notation about 150 years before European counterparts, and compiled the 'Six Wings' astronomical tables
c. 1300, southern France (Provence) — 1377
Orange · Tarascon, Provence (now France)
Immanuel Bonfils is recognized among Jewish contributors to Science & Medicine — Mathematician and astronomer; pioneered a system of decimal fractions and exponential notation about 150 years before European counterparts, and compiled the 'Six Wings' astronomical tables
Bonfils was a French Jewish mathematician and astronomer who developed a system of decimal fractions and exponential notation roughly 150 years before comparable European work, and compiled the influential astronomical tables Shesh Kenafayim ('Six Wings', c. 1365), later translated into Latin and Byzantine Greek. He taught astronomy and mathematics at Orange and Tarascon. As a rabbinic scholar of medieval Provence, he was Jewish.
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Source: Jewish Encyclopedia
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Mathematician and astronomer; pioneered a system of decimal fractions and exponential notation about 150 years before European counterparts, and compiled the 'Six Wings' astronomical tables
Source: Jewish Encyclopedia
