Robert Catesby Taliaferro (1907–1989) was an American mathematician, science historian, classical philologist, philosopher, and translator of ancient Greek and Latin works into English. An Episcopalian from an old Virginia family, he taught in the mathematics department of the University of Notre Dame. He is cited as R. Catesby Taliaferro or R. C. Taliaferro. He translated from Greek and Latin into English: Ptolemy's ''

Almagest The ''Almagest'' ( ) is a 2nd-century Greek mathematics, mathematical and Greek astronomy, astronomical treatise on the apparent motions of the stars and planetary paths, written by Ptolemy, Claudius Ptolemy ( ) in Koine Greek. One of the most i ...

'', a 2nd-century book on astronomy, the 13 books of Euclid's ''Elements'',

Apollonius Apollonius () is a masculine given name which may refer to: People Ancient world Artists * Apollonius of Athens (sculptor) (fl. 1st century BC) * Apollonius of Tralles (fl. 2nd century BC), sculptor * Apollonius (satyr sculptor) * Apo ...

' works on

conic section A conic section, conic or a quadratic curve is a curve obtained from a cone's surface intersecting a plane. The three types of conic section are the hyperbola, the parabola, and the ellipse; the circle is a special case of the ellipse, tho ...

s, and some works of

Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...

(Timaios, Critias), and St. Augustine (On Music). He contributed a celebrated foreword to the Bollingen Series 1944 reprint of the Thomas Taylor translation of

's '' Timaeus'' and ''

Critias Critias (; , ''Kritias''; – 403 BC) was an ancient Athenian poet, philosopher and political leader. He is known today for being a student of Socrates, a writer of some regard, and for becoming the leader of the Thirty Tyrants, who ruled Athens ...

''. He also wrote a book titled ''The concept of

matter In classical physics and general chemistry, matter is any substance that has mass and takes up space by having volume. All everyday objects that can be touched are ultimately composed of atoms, which are made up of interacting subatomic pa ...

in Descartes and

Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (or Leibnitz; – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat who is credited, alongside Sir Isaac Newton, with the creation of calculus in addition to many ...

'' and one titled ''Number systems, introduction to Euclid book V, and to the theory of limits''.R. Catesby Taliaferro, ''Number systems, introduction to Euclid book V, and to the theory of limits'', 1947 He received his doctorate from the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...

at Charlottesville in 1936. He was a teacher at St. John's College in Annapolis, and in 1948 became a master at Portsmouth Priory, now Portsmouth Abbey School, in Portsmouth (Rhode Island). In 1956 he became an associate professor at the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac (known simply as Notre Dame; ; ND) is a Private university, private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, United States. Founded in 1842 by members of the Congregation of Holy Cross, a Cathol ...

, after he was their visiting associate professor.

Bibliography

* ''Rational Mechanics: The Classic Notre Dame Course'' (Dover Books on Physics) (2014) by R. Catesby Taliaferro and A. Hahn * ''Conics Books I-IV'' (2013) by Apollonius of Perga and R. Catesby Taliaferro * ''Euclid: Elements / Archimedes: Works / Apollonius: Conic Sections / Nicomachus: Arithmetic'' (Great Books, Encyclopædia Britannica, 1952) * ''Ptolemy, Copernicus, Kepler'' (Britannica Great Books 1952) edited by Taliaferro, Translated by Taliaferro and Charles Glenn Wallis

Notes and references

1907 births 1989 deaths Historians of astronomy American historians of mathematics American scholars of ancient Greek philosophy American classical scholars Greek–English translators Latin–English translators 20th-century American translators R. Catesby 20th-century American Episcopalians 20th-century American mathematicians 20th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers 20th-century American male writers {{US-sci-historian-stub