Yvonne Dold-Samplonius (20 May 1937 – 16 June 2014) was a Dutch

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

and

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

who specialized in the history of Islamic mathematics during the Middle age. She was particularly interested in the mathematical methods used by Islamic architects and builders of the Middle Ages for measurements of volumes and measurements of religious buildings or in the design of

muqarnas Muqarnas ( ar, مقرنص; fa, مقرنس), also known in Iranian architecture as Ahoopāy ( fa, آهوپای) and in Iberian architecture as Mocárabe, is a form of ornamented vaulting in Islamic architecture. It is the archetypal form of I ...

Biography

Born on 20 May 1937 in Haarlem, Yvonne Samplonius obtained her degree in mathematics and Arabic from the

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other being ...

(Doktoratsexamen) in 1966. Yvonne Dold-Samplonius married in 1965 the German mathematician

Albrecht Dold Albrecht Dold (5 August 1928 – 26 September 2011) was a German mathematician specializing in algebraic topology who proved the Dold–Thom theorem, the Dold–Kan correspondence, and introduced Dold manifolds, Dold–Puppe stabilization, ...

. She studied from 1966 to 1967 at Harvard University under the direction of Professor

John E. Murdoch John Emery Murdoch (May 10, 1927 – September 16, 2010) was an American academic. Educated in philosophy at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Murdoch spent most of his career at Harvard University. At Harvard, he was Professor of History ...

. She obtained in 1977 a PhD for her analysis of the treatise ''Kitāb al-mafrādāt li Aqāţun'' (Book of Assumptions of Aq''ā''tun) under the supervision of Prof. Evert Marie Bruins and Prof. Juan Vernet. She came into contact with the work of the Persian mathematician, physicist and astronomer

Abū Sahl al-Qūhī (; fa, ابوسهل بیژن کوهی ''Abusahl Bijan-e Koohi'') was a Persian mathematician, physicist and astronomer. He was from Kuh (or Quh), an area in Tabaristan, Amol, and flourished in Baghdad in the 10th century. He is considered one of ...

, who worked in Baghdad in the 10th century and worked on the geometrical forms of buildings. Through his work, she became interested in the geometrical calculations that helped building many domes of palaces and mosques, called

, in the Arab world and Persia. She wrote articles on the Islamic mathematicians

Jamshīd al-Kāshī Ghiyāth al-Dīn Jamshīd Masʿūd al-Kāshī (or al-Kāshānī) ( fa, غیاث الدین جمشید کاشانی ''Ghiyās-ud-dīn Jamshīd Kāshānī'') (c. 1380 Kashan, Iran – 22 June 1429 Samarkand, Transoxania) was a Persian astronomer ...

and Abu-Abdullah Muhammad ibn Īsa Māhānī in the Dictionary of the Middle Ages and in the Dictionary of Scientific Biography. In her last years her interest shifted to mathematics in Islamic architecture from an historic point of view. Since 1995, she has been an associate member of the

Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing 200px, South west view of the IWR building, located at Heidelberg's New Campus (until March 2016) The Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing (short IWR) is a scientific research institute of the Heidelberg University, Germany. It centr ...

(IWR) of the

University of Heidelberg } Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...

, with whom she has published several videos on Islamic geometrical art. In 1985, she is visiting professor at the

University of Siena The University of Siena ( it, Università degli Studi di Siena, abbreviation: UNISI) in Siena, Tuscany, is one of the oldest and first publicly funded universities in Italy. Originally called ''Studium Senese'', the institution was founded in 1240 ...

. In 2000, she organized with

Joseph Dauben Joseph Warren Dauben (born 29 December 1944, Santa Monica) is a Herbert H. Lehman Distinguished Professor of History at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He obtained his PhD from Harvard University. His fields of expertise ...

the conference "2000 Years of Transmission of Mathematical Ideas". In 2002, she became a Corresponding Member of the

International Academy of the History of Science The International Academy of the History of Science (french: Académie Internationale d'Histoire des Sciences) is a membership organization for historians of science. The academy was founded on 17 August 1928 at the Congress of Historical Science b ...

s and was elected effective member in 2007. She was made honorary citizen of

Kashan Kashan ( fa, ; Qashan; Cassan; also romanized as Kāshān) is a city in the northern part of Isfahan province, Iran. At the 2017 census, its population was 396,987 in 90,828 families. Some etymologists argue that the city name comes from ...

in Iran in 2000.

Publications

* Yvonne Dold-Samplonius
Dissertation: ''Book of Assumptions by Aqatun'' (Kitab al-Mafrudat li-Aqatun)
Amsterdam 1977. * Yvonne Dold-Samplonius : ''Practical Arabic Mathematics: Measuring the Muqarnas by al-Kashi'', Centaurus 35, 193–242, (1992/3). * Yvonne Dold-Samplonius : ''How al-Kashi Measures the Muqarnas: A Second Look'', M. Folkerts (Ed.), ''Mathematische Probleme im Mittelalter: Der lateinische und arabische Sprachbereich'', Wolfenbütteler Mittelalter-Studien Vol. 10, 56 – 90, Wiesbaden, (1996). * Yvonne Dold-Samplonius : Calculation of Arches and Domes in 15th Century Samarkand'', Nexus Network Journal, Vol. 2(3), (2000).'' * Yvonne Dold-Samplonius : Calculating Surface Areas and Volumes in Islamic Architecture, The Enterprise of Science in Islam, New Perspectives'', Eds. Jan P. Hogendijk et Abdelhamid I. Sabra, MIT Press, Cambridge Mass. pp. 235–265, (2003).'' * Yvonne Dold-Samplonius, Silvia L. Harmsen : ''The Muqarnas Plate Found at Takht-i Sulaiman, A New Interpretation'', Muqarnas Vol. 22, Leiden, pp. 85–94, (2005).

Videos

* Yvonne Dold-Samplonius, Christoph Kindl, Norbert Quien : ''Qubba for al-Kashi'', Video, Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing (IWR), Heidelberg University, American Mathematical Society, (1996). * Yvonne Dold-Samplonius, Silvia L. Harmsen, Susanne Krömker, Michael Winckler : ''Magic of Muqarnas'', Video, Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing (IWR), Heidelberg University, (2005).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dold-Samplonius, Yvonne 1937 births 2014 deaths 20th-century Dutch historians Dutch women historians Dutch mathematicians Dutch women mathematicians Historians of mathematics Kashan Mathematics in the medieval Islamic world Writers from Haarlem University of Amsterdam alumni 21st-century Dutch historians