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790 LE LIVRE DE YCONOMIQIJE D'ARISTOTE [TRANS. AMER. PHIL. SOC.
Norman cleric is found in a registry of twenty students
of theology admitted to the College of Navarre in Paris
in 1348. The presence of his family name among the
inhabitants of the city of Caen in the early eighteenth
century supports the assumption that Nicole was born
in that vicinity; conjecturally, the (late of his birth is
given as 1323. The College of Navarre admitted students
only upon proof of their inability to pay their
expenses at the University, of Paris, of which it was at
that time the most famous and most respected adjunct.
From this fact it has been concluded that Oresme came
from one of those peasant families whose Sons have frequentl)
, attained high honors in the annals of French
scholarship. In Paris he ma y have attended the lectures
of Jean Buridan; there is a reference to Oresme
in Buridan's Quaestiones surer tres libros Moth eorurn
in connection with the observation of a parahelion. In
any case, Oresnie's contribution to natural philosophy
appears as a continuation and an intensification of
Buridan's speculations on scientific theory.
Oresme received the doctorate in 1356 and was at
once appointed grand master of his college. There is a
persistent legend that during his incumbency at Navarre
he was a précepteur or tutor of the future Charles V.
Certain it is that he already enjoyed the confidence of
Charles' father, the unfortunate John II, at whose command
he wrote iii 1356 his justly celebrated treatise—
probably one of his earliest—Do mufafionibus nioneforum,
later turned into French under the title Traictie
des ntonnoiCs. Until recent investigation revealed the
true significance of his other works, it was largely because
of this treatise that Ores nie's name was preserved
trom oblivion. It is in this work attacking the practice
of debasing the currency that Oresnie anticipates Gresham's
law—that bad money drives good money out of
circulation.
In 1359 Oresme signed an act of the Chambre des
Coniptes with the title "secrétaire du roy." At this time
John II was expiating his defeat at Poitiers (1356) by
Edward III as the latter's hostage in I .ondon, while the
dauphin Charles was skillfully striving to restore royal
authority after a long period of civil and political chaos.
B y this time, at least, friendly relations had been established
between Oresme and his future sovereign and
patron. Through a score of years their fruitful collaboration
links their names together in the crowning
intellectual achievement of fourteenth-centur y France.
Like most of his contemporaries, Charles was an ardent
devotee of astrology; he seldom acted against the advice
of his court astrologers. Doubtless it was this interest
that prompted him to charge Oresme with the translation
of Ptolemy's Qiadriparfitum from the Latin version
(1170) by Plato of Tivoli, along with the Arabic
commentary by Haly ibn-Ridwan in the Latin of
Aegidius of Thebaldis, made for Alphonso the Wise of
Spain about 1260. Having submitted to the young
datlt)hitls w i sh in translating these extreme examples 4
astrological moonshine, Oresme sought to counteract
their influence on his patron's mind by attacking judicial
astrology in a Latin tract Contra judiciarios astrononios
(1360), which lie later turned into French under the
title Le Livre do divinacions.' 8 There is no evidence to
show that Oresme's arguments had any effect upon
Charles infatuated faith in astrology, but he returned
to the attack years later (1370) with a Latin tract
Contra divinatores horoscopios and again in a series of
Quaestiones containing further arguments against the
dangers of astrological prognostications. There is reason
to believe that he wrote his Traictic do l'espere
(1365) in French so that his royal patron might understand
more easily the current conception of celestial
mechanics.
In 1361 Oresme sought and obtained the archdeaconship
at Bayeux, but was obliged to resign when suit was
brought against him before the Parlement of Paris forbidding
him to hold this office concurrently with his post
at Navarre. He left Navarre the following year to accept
appointment as canon at Rouen ; soon afterwards he
was made canon at La Sainte Chapelle in Paris. During
the next fifteen years—the most productive of his
career—he divided his time between Rouen and Paris.
On January 3, 1364, John II set sail upon what was
destined to be his last journey to London, in a chivalric
gesture towards Edward III, who complained of the
escape of one of the French princes, a brother of Charles,
held as hostage according to the terms of the treaty of
Calais (1356). Charles again assumed the powers of
regent and there can be little doubt that lie used his influence
to assist Oresme in obtaining the appointment
as dean of the cathedral of Rouen. This act was recorded
on March 18, 1364. Three weeks later the death
of John in London established Charles on the throne
of France. While dean of Rouen (1364-1377), Oresme
served his king as chaplain and as counselor, produced
several of his Latin treatises, and, between 1370 and
1377, made the earliest complete versions of authentic
Aristotelian treatises in any of the modern languages.
In the course of the past fifty years our knowledge of
Oresme's contribution to scientific thought has been
greatly advanced by the investigations of I )uhem, Weileitner,
Thorndike. Borchcrt, Coopland, and others. Yet
much remains to be done before a definitive evaluation
of this important segment of his work can be confidently
attempted. his principal scientific tracts are still tinprinted
or exist only in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century
editions difficult to obtain. Of the score of Latin treatises
of scientific purport, the majority deal with problems of
motion, velocity, heat, celestial mechanics, various mathematical
problems, etc. Like his Scholastic contemporaries,
Oresme wrote commentaries and quaestiones on
is The original Latin treatise and the French version with a
parallel English translation are given in George W. Coopland,
\r 1 0 J 1, ()resnlc and the astrologers. .4 stud' of his Livre de
221 pp, Cambridge, harvard Uinv. Press, 192