Hugh Sempill

Hugh Sempill (or Semple) (in Latin, Hugo Simpelius or Sempilius) (between 1589 and 1596 – 1654) was a Scottish Jesuit mathematician and linguist. He describes himself in his work as Hugo Sempilius Craigbaitaeus, probably making him the Hew Sempill of Craigbait and Langside found in local genealogies, where his birth is given as 1590.

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A Jesuit, Sempill taught as professor of mathematics at the Colegio Imperial de Madrid (Imperial College of Madrid), which employed teachers from all over Europe and made courses in geometry, geography, hydrography, and horology.

He also served as procurator of the Royal Scots College in Madrid (now located in Salamanca). During Sempill's tenure the College is thought to have acquired, perhaps at Sempill's behest, a collection of Jacobean and Caroline stage plays in quarto editions, among them The Two Noble Kinsmen by William Shakespeare and John Fletcher.[1]

De mathematicis disciplinis, 1635

Sempill's De Mathematicis disciplinis Libri duodecim (Antwerp, ex officina B. Moreti, 1635), dedicated to Philip IV of Spain, was a work that was read across Europe (his work was cited, for example, by the Jesuit Philippus Brietius in the Frenchman's own Parallela Geographie). Sempill's work was essentially a compilation and many pages consist of little but a list of names of writers in various scientific genres.

Sempill also wrote Experientia Mathematice. De compositione et divisione numerum, linearum, quadratorum... (Madrid, 1642).

The crater Simpelius on the Moon is named after him. The name was originally assigned by Riccioli in 1651.

Works
  • Semple, Hugh (1635). De mathematicis disciplinis Libri XII (in Latin). Antuerpiae: Officina Plantiniana, Balthasar Moretus.
  • Experientia Mathematica (Madrid 1642)
  • Dictionarium Mathematicum

References
  1. Stone, John. "The Two Noble Kinsmen and Eighteen Other Newly Discovered Early Modern English Quartos in an Hispano-Scottish Collection". Notes and Queries. doi:10.1093/notesj/gjaa089.
  • "Entry". Zedlers Universallexikon. 36. p. 911.
  • George Oliver: Collections towards illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irisch Members of the Society of Jesus. London 1845, s.v. Semple, Hugh
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