Tunisia

Mathematician Robert Osserman explores the math behind the St. Louis Gateway Arch (courtesy: NPR's Science Friday)



 

Problema Isoperimetricum
Problematum Ifoperimetricorum








Tanith stella, Alhambra, Espana

Selection of Key Full-Text Papers (Chronological)

History of Science Essays

Selection of Available Full-Text Books

Euler (1707-1783)

Jakob (also James or Jacques) Bernoulli (1654-1705)

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)




"Veni, Vidi, Vici" ("I came, I saw, I conquered"). Sketches of the double-walled city of Tunis and its surroundings from three different eras: Exactly on 31 August 1535, then from the mid-1600s and mid-1700s periods. The first is a commemorative woodcut carving by Erhard Schön (1491-1542) celebrating the conquest of Tunis by the Holy Roman King Charles Quint. The carving, in German, reads: "

Actual View of the Castle and the City of Tunis [Thunis], Including the Fortress Goleta, in Africa.
The text following Julius Caesar's triumphant invocation reads:

``The most Christian, most mighty, and victorious emperor Charles, the ruler of all of us, departed personally with an Armada, not seen in Christendom in many centuries, from Barcelona in Catalonia on May 31, and from Calari in Sardinia on 14 June. With favorable wind, he arrived in the kingdom of Tunis in Africa on the following day. On June 21 he stepped on land at the place known in antiquity as Carthage. He bombarded many gates, bastions, and hills, as well as attacked the overly strong fortification, known as Goleta, on July 14 gaining a divinely marvellous victory with the loss of only forty Christians horsemen, and conquering a vast number of vessels and cannon, etc. He also took on the following July 21 the royal castle and the city of Tunis with God's help, quite without losses, and plundered it. He drove out the Turkish [emperor's] Solyman's foremost captain and lieutenant at sea, called Barbarossa, with all his helpers from the kingdom of Tunis.../ Printed at Nuremberg, the imperial city / M./ C.S.D./ 31 August 1535.''

The second is "Plan de la ville de Tunis et de ses environs, c. 1740-1749" map by Jacques-Nicolas Bellin (1703-1772). The third is description of the inner fortification of "la citadella di Tunisi" from an Italian source (dated around 1600-1699). Both are from the "Collection d'Anville", Bibliotheque nationale de France.




Ministere de l'enseignement superieur Chaire Ben Ali