Mersenne, Marin

Mersenne, Marin, F. Marini Mersermi Ordinis Minimorum.. . Quaestiones Celeberrime in Genesim (Paris Sebastian Cramoisy, 1623). 

Figure 8. Marin Mersenne s designs of all-reflecting telescopes, 1636.

The French cleric and mathematician Marin Mersenne and the theologian Pierre Gassendi subjected Fludd s sacramental theology of the alchemical blood to stringent criticism. They reserved their most severe censure, however, for Fludd s demonology, as well as... 

Hine, William L. "Marin Mersenne Renaissance naturalism and Renaissance magic." In Renaissance magic, ed. Brian P. Levack. New York Garland, 1992. 

Prime numbers do not occur in a predictable way. There are sequences of primes which can be partially described in a formula, but sooner or later the formula breaks down. One formula, invented by Marin Mersenne (1588-1648) is 2P - 1, where p is a prime number. Although this formula generates many primes, it also misses many primes. Another formula, invented by Leonhard Euler (1707-1783), generates prime numbers regularly for the series of consecutive numbers from 0 to 15 and then stops. The formula is + x + 17, in which x is any number from 0 to 15. 

How much stronger would be the reaction to the homunculus In the early and mid seventeenth century, influential Catholic authors such as the Minim friar Marin Mersenne and the Jesuit Athanasius Kircher triumphantly broadcast Alonso Tostado s story ofArnald ofVillanova and the smashing of his homunculus flask. A generation earlier Martinus Del Rio,... 

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