Zaikonospassky monastery, Kitai-gorod, Moscow, Moscow City, Russian Federation
Leonty Magnitsky studied at the Slavic Greek Latin Academy in Moscow from 1685 until 1694 and there became fluent in Latin, Greek, German and Italian. Mathematics wasn't taught there so it is also possible that he acquired his broad knowledge, which included many foreign languages, independently.
Zaikonospassky monastery, Kitai-gorod, Moscow, Moscow City, Russian Federation
Leonty Magnitsky studied at the Slavic Greek Latin Academy in Moscow from 1685 until 1694 and there became fluent in Latin, Greek, German and Italian. Mathematics wasn't taught there so it is also possible that he acquired his broad knowledge, which included many foreign languages, independently.
Леонтий Магницкий
Leonty Filippovich Magnitsky was born Leonty Filippovich Telyatin on June 9, 1669, in Ostashkov, Tsardom of Russia (now Tver, Russian Federation) to the family of a peasant Filipp Telyatin. There is no precise information exists on Magnitsky’s origins and early years.
Nothing is known for certain about Leonty Magnitsky's childhood except that he had to work hard yet learned to read and write. He was sent to the Joseph-Volokolamsk Monastery when he was 15 years old and, when it was discovered that he already had the ability to read, he was given religious books to study. He went from there to the Simonov Monastery, a fortified monastery built as part of an outer fortification ring for the city of Moscow, where he trained to be a Russian Orthodox priest. He studied at the Slavic Greek Latin Academy in Moscow from 1685 until 1694 and there became fluent in Latin, Greek, German and Italian. Mathematics wasn't taught there so it is also possible that he acquired his broad knowledge, which included many foreign languages, independently.
In 1694-1701 Magnitsky worked as a tutor of the children from influential families and was engaged in self-education. In 1701 Peter the Great founded the Moscow School of Mathematics and Navigation located in the building of the Sukharev Tower and it soon became the breeding ground for the technical intelligentsia. Peter brought Magnitsky there to teach in 1702. Magnitsky began working as an assistant to a Scottish teacher of mathematics, Henry Farquharson, and then - a teacher of arithmetic, and in all probability, geometry and trigonometry. During these years, he was commissioned to write a textbook on mathematics and navigation.
In 1703, Magnitsky wrote his famous Arithmetic (Арифметика. 2,400 copies), which was used as the principal textbook on mathematics in Russia until the middle of the 18th century. Magnitsky’s textbook successfully combined the tradition of Russian mathematical literature of the seventeenth century with that of the western European mathematical schools. In the first section a detailed exposition of mathematical problems is given. The second section, almost an encyclopedia of the natural sciences of the time, contains information on algebra and its geometrical applications, the computation of trigonometric tables of sines, tangents, and secants, and information on navigational astronomy, geodesy, and navigation. There are also tables of magnetic declination, tables of latitude of the points of rising and setting of the sun and moon, and coordinates of the most important ports with their times of high and low tide. Thanks to scientific-methodological and literary merits, the manual played a significant role in the dissemination of mathematical knowledge in Russia.
Magnitsky also participated in the preparation of a Russian edition (1703) of the logarithmic tables of Vlacq (1628).
In 1715 there was established Naval Academy in St. Petersburg and since then, Magnitsky was appointed a senior teacher of the school, and from 1732 until the end of his life he had been heading the teaching department.
Leonty Magnitsky’s Arithmetic (1703) was the first guide to mathematics published in Russia. Its first edition of 2,400 copies was extraordinarily large for that time and it served as the basic textbook of mathematics in Russia for half a century. The founder of Russian science, Lomonosov, called it, along with one grammar book, “our gateways to learning.” For his educational achievements, he was ennobled in 1704 and was given numerous awards and gifts by the Tsar.
Leonty Magnitsky was a scientist who had a profound theological education. In his "Arithmetic," he connected science with the Holy Scripture, arguing that "the acceptance of sciences," "provides the imperceptible beauty of God." In numerous examples, the mathematician explained that "science" does not contradict the "law of God" - that kind of interpretation of "science and religion" was very progressive for the time.
There is a legend that Leonty Magnitsky was given surname Magnitsky by Peter the Great, who considered him a "people's magnet" (магнит, or "magnit" in Russian).
Leonty Magnitsky was married to a woman named Maria Gavrilovna. They had a son named Ivan. Peter I presented Magnitskii's family a house in Moscow in 1704.
