Ferdinand Verbiest

Ferdinand Verbiest (1623 to 1688) was a Flemish Jesuit missionary to China in the seventeenth century, remembered as a mathematician and astronomer. Born at Pittem in the Spanish Netherlands, he entered the Jesuit order, studied mathematics and philosophy at Leuven, where he was taught by the mathematician Andre Tacquet, and later went to China. In 1660 Johann Adam Schall von Bell, who headed the Beijing Imperial Observatory and the Mathematical Tribunal, called him to Beijing as his assistant. After accusations against Schall he was imprisoned and then held under house arrest, but in 1668 he was given a chance to demonstrate his skill and went on to serve the court. He tutored the Kangxi Emperor in geometry, produced the first Manchu edition of the first six books of Euclid, designed astronomical instruments, produced calendars, drew a world map and designed a steam automobile. He died in Beijing in 1688.