Georges Fournier

Georges Fournier (1595 to 1652) was a French Jesuit priest, geographer and mathematician. He served as a naval chaplain on a ship of the line, which gave him a thorough knowledge of naval and technical matters. In 1642 he brought out his Hydrographie, the first French maritime encyclopedia, an attempt to put ship design on a scientific footing at a time when famous ships were still the product of trial and error; dedicated to Louis XIII, it covers winds and tides, ports, fishing, trade, shipbuilding and the command of officers, and was reprinted many times. He also published a treatise on the sphere, a treatise on geometry, works on Euclidean geometry that were translated into English, and a treatise on fortification that appeared in Dutch, Spanish and German. A description of Asia appeared after his death, and the article records that he taught Rene Descartes.