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129-476: Simon Stevin ( Dutch: [ˈsimɔn steːˈvɪn] ; 1548–1620), sometimes called Stevinus , was a Flemish mathematician , scientist and music theorist . He made various contributions in many areas of science and engineering , both theoretical and practical. He also translated various mathematical terms into Dutch , making it one of the few European languages in which the word for mathematics , wiskunde ( wis and kunde , i.e., "the knowledge of what

258-407: A catastrophe struck the city when a boat loaded with 17,400 kg (38,360 lb) of gunpowder blew up in the middle of Leiden. 151 people were killed, over 2,000 were injured and some 220 homes were destroyed. King Louis Bonaparte personally visited the city to provide assistance to the victims. Although located in the centre of the city, the area destroyed remained empty for many years. In 1886

387-457: A widow with two children at his death in Leiden or The Hague in 1620. Stevin is responsible for many discoveries and inventions. Stevin wrote numerous bestselling books, and he was a pioneer of the development and the practical application of (engineering related) science such as mathematics , physics and applied science like hydraulic engineering and surveying . He was thought to have invented

516-563: A L st god den heer V erdroot gaf h I V ns W eder broot zo V ee L WI CV nsten W ens C hen. (Dutch: "When the Black Famine had brought to the death nearly six thousand persons, then God the Lord repented, and gave bread again as much as we could wish".) Zorg en Zekerheid Leiden is the basketball club of Leiden. In 2011, 2013 and 2021 they won the National Title, in 2010 and 2012

645-625: A business continued by his descendants through 1712. In 1572, the city sided with the Dutch Revolt against Spanish rule and played an important role in the Eighty Years' War . It was besieged from May to October 1574 by the Spanish but was relieved by the cutting of the dikes, thus enabling ships to carry provisions to the inhabitants. William I of Orange founded the University of Leiden in 1575 as

774-564: A climbing or rampant black lion on a gold field. In the story about the Battle of the Golden Spurs , the arms and its corresponding battlecry Vlaendr'n den leeuw ("Flanders, the Lion") plays a crucial role in the forming of a Flemish consciousness, which was popularised in the 19th century by the book De Leeuw van Vlaanderen by Hendrik Conscience . As a result, the arms of the county live on as arms of

903-415: A continuum. His general notion of a real number was accepted, tacitly or explicitly, by all later scientists". A recent study attributes a greater role to Stevin in developing the real numbers than has been acknowledged by Weierstrass's followers. Stevin proved the intermediate value theorem for polynomials, anticipating Cauchy 's proof thereof. Stevin uses a divide and conquer procedure, subdividing

1032-649: A fief of the French kingdom. During this period, Flanders experienced a period of relative prosperity with its strong cloth industry and diverse artwork. Trade in Flanders was so extensive that statues of the Madonna and Child were made in Flanders with ivory, which was accessible only by the Indian Ocean trade networks. Flemish prosperity waned in the following century, however, owing to widespread European population decline following

1161-651: A number of his writings were translated into Latin by W. Snellius ( Willebrord Snell ). There are two complete editions in French of his works, both printed in Leiden, one in 1608, the other in 1634. Stevin wrote his Arithmetic in 1594. The work brought to the western world for the first time a general solution of the quadratic equation , originally documented nearly a millennium previously by Brahmagupta in India. According to Van der Waerden , Stevin eliminated "the classical restriction of 'numbers' to integers (Euclid) or to rational fractions (Diophantos)...the real numbers formed

1290-551: A pagan region. From these centers, the conversion of the local populace could be started. In 649 Audomar founded an abbey at Sithiu (the Abbey of Saint Bertin ) and in 680 Aubertus founded the Abbey of St. Vaast near Arras . The Christianisation of the population was mainly the work of missionaries like Amandus ( St. Bavo's Abbey and St. Peter's Abbey in Ghent) and Eligius (coastal region and Antwerp ). In his vita , Eligius makes

1419-504: A reward for their heroic defense. The end of the siege is still celebrated in Leiden on October 3 each year. According to tradition, the citizens of Leiden were offered the choice between a university and a certain exemption from taxes and chose the university. The siege is notable also for being the first instance in Europe of the issuance of paper money, with paper taken from prayer books being stamped using coin dies when silver ran out. Leiden

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1548-521: A separate museum called the SieboldHuis . The Bibliotheca Thysiana occupies an old Renaissance building of the year 1655. It is especially rich in legal works and vernacular chronicles. Noteworthy are also the many special collections at Leiden University Library among which those of the Society of Dutch Literature (1766) and the collection of casts and engravings. In recent years the university has built

1677-593: A signatory to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works . He felt that international copyright restrictions would stifle the Dutch publishing industry. Leiden began to expand beyond its 17th-century moats around 1896 and the number of citizens surpassed 50,000 in 1900. After 1920, new industries were established in the city, such as the canning and metal industries. During World War II , Leiden

1806-489: A so-called land yacht , a carriage with sails, of which a model was preserved in Scheveningen until 1802. The carriage itself had been lost long before. Around the year 1600 Stevin, with Prince Maurice of Orange and twenty-six others, used the carriage on the beach between Scheveningen and Petten . The carriage was propelled solely by the force of wind and acquired a speed which exceeded that of horses. Stevin's work in

1935-399: Is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland , Netherlands . The municipality of Leiden has a population of 127,046 (31 January 2023), but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration with its suburbs Oegstgeest , Leiderdorp , Voorschoten and Zoeterwoude with 215,602 inhabitants. The Netherlands Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) further includes Katwijk in

2064-449: Is assumed he was born in Bruges , since he enrolled at Leiden University under the name Simon Stevinus Da Brugensis (meaning "Simon Stevin from Bruges"). His name is usually written as Stevin, but some documents regarding his father use the spelling Stevijn (pronunciation [ˈste:vεɪn]); this was a common spelling shift in 16th-century Dutch. Simon Stevin's mother, Cathelijne (or Catelyne),

2193-472: Is assumed that he left Bruges to escape the religious persecution of Protestants by the Spanish rulers. Based on references in his work "Wisconstighe Ghedaechtenissen" (Mathematical Memoirs), it has been inferred that he must have moved first to Antwerp where he began his career as a merchant's clerk . Some biographers mention that he travelled to Prussia , Poland , Denmark , Norway and Sweden and other parts of Northern Europe , between 1571 and 1577. It

2322-399: Is believed that Stevin grew up in a relatively affluent environment and enjoyed a good education. He was likely educated at a Latin school in his hometown. Stevin left Bruges in 1571 apparently without a particular destination. Stevin was most likely a Calvinist since a Catholic would likely not have risen to the position of trust he later occupied with Maurice, Prince of Orange . It

2451-424: Is certain"), was not a loanword from Greek but a calque via Latin . He also replaced the word chemie , the Dutch for chemistry, by scheikunde ("the art of separating"), made in analogy with wiskunde . Very little is known with certainty about Simon Stevin's life, and what we know is mostly inferred from other recorded facts. The exact birth date and the date and place of his death are uncertain. It

2580-530: Is known as the place where the Pilgrims and some of the settlers of New Amsterdam lived, operating a printing press for a time in the early 17th century before their departure to Massachusetts and New Amsterdam in the New World . Leiden prospered in the 17th century, in part because of the impetus to the textile industry by refugees from Flanders . The city had lost about a third of its 15,000 citizens during

2709-514: Is named after the mayor Pieter Adriaansz. van der Werff  [ nl ] , who defended the city against the Spaniards in 1574. The city was beleaguered for months and many died from famine. The open space for the park was formed by the accidental explosion of a ship loaded with gunpowder in 1807, which destroyed hundreds of houses, including that of the Elsevier family of printers . Because of

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2838-489: Is possible that he completed these travels over a longer period of time. In 1577 Simon Stevin returned to Bruges and was appointed city clerk by the aldermen of Bruges, a function he occupied from 1577 to 1581. He worked in the office of Jan de Brune of the Brugse Vrije , the castellany of Bruges. Why he had returned to Bruges in 1577 is not clear. It may have been related to the political events of that period. Bruges

2967-605: Is the Dutch word for diameter: 'middellijn', lit.: line through the middle. The word 'zomenigmaal' ( quotient lit. 'that many times') has been replaced by 'quotiënt' in modern-day Dutch. Other terms did not make it into modern day mathematical Dutch, like 'teerling' ( die , although still being used in the meaning as die), instead of cube. Following his life, Belgium and the city of Bruges have continued to name places, statues and other topics in honor of Stevin Amongst others, he published: County of Flanders Up to 1477,

3096-697: The Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal (the municipal museum of fine arts), and the Bibliotheca Thysiana . The growing city needed another church and the Marekerk was the first Protestant church to be built in Leiden (and in Holland) after the Reformation . It is an example of Dutch Classicism . In the drawings by Van 's Gravesande the pulpit is the centrepiece of the church. The pulpit is modelled after

3225-574: The Atrebates . Julius Caesar conquered the area around 54 BC and the population was partially romanised from the 1st to the 3rd century. The Roman road that connected Cologne with Boulogne-sur-Mer was used as a defense perimeter. In the south the Gallo-Romanic population was able to maintain itself, while the north became a no-mans land that also suffered from regular floods from the North Sea . In

3354-659: The Black Death of 1348, the disruption of trade during the Anglo-French Hundred Years' War (1338–1453), and increased English cloth production. Flemish weavers had gone over to Worstead and North Walsham in Norfolk in the 12th century and established the wool industry. Through his marriage with Margaret of Dampierre in 1369, Philip the Bold , duke of Burgundy , made an end to the independence of Flanders. Flanders became

3483-708: The Carolingian Mayors of the Palace succeeded in removing the Merovingians from power and obtaining the throne for themselves. The last Merovingian king, Childeric III , was placed in captivity at the later Abbey of Saint Bertinus in St. Omer, and his long hair, a symbol of royal power, was cut off. Charlemagne succeeded his father Pepin the Short in Neustria and Austrasia, and after

3612-671: The Cluniac reform movement and on October 1096 Robert left with an army for the First Crusade . Though the majority of Flemish nobles was absent for four years, law and order was kept thanks to the steady leadership of countess Clementia and the advocacy of bishop Lambert of Arras . For this, the local clergy promoted the Peace and Truce of God movement. The House of Flanders remained in power until 1119, when Baldwin VII of Flanders died heirless, and

3741-621: The Flanders region of modern Belgium are now called West Flanders and East Flanders . The term Flanders originally referred to the area around Bruges . It is first mentioned in the biography of Saint Eligius ( c.  590 –660), the Vita sancti Eligii . The work was written before 684 but has been known only since 725. This work mentions only the place "in Flandris". A Germanic etymology for Flanders and Flemish (Dutch: Vlaanderen , Vlaams )

3870-581: The Flemish community . It is said that Philip of Alsace brought the lion flag with him from the Holy Land , where, in 1177, he supposedly conquered it from a Saracen knight, but this is a myth. The simple fact that the lion appeared on his personal seal since 1163, when he had not yet taken one step in the Levant , disproves it. In reality Philip was following a West-European trend. In the same period lions also appeared in

3999-629: The Great Privilege that they wrested from Mary of Burgundy , Charles' daughter and successor. In 1482 this last Burgundian ruler died, making her young son Philip I of Castile of the House of Habsburg the new count, and her husband Maximilian I of Austria the regent. The Flemish cities staged two more revolts , but these were ultimately subdued by the armies of the Holy Roman Empire . The 1493 Treaty of Senlis established peace between France and

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4128-599: The Holy Roman Empire . This constitutional act made Flanders part of the Seventeen Provinces , that constituted the Low Countries and from then on would be inherited as a whole. The Low Countries held an important place in the Empire. For Charles personally, they were the region where he spent his childhood. Because of trade and industry and the rich cities, they were also important for the treasury. Lordship transferred to

4257-488: The House of Alsace . Under Thierry (1128–1168) and his successor Philip of Alsace , Flanders' importance and power increased. In the second half of the 12th century, the county went through a period of great prosperity when Philip of Alsace managed to incorporate the County of Vermandois into Flanders through the inheritance of his wife. The territories he controlled now came to within 25 kilometers of Paris, and were larger than

4386-526: The Leiden Bio Science Park at the city's outskirts to accommodate the Science departments. Bus transport in Leiden is provided by Arriva . Railway stations within the municipality of Leiden are: The following is a selection of important Leidenaren throughout history: Leiden is twinned with: Nae z W arte H V nger-noot Gebra C ht had tot de doot b I naest zes-d VI zent M ens C hen;

4515-570: The Low Countries . The link to the empire was strengthened even more when the Burgundian Netherlands came into the hands of the imperial Habsburg dynasty in 1477. Most of Flanders became part of the empire after the Peace of Madrid in 1526 and the Peace of the Ladies in 1529, although it came to be ruled under the Habsburg crown of Spain. The territories of the old county are now the only part of

4644-633: The Morspoort , both dating from the end of the 17th century. Apart from one small watch tower on the Singel nothing is left of the town's city walls . Another former fortification is the Gravensteen . Built as a fortress in the 13th century it has since served as house, library and prison. Presently it is one of the university's buildings. The chief of Leiden's numerous churches are the Hooglandse Kerk (or

4773-526: The Oude Rijn , which enter Leiden on the east, unite in the centre of the city. The city is further intersected by numerous small canals with tree-bordered quays . On the west side of the city, the Hortus Botanicus and other gardens extend along the old Singel , or outer canal. The Leidse Hout park, which contains a small deer park, lies on the northwest border with Oegstgeest . The Van der Werf Park

4902-559: The Scheldt river: Ghent , Tournai , Valenciennes , Cambrai and Lambres at Douai on the Scarpe and a number of seaports: Quentovic , Boulogne and Isère portus, a port at the mouth of the Yser . Moreover, the region included a number of rich abbeys, such as Abbey of Saint Bertin , Saint Bavo's Abbey , Saint-Amand Abbey and the Abbey of St. Vaast . Charlemagne was succeeded by his son Louis

5031-419: The decimal fractions until the middle of the 20th century, when researchers discovered that decimal fractions had been previously introduced by the medieval Islamic scholar al-Uqlidisi in a book written in 952. Moreover, a systematic development of decimal fractions was given well before Stevin in the book Miftah al-Hisab written in 1427 by Al-Kashi . His contemporaries were most struck by his invention of

5160-443: The pagus Cambracinsis in 663, the pagus Taroanensis from 649 and the pagus Bracbatensis at the end of the century. From the 8th century we know of the pagus Rodaninsis from 707, the pagus Gandao from the first quarter of the 8th century, the pagus Mempiscus from 723 and the pagus Flandrensis from around 745. Lastly, the pagus Austrebatensis and the pagus Curtracensis are also counted as Merovingian gaue . In 751

5289-448: The polders . He received a patent on his innovation in 1586. Stevin's aim was to bring about a second age of wisdom , in which mankind would have recovered all of its earlier knowledge. He deduced that the language spoken in this age would have to be Dutch, because, as he showed empirically , in that language, more concepts could be indicated with monosyllabic words than in any of the (European) languages he had compared it with. This

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5418-485: The waterstaet involved improvements to the sluices and spillways to control flooding , exercises in hydraulic engineering . Windmills were already in use to pump the water out but in Van de Molens ( On mills ), he suggested improvements including ideas that the wheels should move slowly with a better system for meshing of the gear teeth . These improved threefold the efficiency of the windmills used in pumping water out of

5547-427: The 12th century, the territory's autonomous urban centres were instrumental in defeating the French invasion attempt, defeating the French at the Battle of the Golden Spurs in 1302. But finally the French prevailed at the battle of Mons-en-Pévèle and with the subsequent treaty of Athis-sur-Orge (1305) Flanders lost Lille, Douai, and Orchies to France and had to pay exorbitant fines but retained their independence as

5676-515: The Dutch Constitution in April 1848 in his house at Garenmarkt 9 in Leiden. Leiden's reputation as the "city of books" continued through the 19th century with the establishment of publishing dynasties by Evert Jan Brill and Albertus Willem Sijthoff . Sijthoff, who rose to prominence in the trade of translated books, wrote a letter in 1899 to Queen Wilhelmina regarding his opposition to becoming

5805-528: The Elements of the Art of Weighing, The second part: Of the propositions [The Properties of Oblique Weights], Page 41, Theorem XI, Proposition XIX , he derived the condition for the balance of forces on inclined planes using a diagram with a "wreath" containing evenly spaced round masses resting on the planes of a triangular prism (see the illustration on the side). He concluded that the weights required were proportional to

5934-535: The Forestiers dynasty, who had been appointed by Charlemagne, who had made a small contribution by uniting small feudal territories in the higher parts of the Flemish Valley . The Forestiers dynasty also strengthened the hold of the church on the relatively desolate area. The first Margrave (Count) of Flanders was Baldwin I , who became count in 862, and a romantic anecdote is connected to this: Baldwin eloped with

6063-820: The Habsburgs; per the terms of the treaty, Flanders would henceforth be a territory of the Holy Roman Empire. Under Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (born in the Flemish city Ghent ), Flanders became a member of the Burgundian Circle . The county was later involved in the Guelders Wars . Through the Pragmatic Sanction of 1549 , the County of Flanders was officially detached from France. It became an independent territory of

6192-567: The Kaag Lakes ( Kagerplassen ) lies just to the northeast of Leiden. A university city since 1575, Leiden has been one of Europe 's most prominent scientific centres for more than four centuries. University buildings are scattered throughout the city and the many students from all over the world give the city a bustling, vivid and international atmosphere. Many important scientific discoveries have been made here, giving rise to Leiden's motto: 'City of Discoveries'. The city houses Leiden University ,

6321-535: The Middle-Frankish kings died out, the rulers of the West and East-Frankish Kingdoms divided the Middle-Frankish kingdom amongst themselves in the treaty of Meerssen in 870. Now Western Europe had been divided into two sides: the solid West Francia (the later France) and the loose confederation of principalities of East Francia , that would become the Holy Roman Empire . In the north these two powers were separated by

6450-597: The Pious . Even during Louis' life his three sons started fighting over his heritage. They eventually concluded multiple treaties, of which the Treaty of Verdun , signed in 843, would be the definitive treaty. These treaties created East Francia , Middle Francia and West Francia . West Francia, inherited by Charles the Bald , included the original county of Flanders, that spanned roughly between Oudenburg , Aardenburg and Torhout . After

6579-465: The Romans against the Visigoths . He was also administrator of the province of Belgica Secunda . His son Clovis I conquered from 486 on all of Northern France. The abandoned coast and Scheldt region had been partially repopulated since the 4th century by Saxons and Franks from the east of the Rhine that retained their Germanic culture and language. In the 5th century Salic Franks settled in present-day Northern-France and Wallonia , primarily around

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6708-410: The Scheldt river, which had previously separated West Francia from Middle Francia . This separation remained unchanged until the times of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor . Militarily, economically and politically, Europe went through a deep crisis. The Vikings invaded from the north, the Magyar from the east and the Saracens from the south. All left trails of destruction. The central authorities of

6837-436: The Silent's second son and heir Prince Maurice , the Count of Nassau. Stevin is listed in the university's registers until 1590 and apparently never graduated. Following William the Silent's assassination and Prince Maurice's assumption of his father's office, Stevin became the principal advisor and tutor of Prince Maurice. Prince Maurice asked his advice on many occasions, and made him a public officer – at first director of

6966-437: The Spanish branch of the House of Habsburg with Philip II of Spain , and after 1556 belonged to the Kings of Spain. It was in Steenvoorde (In French Flanders ) in 1566 that the Beeldenstorm broke loose. The Beeldenstorm spread through all of the Low Countries and eventually led to the outbreak of the Eighty Years' War and the secession of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands . Originally Flanders cooperated with

7095-399: The Spanish rulers. Between 1578 and 1584 Bruges was ruled by Calvinists. In 1581 Stevin again left his native Bruges and moved to Leiden where he attended the Latin school. On 16 February 1583 he enrolled, under the name Simon Stevinus Brugensis (meaning "Simon Stevin from Bruges"), at Leiden University , which had been founded by William the Silent in 1575. Here he befriended William

7224-432: The agglomeration which makes the total population of the Leiden urban agglomeration 282,207 and in the larger Leiden urban area also Teylingen , Noordwijk , and Noordwijkerhout are included with in total 365,913 inhabitants. Leiden is located on the Oude Rijn , at a distance of some 20 km (12 mi) from The Hague to its south and some 40 km (25 mi) from Amsterdam to its north. The recreational area of

7353-407: The arms of Brabant , Luxembourg , Holland , Limburg and other territories. The lion as a heraldic symbol was mostly used in border territories and neighbouring countries of the Holy Roman Empire . It was in all likelihood a way of showing independence from the emperor, who used an eagle in his personal arms. In Europe the lion had been a well-known figure since Roman times, through works such as

7482-559: The art of what is known or what is certain) for mathematics , " natuurkunde " (the "art of nature") for physics , " scheikunde " (the "art of separation") for chemistry , " sterrenkunde " (the "art of stars") for astronomy , " meetkunde " (the "art of measuring") for geometry . Stevin was the first to show how to model regular and semiregular polyhedra by delineating their frames in a plane. He also distinguished stable from unstable equilibria. Stevin contributed to trigonometry with his book, De Driehouckhandel . In The First Book of

7611-405: The castles of Poelgeest, Ter Does, Hoichmade, de Zijl, ter Waerd, Warmond and de Paddenpoel. On 24 June the army appeared before the walls of Leiden. On 17 August 1420, after a two-month siege, the city surrendered to John of Bavaria. The burgrave Filips of Wassenaar was stripped of his offices and rights and lived out his last years in captivity. Leiden flourished in the 16th and 17th century. At

7740-408: The church of St Pancras , built in the 15th century and containing a monument to Pieter Adriaansz. van der Werff) and the Pieterskerk (church of St Peter (1315)) with monuments to Scaliger , Boerhaave and other famous scholars. From a historical perspective the Marekerk is interesting too. Arent van 's Gravesande designed that church in 1639. Other fine examples of his work in Leiden are in

7869-433: The cities of Courtrai , Tournai and Bavay . They adapted to the local Gallo-Romanic population. From the 6th century on the no-mans-land farther north was filled by Franks from the Rhinelands and other Germanic groups from the Netherlands and Germany. The first wave of immigration in the present day Flemish territory was accompanied by limited Christianisation. In the wake of the immigrants, missionaries tried to convert

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7998-420: The close of the 15th century, the weaving establishments of Leiden (mainly broadcloth ) were very important. In the same period, Leiden developed an important printing and publishing industry. Printers Lucas van Leyden and Otto van Veen lived here, and so did Christoffel Plantijn . One of Christoffel's pupils was Lodewijk Elzevir (1547–1617), who established the largest bookshop and printing works in Leiden,

8127-439: The coastal and Scheldt areas Saxon tribes gradually appeared. For the Romans, Saxon was a general term, and included Angles , Saxons , Jutes and Erules. The coastal defense around Boulogne and Oudenburg , the Litus Saxonicum , remained functional until about 420. These forts were manned by Saxon soldiers. From their base land Toxandria the Salian Franks further expanded into the Roman empire. The first incursion into

8256-399: The core area under French suzerainty was west of the Scheldt and historians call this "Royal Flanders" (Dutch: Kroon-Vlaanderen , French: Flandre royale ). Aside from this, the counts, from the 11th century onward, held land east of the river as a fief of the Holy Roman Empire , and this is referred to as "Imperial Flanders" ( Rijks-Vlaanderen or Flandre impériale ). From 1384, the county

8385-449: The correct values. He appears to have been inspired by the writings of the Italian lutenist and musical theorist Vincenzo Galilei (father of Galileo Galilei ), a onetime pupil of Gioseffo Zarlino . Double-entry bookkeeping may have been known to Stevin, as he was a clerk in Antwerp in his younger years, either practically or via the medium of the works of Italian authors such as Luca Pacioli and Gerolamo Cardano . However, Stevin

8514-433: The county was inherited by Charles the Good , of the House of Denmark . He abandoned the title "Marquis of Flanders", which had been used alongside the comital style since the 10th century. The counts of Flanders were the last French lords using the title marquis, which would not be used again in France until 1504. After a short interlude under William Clito of Normandy (1127–1128), the county went to Thierry of Alsace of

8643-401: The course of two to three days and includes parades, a hutspot feast, historical reenactments, a funfair and other events. Since 2006, the city has also hosted the annual Leiden International Film Festival . Leiden has important functions as a shopping and trade centre for communities around the city. The city also houses the Eurotransplant , the international organization responsible for

8772-421: The daughter of the Frankish king Charles the Bald , Judith of West Francia . Judith, who had previously been married to two English kings, refused her father's command to return to him. After mediation by the pope, the Frankish king reconciled with his son-in-law, and gave him the title of margrave, and the corresponding feudal territories as dowry. Margrave was primarily a military appointment and some versions of

8901-416: The death of his brother Karloman he was able to reunite the entire Frankish Empire. Though he resided in Aachen , he spent much time travelling through his territories. In 811 he inspected the fleet that he had ordered built in Boulogne and Ghent, to protect against Viking invasions. The region comprising future Flanders was, from an economic point of view, a flourishing region, with a series of ports along

9030-496: The decline of the textile industries. The baize manufacture was given up at the beginning of the 19th century, although industry remained central to Leiden economy. This decline can be seen in the fall in population, which had sunk to 30,000 between 1796 and 1811, and in 1904 was 56,044. Leiden was the publishing place from the 17th to the early 19th century of the important journal Nouvelles Extraordinaires de Divers Endroits , known also as Gazette de Leyde . On 12 January 1807,

9159-555: The dominion of the count of Flanders as a separate title, until it was absorbed by the French crown. In 1071, Robert I became count of Flanders after his successful rebellion against his nephew Arnulf III who died in the battle of Cassel . Flemish knights in the 11th and 12th centuries were some of the most effective and well-respected knights of Europe even before the Crusades . They were known to be chivalrous but lax on enforcing religious norms. Nevertheless, count Robert II and his wife Clementia of Burgundy were supporters of

9288-527: The drapery industry. Aside from this, the grain trade with England and through Holland with Hamburg were also important. Saint-Omer became the most important transit-port for French wine in the 12th century. These were the centuries of the breakthrough of the Flemish merchants, with their trade with England, the Baltic area and South-West France, as well as the land routes to the Rhineland and Italy though later only

9417-461: The early 18th century in Leiden with Boerhaave. Leiden is a city with a rich cultural heritage, not only in science, but also in the arts. One of the world's most famous painters, Rembrandt , was born and educated in Leiden. Other Leiden painters include Lucas van Leyden , Jan van Goyen and Jan Steen . Leiden was formed on an artificial hill (today called the Burcht van Leiden ) at the confluence of

9546-467: The economic decline from the end of the 17th until the middle of the 19th century, much of the 16th- and 17th-century city centre is still intact. It is the second largest 17th-century town centre in the Netherlands, the largest being Amsterdam's city centre. A hundred buildings in the centre are decorated with large murals of poetry, part of a wall poem project active from 1992, and still ongoing. At

9675-405: The equilibrium on an inclined plane can be faulted for using perpetual motion to imply a reductio ad absurdum . Dijksterhuis says Stevin "intuitively made use of the principle of conservation of energy ... long before it was formulated explicitly". He demonstrated the resolution of forces before Pierre Varignon , which had not been remarked previously, even though it is a simple consequence of

9804-700: The fables of Aesop . The future county of Flanders had been inhabited since prehistory. During the Iron Age the Kemmelberg formed an important Celtic settlement. During the times of Julius Caesar, the inhabitants were part of the Belgae , a collective name for all Celtic and Germanic tribes in the north of Gaul . For Flanders in specific these were the Menapii , the Morini , the Nervii and

9933-415: The first mention of the word Flanders , when he toured the area around 650. During the 7th century the first gaue or pagi were created in the Flemish territories. Gaue were administrative subdivisions of the civitates . The gaue from the 7th and 8th centuries would form the basis of the county of Flanders. The pagus Tornacensis dates from c.  580 , and from the 7th century we know of

10062-426: The first time (1908) and later managed to reach a temperature of less than one degree above the absolute minimum . Albert Einstein also spent some time at Leiden University during his early to middle career. The city's biggest and most popular annual festival is celebrated on 3 October and is called simply 3 Oktober . The people of Leiden celebrate the end of the Spanish siege of 1574. It typically takes place over

10191-400: The four principles of common arithmetic: namely, addition , subtraction , multiplication , and division . The concepts referred to in the booklet included unit fractions and Egyptian fractions . Muslim mathematicians were the first to utilize decimals instead of fractions on a large scale. Al-Kashi 's book, Key to Arithmetic , was written at the beginning of the 15th century and was

10320-703: The heathen population, but had little success. The bishoprics were reinstated, usually with the same natural borders of the Late-Roman era; the Silva Carbonaria separated the Bishopric of Cambrai from the Bishopric of Tongeren , while the Scheldt again became the border between the bishoprics of Cambrai and Tournai . Vedast and Eleutherius of Tournai were assigned to reinstate the bishoprics of Arras and Tournai. However, these bishoprics failed to survive independently. In

10449-495: The historic County of Flanders only partially overlaps with the present-day region of Flanders in Belgium, but even there, it extends beyond the present provinces of West Flanders and East Flanders. Some of the historic county is now part of France and the Netherlands. The land covered by the county is spread out over: The arms of the County of Flanders were allegedly created by Philip of Alsace , count of Flanders from 1168 to 1191;

10578-455: The interval into ten equal parts. Stevin's decimals were the inspiration for Isaac Newton 's work on infinite series . Stevin thought the Dutch language to be excellent for scientific writing, and he translated many of the mathematical terms to Dutch. As a result, Dutch is one of the few Western European languages that have many mathematical terms that do not stem from Greek or Latin. This includes

10707-616: The invention of Bartholomaeus Pitiscus , in whose trigonometrical tables (1612) it occurs, and it was accepted by John Napier in his logarithmic papers (1614 and 1619). Stevin printed little circles around the exponents of the different powers of one-tenth. That Stevin intended these encircled numerals to denote mere exponents is clear from the fact that he employed the same symbol for powers of algebraic quantities. He did not avoid fractional exponents; only negative exponents do not appear in his work. Stevin wrote on other scientific subjects – for instance optics, geography, astronomy – and

10836-633: The lands of the Atrebates was turned away in 448 at Vicus Helena. But after the murder of the Roman general Flavius Aëtius in 454 and Roman emperor Valentinianus III in 455, the Salic Franks encountered hardly any resistance. From Duisburg , king Chlodio conquered Cambrai and Tournai , and he reached the Somme . After his death two Salic kingdoms emerged. Childeric is recorded in 463 as king of Tournay and ally of

10965-411: The late 6th century the bishopric of Arras was connected to that of Cambrai, and at the start of the 7th century the same was done to the bishoprics of Tournai and Noyon . At the end of the 6th century, the duchy of Dentelinus was created in the north of what would later constitute Neustria . The duchy presumably included the bishoprics of Boulogne, Thérouanne, Arras, Tournai, Cambrai and Noyon: thus,

11094-533: The late medieval French kingdom outside of modern-day France, Catalonia having been renounced in 1258. By 1795 the entire Austrian Netherlands , the successor of the Spanish Netherlands , was acquired by France under the French First Republic , and this was recognized by treaty in 1797. After the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, these territories, including most of the old county of Flanders, passed to

11223-465: The law of their composition. Stevin discovered the hydrostatic paradox , which states that the pressure in a liquid is independent of the shape of the vessel and the area of the base, but depends solely on its height. He also gave the measure for the pressure on any given portion of the side of a vessel. He was the first to explain the tides using the attraction of the moon . In 1586, he demonstrated that two objects of different weight fall with

11352-435: The lengths of the sides on which they rested assuming the third side was horizontal and that the effect of a weight was reduced in a similar manner. It is implicit that the reduction factor is the height of the triangle divided by the side (the sine of the angle of the side with respect to the horizontal). The proof diagram of this concept is known as the "Epitaph of Stevinus". As noted by E. J. Dijksterhuis , Stevin's proof of

11481-462: The mediation and allocation of organ donation procedures in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Slovenia. Leiden also houses the headquarters of Airbus , a global pan-European aerospace and defence corporation and a leading defence and military contractor worldwide. The group includes Airbus , the leading manufacturer of commercial aircraft worldwide. The two branches of

11610-404: The name of their germanic leader, with -inga haim added. - Inga haim meant 'the settlement of the tribe of X'. For example: Petegem comes from Petta-inga-haim , which meant 'the settlement of the tribe of Petta'. The colonisation and germanisation of Flanders took place primarily in the 6th and 7th centuries. In the 7th century the population-level had risen sufficiently to start rebuilding

11739-463: The newly established United Kingdom of the Netherlands , which was split up between 1830 and 1839 into the modern countries of Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Although the French Republic had avoided using the names of the great medieval counties for their administrative départements, the Dutch and Belgian regimes brought back such names, and as a consequence the two westernmost provinces of

11868-550: The northern provinces as a member of the Union of Utrecht , and also signed the Act of Abjuration in 1581, but from 1579 to 1585, in the period known as the " Calvinist Republic of Ghent ", it was reconquered by the Spanish army. Flanders stayed under Spanish control. Through the efforts of the French king Louis XIV , the entire southern part of Flanders was annexed by France, and became known as South-Flanders or French Flanders . This situation

11997-604: The northwestern region between the North Sea and the Silva Carbonaria, an area the outlines of which were very similar to the later Flanders. The duchy was primarily intended to serve as a military and strategic deterrent against Frisian and Saxon invasions, and was a cornerstone in the military defense of the Merovingian Empire . In 600, Chlothar II (584–628) was forced to temporarily cede the duchy to Austrasia , but after

12126-670: The oldest university of the Netherlands, and Leiden University Medical Center . Leiden University is one of Europe's top universities, with thirteen Nobel Prize winners. It is a member of the League of European Research Universities and positioned highly in all international academic rankings. It is twinned with Oxford , the location of the United Kingdom's oldest university . Leiden University and Leiden University of Applied Sciences ( Leidse Hogeschool ) together have around 35,000 students. Modern scientific medical research and teaching started in

12255-581: The one in the Nieuwe Kerk at Haarlem (designed by Jacob van Campen ). The building was first used in 1650, and is still in use. The Heilige Lodewijkkerk is first catholic church in Leiden that was built after the Reformation. This church was given to the Catholics after the gunpowder explosion in 1807, which killed 150 inhabitants and destroyed a large part of the city centre. The 'Waalse Kerk' (Breestraat 63)

12384-527: The original Flemish pagus over the years over all territories south and west of the Scheldt river , including the lordship of the Four Amts, Zeelandic Flanders , the Burgraviate of Aalst  [ nl ] to the east and the County of Artois to the southwest, which remained part of Flanders until it became a separate county in 1237. After that date, the county of Artois at various times still came under

12513-465: The other local noblemen of the Hook faction assumed that the duke would besiege Leiden first and send small units out to conquer the surrounding citadels. But John of Bavaria chose to attack the citadels first. He rolled the cannons along with his army but one which was too heavy went by ship. By firing at the walls and gates with iron balls the citadels fell one by one. Within a week John of Bavaria conquered

12642-447: The people without using fractions. One can reduce all operations to adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing with integers." Some of the words he invented evolved: 'aftrekken' ( subtract ) and 'delen' ( divide ) stayed the same, but over time 'menigvuldigen' became 'vermenigvuldigen' ( multiply , the added 'ver' emphasizes the fact it is an action). 'Vergaderen' ( gathering ) became 'optellen' ( add lit. count up ). Another example

12771-523: The possession of the House of Valois-Burgundy , that ruled over the Burgundian State . In 1449 the city of Ghent revolted against duke Philip the Good . In 1453 Philip crushed the rebels at the battle of Gavere , ending the revolt. The cities of Ghent and Bruges had previously operated virtually as city-states, and upon the death of duke Charles the Bold attempted to re-assert this position by means of

12900-530: The present day. The Christianisation attempts in the 6th century by bishops like Eleutherius and Vedast had largely failed. Thus, in the 8th century a different strategy was chosen. A new Christianisation attempt was made under influence from King Dagobert I . He appointed several devoted missionaries from the southern parts of his kingdom to his royal domains in the northern parts of his kingdom. The missionaries were tasked with founding monasteries and abbeys there, that were to serve as centers of Christianity in

13029-415: The religious, military and administrative infrastructure. In the area of linguistics, the situation stabilised so that a large, bilingual region with a linear language border could emerge in the 8th century. In Pas-de-Calais , which had been densely populated a long time, a language barrier had emerged in the 6th–7th century, but in the 9th century a romanisation -movement started that has continued until

13158-601: The restoration of the Austrasian dual-monarchy in 622–623, the duchy was returned. At the end of the 6th and the 7th century a new inflow emerged from the western Pas-de-Calais . This area had been germanised in the 5th century and descendants of the Saxons and Franks had settled in future Flanders and the Duchy of Brabant . New groups of germanic settlers also came in from the Netherlands and Germany. Their new settlements often received

13287-534: The rivers Aa , Yser and Zwin , which were endangering the accessibility of Saint-Omer , Ypres and Bruges . Biervliet also served as a counter to Hollandic influence. Trade partners included England, the Baltic countries and France over sea, and the Rhineland and Italy over land. The wool trade with England was of special importance to the rising cloth industry in Flanders. The wealth of many Flemish cities (as their Belltowers and cloth halls testify) came from

13416-499: The rivers Oude and Nieuwe Rijn (Old and New Rhine). The settlement was called Leithon . The name is from Germanic * leitha (canal). Leiden has erroneously been associated with the Roman outpost Lugdunum Batavorum . This was thought to be located at the Burcht of Leiden, and the city's name was thought to be derived from the Latin name Lugdunum. However, the castellum was in fact closer to

13545-463: The same acceleration. The first mention of equal temperament related to the twelfth root of two in the West appeared in Simon Stevin's unfinished manuscript Van de Spiegheling der singconst (ca 1605) published posthumously three hundred years later in 1884; however, due to insufficient accuracy of his calculation, many of the numbers (for string length) he obtained were off by one or two units from

13674-459: The siege of 1574, but it quickly recovered to 45,000 in 1622 and may have come near to 70,000 c.  1670 . During the Dutch Golden Era, Leiden was the second largest city of Holland after Amsterdam. It played a crucial role in the establishment of modern chemistry and medicine due to the work by Herman Boerhaave (1668–1738). Leiden slumped from the late 17th century on, mainly due to

13803-528: The so-called "waterstaet" (the government authority for public works , especially water management) from 1592, and later quartermaster-general of the army of the States-General. Prince Maurice also asked Stevin to found an engineering school within the University of Leiden. Stevin moved to The Hague where he bought a house in 1612. He married in 1610 or 1614 and had four children. It is known that he left

13932-511: The space was turned into a public park, the Van der Werff park. In 1842, the railroad from Leiden to Haarlem was inaugurated and one year later the railway to The Hague (Den Haag) was completed, resulting in some social and economic improvement. Perhaps the most important piece of Dutch history contributed by Leiden was the Constitution of the Netherlands . Johan Rudolf Thorbecke (1798–1872) wrote

14061-428: The stimulus for the systematic application of decimals to whole numbers and fractions thereof. But nobody established their daily use before Stevin. He felt that this innovation was so significant, that he declared the universal introduction of decimal coinage, measures and weights to be merely a question of time. His notation is rather unwieldy. The point separating the integers from the decimal fractions seems to be

14190-502: The story theorize that King Charles made Baldwin Margrave in the hope that he would be killed by the Vikings. Initially the French kings meant to secure the safety of the northern French border from Viking invasions with this act. The counts, however, made good use of the crisis situation by incorporating the surrounding plundered territories into the county. The counts expanded the influence of

14319-503: The strategically important junction of the two arms of the Oude Rijn stands the old castle de Burcht , a circular tower built on an earthen mound. The mound probably was a refuge against high water before a small wooden fortress was built on top of it in the 11th century. The citadel is a so-called motte-and-bailey castle. Of Leiden's old city gates only two are left, the Zijlpoort and

14448-519: The strength of this proposal is that it would describe the salt marshes and mud flats of this low-lying coastal region. It was regularly inundated, before the development of dykes which started around 1050. However, a weak point of the proposal is that the Germanic wordforms which it requires are not found in any records of Dutch or its dialects. Comparison was instead based upon Old High German flewen and flouwen , and Old Norse flaumr . The geography of

14577-684: The territories given back by France to the Emperor, were two of the founding members of the United States of Belgium . Just like the other parts of the Austrian Netherlands, the county of Flanders declared its independence. This took place on the Friday-market at Ghent on 4 January 1790. The "Manifest van Vlaenderen" was drawn up by Charles-Joseph de Graeve and Jean-Joseph Raepsaet . The county of Flanders officially ceased to exist in 1795, when it

14706-450: The territories his feudal lord, the French king, directly controlled. During the rule of the House of Alsace, cities developed and new institutions were formed. The ports of Gravelines , Nieuwpoort , Damme , Biervliet , Dunkirk , and Mardijk were founded, as well as Calais by Philip's brother Matthew of Alsace . Aside from colonisation, the ports also functioned to reduce the silting of

14835-482: The town of Katwijk , whereas the Roman settlement near Leiden was called Matilo . In 1420, during the Hook and Cod wars , Duke John III of Bavaria along with his army marched from Gouda in the direction of Leiden in order to conquer the city since Leiden did not pay the new Count of Holland Jacqueline, Countess of Hainaut , his niece and only daughter of Count William VI of Holland . Burgrave Filips of Wassenaar and

14964-498: The two Frankish kingdoms were unable to organise an effective defensive, causing the population to lose faith and trust in their far-removed rulers. In the wake of this power vacuum, local powerful individuals saw their chance. Often these individuals were the descendants of people associated with Charlemagne . The county of Flanders originated from the Gau or Pagus Flandrensis (Dutch: Vlaanderengouw  [ nl ] ), led by

15093-399: The university are the national institution for East Indian languages, ethnology and geography ; the botanical gardens, founded in 1587; the observatory (1860); the museum of antiquities ( Rijksmuseum van Oudheden ); and the ethnographical museum, of which P.   F. von Siebold's Japanese collection was the nucleus ( Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde ). This collection is now housed in

15222-472: The very name wiskunde (mathematics). His eye for the importance of having the scientific language be the same as the language of the craftsman may show from the dedication of his book De Thiende ('The Disme' or 'The Tenth'): 'Simon Stevin wishes the stargazers, surveyors, carpet measurers, body measurers in general, coin measurers and tradespeople good luck.' Further on in the same pamphlet, he writes: "[this text] teaches us all calculations that are needed by

15351-497: The yearly fairs of Champagne. Flanders's flourishing trading towns made it one of the most urbanised parts of Europe. In 1194, Baldwin I of Constantinople of the House of Hainaut , succeeded the House of Alsace. In 1278 Guy of Dampierre , of the House of Dampierre , became count of Flanders. The king of France wanted to definitively conquer Flanders, and started the Franco-Flemish War (1297–1305) . Increasingly powerful in

15480-458: Was annexed by France, and divided into two departments : Lys (present day West Flanders ) and Escaut (present day East Flanders and Zeelandic Flanders ). Austria confirmed its loss in the 1797 Treaty of Campo Formio . Leiden Leiden ( / ˈ l aɪ d ən / LY -dən , Dutch pronunciation: [ˈlɛidə(n)] ; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden )

15609-523: Was formalised in 1678 at the Treaty of Nijmegen . After the extinction of the Spanish branch of the Habsburgs, the Austrian branch of the Habsburgs became counts of Flanders. Under Maria Theresa of Austria , the Austrian Netherlands flourished. In 1789 a revolution broke out against emperor Joseph II . In 1790 the county of Flanders and a separate province called West Flanders , which constituted

15738-488: Was hit hard by Allied bombardments. The areas surrounding the railway station and Marewijk were almost completely destroyed. The University of Leiden is famous for its many discoveries including Snell's law (by Willebrord Snellius ) and the famous Leyden jar , a capacitor made from a glass jar, invented in Leiden by Pieter van Musschenbroek in 1746. Another development was in cryogenics : Heike Kamerlingh Onnes (1913 Nobel prize winner in physics ) liquefied helium for

15867-403: Was one of the reasons why he wrote all of his works in Dutch and left the translation of them for others to do. The other reason was that he wanted his works to be practically useful to people who had not mastered the common scientific language of the time, Latin. Thanks to Simon Stevin the Dutch language got its proper scientific vocabulary such as " wiskunde " ( "kunst van het gewisse of zekere"

15996-595: Was originally part of the Katharina Hospital. In 1584 it became the church of Protestant refugees from the Southern Netherlands (Brugge) and France. Later churches in the centre include the St. Joseph in expressionistic style. The city centre contains many buildings that are in use by the University of Leiden . The Academy Building is housed in a former 16th-century convent . Among the institutions connected with

16125-466: Was politically united to the Duchy of Burgundy , and it formed the starting point for more acquisitions in the area, and the eventual creation of the Burgundian Netherlands . The expansion of Flemish ("Burgundian") power deep into the Holy Roman Empire further complicated the relationship between Flanders and France, but reinforced the connections with Brabant, Hainaut, Holland and other parts of

16254-412: Was proposed by Maurits Gysseling in 1948, based upon an article by René Verdeyen in 1943. According to this proposal, the terms Flanders and Flemish are likely derived from words derived from Proto-Germanic * flaumaz , meaning stream, current, flood or eddy. Based on this, it is proposed that there was a proto-Germanic term *flaumdra which referred to waterlogged land. According to Toorians,

16383-457: Was the daughter of a wealthy family from Ypres ; her father Hubert was a poorter of Bruges. Cathelijne would later marry Joost Sayon, who was involved in the carpet and silk trade and was a member of the schuttersgilde Sint-Sebastiaan. Through her marriage, Cathelijne became a member of a family of Calvinists ; it is thought that Simon Stevin was likely brought up in the Calvinist faith. It

16512-553: Was the first to recommend the use of impersonal accounts in the national household. He brought it into practice for Prince Maurice, and recommended it to the French statesman Sully . Stevin wrote a 35-page booklet called De Thiende ("the art of tenths"), first published in Dutch in 1585 and translated into French as La Disme . The full title of the English translation was Decimal arithmetic : Teaching how to perform all computations whatsoever by whole numbers without fractions , by

16641-563: Was the scene of intense religious conflict. Catholics and Calvinists alternately controlled the government of the city. They usually opposed each other but would occasionally collaborate in order to counteract the dictates of King Philip II of Spain . In 1576 a certain level of official religious tolerance was decreed. This could explain why Stevin returned to Bruges in 1577. Later the Calvinists seized power in many Flemish cities and incarcerated Catholic clerics and secular governors supportive of

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