Leonty Filippovich Magnitsky

Version for printing

Leonty Magnitsky was sent to the Iosifo-Volokolamsky Monastery when he was 15 years old. Before this he had little education. He went from there to the Simonov Monastery in Moscow where he trained to be a priest. He studied at an academy in Moscow until 1694.

At this stage he began to earn a living teaching the children of the important families in Moscow. He continued to do this until 1701 when Peter the Great gave him an allowance so that he might work writing his mathematics books. Peter the Great founded the Navigation School in Moscow in 1701 and the following year he appointed Magnitsky a teacher there. Magnitsky remained there for the rest of his life. From 1715 until his death he was director of the Navigation School.

Magnitsky wrote Arithmetic in 1703, the first guide to mathematics published in Russia. It remained for 50 years the basic Russian mathematics text. He also produced a Russian edition of Vlacq's log tables again in 1703.

Peter the Great was clearly well pleased with Magnitsky's work and books since he had a house built for Magnitsky's family in Moscow in 1704.

Peter the Great also used skill which Magnitsky must have had in fortifications, since when Sweden invaded in 1707, Peter had Magnitsky work on fortifications of the city of Tver.

Being at the Navigation School, Magnitsky began to work on navigation. He edited Tables for Navigation (1722).

Article by: J J O'Connor and E F Robertson

JOC/EFR © December 1996 Copyright information	School of Mathematics and Statistics University of St Andrews, Scotland
The URL of this page is: http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Magnitsky.html