A
Christian order that has existed in
Europe for three centuries. The Jesuats were founded by
Giovanni Colombiani of
Siena in
1360 as an order primarily concerned with nursing and burying victims of the
bubonic plague. In
1367, the order was officially
sanctioned by
Pope Urban V. Three centuries later, partially due to their manufacture and sale of liquors in ways unsanctioned by the
Canon Law,
Pope Clement IX abolished the group in
1668.
One of the better known Jesuats is
Bonaventura Cavalieri, who has been a confirmed member since
1613 at the age of 15. Cavalieri was a mathematician who studied at the
University of Bologna, and is known for discovering methods that use integration to find volumes of objects — a method also discovered by
Zu Chongzhi a thousand years earlier.
Also known as:
Jesuati, Gesuati, S. Gerolamo's apostolical clerics
*Not* the same as:
Jesuit
Sources:
-
The Mathematical Gardner, ed. David A. Klarner, Prindle, Weber & Schmidt, 1981
-
http://www.verbania.alpcom.it/scuole/cavalieri/cav2_1e.htm