Les traces d’Ismaël Boulliau dans la poussière de l’histoire

Abstract

In order to trace the footsteps of Ismaël Boulliau (also known as Bullialdus) in the dust of history, we adopt a quantitative approach based on an analysis of the extensive literature which has been digitized and which is therefore open to the application of computerized bibliometric techniques to detect patterns and trends over time. In particular, we use the Google Books database which contains millions of digitized books, manuscripts, reports, etc. in several languages. We apply the Google Ngram software to analyze the rate of referencing Boulliau’s work in the literature, in timeseries form. We also search Google Scholar which is an academic bibliographic database and search engine and is in many cases the most comprehensive source. The results show clear evidence that Boulliau was a man who escaped the limitations of old paradigms of thought and influenced the advancement of European science long after his death.

Keywords

• Ismaël Boulliau
• Bullialdus
• Gravité
• Bibliométrie
• Google Ngram