BEECKMAN, ISAAC

(1588–1637)

   Self-taught scientist. Beeckman earned his doctor’s degree at the University of Caen in France. He served several Latin schools (at Utrecht, Rotterdam, and Dor drecht) as conrector. After a discussion with Rene Descartes, who lived in the Republic from 1628 to 1649, Beeckman studied the fun damental problems in physics and astronomy, such as inertia, which also occupied Galileo Galilei and his contemporaries. Beeckman’s journals were discovered and edited only in the 20th century (Jour nal tenu de 1604 a 1634, ed. C. de Waard, in four vols.).