Pierre Pelerin de Maricourt (French), Petrus Peregrinus de Maricourt (Latin) or Peter Peregrinus of Maricourt; (fl. 1269) was a 13th century French scholar who conducted experiments on magnetism and wrote the first extant treatise describing the properties of magnets. His work is particularly noted for containing the earliest detailed discussion of freely pivoting compass needles, a fundamental component of the dry compass soon to appear in medie...
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Pierre Pelerin de Maricourt (French), Petrus Peregrinus de Maricourt (Latin) or Peter Peregrinus of Maricourt; (fl. 1269) was a 13th century French scholar who conducted experiments on magnetism and wrote the first extant treatise describing the properties of magnets. His work is particularly noted for containing the earliest detailed discussion of freely pivoting compass needles, a fundamental component of the dry compass soon to appear in medieval navigation. He also wrote a treatise on the construction and use of a universal astrolabe.
Pierre’s text on the magnet is titled in many of the manuscripts as Epistola Petri Peregrini de Maricourt ad Sygerum de Foucaucourt, militem, de magnete ("Letter on the Magnet of Peter Peregrinus of Maricourt to Sygerus of Foucaucourt, Soldier"), but it is more commonly known by its short title, Epistola de magnete. Pierre's letter is thus addressed to an otherwise unknown Picard countryman named Sygerus (Sigerus, Ysaerus) of Foucaucourt, possibly...
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