Leonty Magnitsky

Who was Leonty Magnitsky?

Leonty Filippovich Magnitsky, born Telyatin, was a Russian mathematician and educator.

Magnitsky was born into a peasant family. According to some accounts, he graduated from the Slavic Greek Latin Academy in Moscow. From 1701 and until his death, he taught arithmetic, geometry and trigonometry at the Moscow School of Mathematics and Navigation, becoming its director in 1716.

In 1703, Magnitsky wrote his famous Arithmetic, which was used as the principal textbook on mathematics in Russia until the middle of the 18th century. Mikhail Lomonosov was himself taught by this book, which he called the "gates to his own erudition". This book was more an encyclopedia of mathematics than a textbook, and the first secular book to be printed in Russia. In 1703, Magnitsky also produced a Russian edition of Adriaan Vlacq's log tables called Таблицы логарифмов и синусов, тангенсов и секансов.

Legend has it that Leonty Magnitsky was nicknamed Magnitsky by Peter the Great, who considered him a "people's magnet". For his educatorial achievements he was ennobled in 1704, and was given numerous awards and gifts by the Tsar.