Luís Serrão Pimentel

Who was Luís Serrão Pimentel?

Luís Serrão Pimentel (1613-1679) was a Portuguese military leader. He became a Lieutenant General in the Portuguese Artillery, and was also nominated "Cosmógrafo-mor" (informally from 1641 and officially from 1644) and "Engenheiro-mor do Reino" from 1671.

At his request, king D. João IV of Portugal founded in 1647, a school for teaching mathematics and Fortification design in the Ribeira das Naus, Lisbon, where Pimentel taught Maths, Navegation and Military Architecture.

He is considered as one of the most important figures of technical matters in the XVIIth century, and he wrote "Methodo Lusitanico de Desenhar as fortificaçoens das Praças Regulares e Irregulares...", which was published in 1680, a year after his death. He was the father of Manuel Pimentel, author of "Arte de Navegar" (1699, and revised in 1712) and of Francisco Pimentel (1652-1706), who replaced him in his teaching posts in 1679.