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Society/business Center for Information Technology Research and Innovation Support Virtual Reality and Visualisation

Oresme - inventor of data visualisation

Monastery Thabor in Tirns near Sneek
Monastery Thabor in Tirns near Sneek

Bishop Nicole Oresme of Lisieux (1320-1382) formulated the basic idea of data visualisation in his

"Tractatus de Configurationibus Qualitatum et Motuum" (1355). The Tractatus was copied in 1530 by Walterus Enchusen, a monk in the monastery Thabor situated in Tirns, a small village near Sneek in The Netherlands. The handwriting of Walterus Enchusen is available as "handschrift 103" in the library of the University of Groningen. The illustrations in "handschrift 103" are probably the first data visualisations ever drawn in The Netherlands.

See also Zoektocht naar de oorsprong van de grafische voorstelling.

Page of the handwriting of Walterus Enchusen with two graphs
Page of the handwriting of Walterus Enchusen with two graphs
Laatst gewijzigd:24 januari 2017 13:27