1577-1643

Swiss/Italian goldsmith and mathematician. Of Jewish descent, Guldin was trained as a goldsmith and worked in several German towns until his conversion to Catholicism at the age of twenty. He joined the Jesuit Order and changed his name to Paul. He studied mathematics and later taught at Jesuit Colleges in Rome and Graz. His most important published work was a four-volume treatise on various mathematical topics, including solid geometry, mechanics, and centers of gravity, including that of the Earth.