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Sacro Bosco , Johannes , De , d 1244 or 1256 , also known as John of Holywood or Halifax , mathematician and astronomer
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Johannes De Sacro Bosco (John of Holywood, or Halifax) was probably born at Halifax, Yorkshire, and is said to have studied at Oxford and to have settled in Paris c1220, spending the remainder of his life there. He was a mathematician and astronomer. He wrote texts on arithmetic, astronomy and cosmography, including 'Algorismus' (a textbook on arithmetic) and 'Tractatus de Sphera', composed c1233 and forming a fundamental medieval text on astronomy, based on Ptolemy and comprising chapters on the terrestrial globe, on circles, on the rising and setting of the stars, and on the orbits and movements of the planets. De Sacro Bosco died either in 1244 or, more likely, in 1256.