- First name
- Burchard
- Last name
- Volder, de
- Date of Birth
- 1643
- Date of Death
- 1709
- Born in
- Amsterdam
- Died in
- Leiden
Burchard de Volder studied medicine in Leiden (1661) under dele Boë Sylvius. He got a doctoral degree (1664) in Medicine with a disputation on nature (Disputatio medica inauguralis de natura) against the Peripatetic school. He first practised as a physician in Amsterdam, and later on held the Leiden chair of philosophy (1670). In 1682, De Volder was appointed professor of mathematics. He primarily fixed his eclectic attention on the ‘new’ field of mathematical and experimental physics, including optics. De Volder also founded the Leiden Theatrum physicum. He taught students physics through deductive observation and was the first to introduce (26 January 1675) experiments (in mechanics, hydraulics, optics). De Volder’s friends included leading European scholars, such as Leibniz, Christiaan Huygens, Boyle and Newton, but he was also in contact with Spinoza from 1665 onwards. See: De Pater, 1975; Klever, 1988; A History of Science in the Netherlands, 1999, pp. 589–91; DDP, vol. 2, pp. 1041–4.