The debate between Peletier and Clavius on superposition

This article considers the sixteenth-century debate between Jacques Peletier du Mans and Christoph Clavius over the admissibility of superposition as a means to demonstrate the equality of figures in Euclidean geometry. It notably aims to determine, in the first part, which understanding of superposition motivated its rejection by Peletier, especially whether and to which extent his critical position towards this method was related to its kinematic implications. In the second part, the article presents the critical response Clavius addressed to Peletier in order to defend the legitimacy of superposition in Euclid's Elements.