[87] The title was carelessly copied by De Morgan, not an unusual thing in his case. The original reads: A Plaine Discovery, of the whole Revelation of S. Iohn: set downe in two treatises ... set foorth by John Napier L. of Marchiston ... whereunto are annexed, certaine Oracles of Sibylla ... London ... 1611. [88] I have not seen the first edition, but it seems to have appeared in Edinburgh, in 1593, with a second edition there in 1594. The 1611 edition was the third. [89] It seems rather certain that Napier felt his theological work of greater importance than that in logarithms. He was born at Merchiston, near (now a part of) Edinburgh, in 1550, and died there in 1617, three years after the appearance of his _Mirifici logarithmorum canonis descriptio_. [90] Followed, in the third edition, from which he quotes, by a comma. [91] There was an edition published at Stettin in 1633. An English translation by P. F. Mottelay appeared at London in 1893. Gilbert (1540-1603) was physician to Queen Elizabeth and President of the College of Physicians at London. His _De Magnete_ was the first noteworthy treatise on physics printed in England. He treated of the earth as a spherical magnet and suggested the variation and declination of the needle as a means of finding latitude at sea. [92] The title says "ab authoris fratre collectum," although it was edited by J. Gruterus. [93] Porta was born at Naples in 1550 and died there in 1615. He studied the subject of lenses and the theory of sight, did some work in hydraulics and agriculture, and was well known as an astrologer. His _Magiae naturalis libri XX_ was published at Naples in 1589. The above title should read _curvilineorum_. [94] Cataldi was born in 1548 and died at Bologna in 1626. He was professor of mathematics at Perugia, Florence, and Bologna, and is known in mathematics chiefly for his work in continued fractions. He was one of the scholarly men of his day. [95] Georg Joachim Rheticus was born at Feldkirch in 1514 and died at Caschau, Hungary, in 1576. He was one of the most prominent pupils of Copernicus, his _Narratio de libris revolutionum Copernici_ (Dantzig, 1540) having done much to make the theory of his master known. [96] Henry Briggs, who did so much to make logarithms known, and who used the base 10, was born at Warley Wood, in Yorkshire, in 1560, and died at Oxford in 1630. He was Savilian professor of mathematics at Oxford, and his grave may still be seen there. [97] He lived at "Reggio nella Emilia" in the 16th and 17th centuries. His _Regola e modo facilissimo di quadrare il cerchio_ was published at Reggio in 1609. [98] Christoph Klau (Clavius) was born at Bamberg in 1537, and died at Rome in 1612. He was a Jesuit priest and taught mathematics in the Jesuit College at Rome. He wrote a number of works on mathematics, including excellent text-books on arithmetic and algebra.