Briggs in the short preface to his _Logarithmorum chilias_ (1617) states
that the reason why his logarithms are different from those introduced
by Napier "sperandum, ejus librum posthumum, abunde nobis propediem
satisfacturum." The "liber posthumus" was the _Constructio_ (1619), in
the preface to which Robert Napier states that he has added an appendix
relating to another and more excellent species of logarithms, referred
to by the inventor himself in the _Rabdologia_, and in which the
logarithm of unity is 0. He also mentions that he has published some
remarks upon the propositions in spherical trigonometry and upon the new
species of logarithms by Henry Briggs, "qui novi hujus Canonis
supputandi laborem gravissimum, pro singulari amicitiâ quae illi cum
Patre meo L. M. intercessit, animo libentissimo in se suscepit; creandi
methodo, et usuum explanatione Inventori relictis. Nunc autem ipso ex
hâc vitâ evocato, totius negotii onus doctissimi Briggii humeris
incumbere, et Sparta haec ornanda illi sorte quadam obtigisse videtur."
In the address prefixed to the _Arithmetica logarithmica_ (1625) Briggs
bids the reader not to be surprised that these logarithms are different
from those published in the _Descriptio_:--
"Ego enim, cum meis auditoribus Londini, publice in Collegio
Greshamensi horum doctrinam explicarem; animadverti multo futurum
commodius, si Logarithmus sinus totius servaretur 0 (ut in Canone
mirifico), Logarithmus autem partis decimae ejusdem sinus totius,
nempe sinus 5 graduum, 44, m. 21, s., esset 10000000000. atque ea de
re scripsi statim ad ipsum authorem, et quamprimum per anni tempus, et
vacationem a publico docendi munere licuit, profectus sum Edinburgum;
ubi humanissime ab eo acceptus haesi per integrum mensem. Cum autem
inter nos de horum mutatione sermo haberetur; ille se idem dudum
sensisse, et cupivisse dicebat: veruntamen istos, quos jam paraverat
edendos curasse, donec alios, si per negotia et valetudinem liceret,
magis commodos confecisset. Istam autem mutationem ita faciendam
censebat, ut 0 esset Logarithmus unitatis, et 10000000000 sinus
totius: quod ego longe commodissimum esse non potui non agnoscere.
Coepi igitur, ejus hortatu, rejectis illis quos anteà paraveram, de
horum calculo serio cogitare; et sequenti aestate iterum profectus
Edinburgum, horum quos hic exhibeo praecipuos, illi ostendi, idem
etiam tertia aestate libentissime facturus, si Deus illum nobis tamdiu
superstitem esse voluisset."
There is also a reference to the change of the logarithms on the
title-page of the work.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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