William Oughtred: A Great Seventeenth-Century Teacher of MathematicsCajori, Florian
History
William Oughtred: A Great Seventeenth-Century Teacher of Mathematics
Cajori, Florian
Mathematicians -- Biography; Mathematics -- Study and teaching -- History -- 17th century; Oughtred, William, 1575-1660
In all there appeared five Latin editions, the second in 1648 at
London, the third in 1652 at Oxford, the fourth in 1667 at Oxford, the
fifth in 1693 and 1698 at Oxford. There were two independent English
editions: the first in 1647 at London, translated in greater part by
Robert Wood of Lincoln College, Oxford, as is stated in the preface to
the 1652 Latin edition; the second in 1694 and 1702 is a new
translation, the preface being written and the book recommended by the
astronomer Edmund Halley. The 1694 and 1702 impressions labored under
the defect of many sense-disturbing errors due to careless reading of
the proofs. All the editions of the Clavis, after the first edition,
had one or more of the following tracts added on:
Eq.=De Aequationum affectarvm resolvtione in numeris.
Eu.=Elementi decimi Euclidis declaratio.
So.=De Solidis regularibus, tractatus.
An.=De Anatocismo, sive usura composita.
Fa.=Regula falsae positionis.
Ar.=Theorematum in libris Archimedis de Sphaera & cylindro declaratio.
Ho.=Horologia scioterica in plano, geometricè delineandi modus.
The abbreviated titles given here are, of course, our own. The lists
of tracts added to the Clavis mathematicae of 1631 in its later
editions, given in the order in which the tracts appear in each
edition, are as follows: Clavis of 1647, Eq., An., Fa., Ho.; Clavis of
1648, Eq., An., Fa., Eu., So.; Clavis of 1652, Eq., Eu., So., An.,
Fa., Ar., Ho.; Clavis of 1667, Eq., Eu., So., An., Fa., Ar., Ho.;
Clavis of 1693 and 1698, Eq., Eu., So., An., Fa., Ar., Ho.; Clavis of
1694 and 1702, Eq.
The title-page of the Clavis was considerably modified after the first
edition. Thus, the 1652 Latin edition has this title-page: Guilelmi
Oughtred Aetonensis, quondam Collegii Regalis in Cantabrigia Socii,
Clavis mathematicae denvo limata, sive potius fabricata. Cum aliis
quibusdam ejusdem commentationibus, quae in sequenti pagina
recensentur. Editio tertia auctior & emendatior. Oxoniae, Excudebat
Leon. Lichfield, Veneunt apud Tho. Robinson. 1652.
[23]Rigaud, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 476.
[24]See, for instance, the Clavis mathematicae of 1652, where he
expresses himself thus (p. 4): “Speciosa haec Arithmetica arti
Analyticae (per quam ex sumptione quaesiti, tanquam noti, investigatur
quaesitum) multo accommodatior est, quam illa numerosa.”
[25]Oughtred, The Key of the Mathematicks, London, 1647, p. 4.
[26]Clavis 1694, p. 19, and the Clavis of 1631, p. 8.
[27]See for instance, Oughtred’s Elementi decimi Euclidis declaratio,
1652, p. 1, where he uses A and E, and also a and e.
[28]See Christophori Clavii Bambergensis Operum mathematicorum, tomus
secundus, Moguntiae, M.DC.XI, algebra, p. 39.
[29]Christophori Clavii operum mathematicorum Tomus Secundus, Moguntiae,
M.DC.XI, Epitome arithmeticae, p. 36.
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