Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-rkxrd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-17T01:18:06.409Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A Letter from Nathaniel Torporley to Thomas Harriot

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

Abstract

Image of the first page of this content. For PDF version, please use the ‘Save PDF’ preceeding this image.'
Type
Notes and Communications
Copyright
Copyright © British Society for the History of Science 1967

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Bm Add Mss. 6782–6789. Also Harley Mss. 6001–2, 6083; and the Leconfield collection at Petworth House. The letter is at Add Ms. 6788, f. 117, 117v.

2 Rigaud, S. P., Correspondence of Scientific Men of the seventeenth century &c. (Oxford, 1841)Google Scholar. There are unpublished Rigaud papers in the Bodleian, including a bundle on “Hadley, Harriot & Lower” (Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections (Quarterly Issue), xlviii (1905)Google Scholar. See also Rigaud's, Miscellaneous Works & Correspondence of J. Bradley, with Appendix & Supplement on Harriot (Oxford, 1832, 1833).Google Scholar

3 Halliwell, J. O., Letters on Scientific Subjects (London, 1841).Google Scholar

4 von Zach's, F. X. work on Harriot appears in many places, including Astr. Jahrbuch (1788)Google Scholar, Astr. Ephem. Roy. Soc. Berlin (1788)Google Scholar, Berlin Astr. Jahrbuch (1793)Google Scholar, 1ter Suppl. Band, Monatliche Correspondenz (1803), viii, Corr. Astr. (1822), vii. Recent comment on the Rigaud-von Zach controversy is in Lohne, J. A., “The Fair Fame of Thomas Harriot”, Centaurus, viii (1963), 6984.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 Harriot, T., Artis Analyticae Praxis (London, 1631)Google Scholar. This work, edited from his papers after his death, does not give his full doctrine.

6 Scott, J. F., The Mathematical Work of John Wallis (London, 1938), 133165Google Scholar, passim. See also Scriba, C. J., “Wallis und Harriot”, Centaurus, x (1964), 248257.Google Scholar

7 Hutton, C., Mathematical and Philosophical Dictionary (London, 1796), i, 584586.Google Scholar

8 Rigaud's work on Bradley, , op. cit. (2), Supplement.Google Scholar

9 Taylor, E. G. R., “Hariot's Instructions for Ralegh's Voyage to Guiana, 1595”, J. Inst. Navigation, v (1952), 345350CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Taylor, E. G. R. and Sadler, D. H., “The Doctrine of Nauticall Triangles Compendious”, id., vi (1953), 131147.Google Scholar See also Waters, D. W., The Art of Navigation in England in Elizabethan and Early Stuart Times (London, 1958), 584591.Google Scholar

10 The papers in the British Museum contain much on optics. See also Yates, F. A., A Study of Love's Labour's Lost (Cambridge, 1936), 206211Google Scholar, which prints an Essay of Henry Percy (or, at least, attributed to him) which has references to the study of optics. Lohne, J. A. has an article on Harriot's optics, “Thomas Harriot, 1560–1621”, Centaurus, vi (1959), 113121CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and on his mathematics, “Thomas Harriot als Mathematiker”, Centaurus, xi (1965), 1945.Google Scholar

11 F. Vietae Apollonius Gallus; seu exsuscitata Apollonii Pergaei περι επαΦων geometria (Paris, 1600).Google Scholar

12 Bm Add Ms. 6785, most of the folios from f. 50 to f. 72.

13 Vieta, F., Canon mathematicus, seu ad triangula. Cum adpendicibus (J. Mettayer, Lutetiae, 1579).Google Scholar

14 A duplicate of the Paris edition of 1579 with a new title page, printed by F. Bouvier, London, 1589.

15 Foster, J., Alumni Oxoniensis 1500–1714 (Oxford, 1891), ivGoogle Scholar (Early Series), 1497. The same details are in Clark, A., Register of the University of Oxford (Oxford, 1887, 1889), II, ii; 100, iii, 118Google Scholar. The correspondence between these two works is not always exact, for example Foster does not mention Harriot under any of the various spellings of his name: Harriot, Hariot, Heriot, etc.

16 Taylor, E. G. R. in a number of her works, Tudor Geography (London, 1930), 137Google Scholar; The Mathematical Practitioners of Tudor & Stuart England (Cambridge, 1954), 187Google Scholar; The Troublesome Voyage of Captain Edward Fenton 1582–1583 (Hakluyt Society, Cambridge, 1959), xxxix, 151.Google Scholar

17 London, 1581.

18 Bm Cotton App. xlvii, ff. 6, 6v. Other parts of the Journal are at Cotton, Titus, B VIII, ff. 179–221, and Sloane 2496, ff. 74–87. The entries are for 18 February 1582 and 19 February 1582, “Mr Torporley & I walked to Ratclif. Mr Norman shewed me how ye streath of his lodestone was increased.”

19 Clark, A., op. cit. (15), II, ii, 79.Google Scholar

20 Aubrey, J., Brief Lives (Oxford, 1898), i, 285.Google Scholar

21 Clark, A., op. cit. (15), II, ii, 100.Google Scholar See also note 31, below.

22 Montucla, J. F., Histoire des Mathematiques (Paris, 1799), ii, 120.Google Scholar

23 SirSherburne, Edward, The sphere of Manilius made an English Poem; with annotations and an astronomical appendix (London, 1675), Appendix, 78.Google Scholar

24 See also Aubrey, J., op. cit. (20), i, 287.Google Scholar

25 See also Read, Alexander, Chirurgicall Lectures of Tumours and Ulcers (London, 1635), 307Google Scholar; and his Works (London, 1650), 248Google Scholar. The drafts of two letters from Harriot to an unidentified doctor, possibly Read, are at BM Add MS. 6789, ff. 446–447.

26 Batho, G. R., Household Papers of Henry Percy (Camden Third Series, xciii) (London, 1962), 163.Google Scholar

27 Stevens, Henry, Thomas Hariot the mathematician, the philosopher, and the scholar, etc. (London, 1900). 193203.Google Scholar

28 de Waard, Tannery, Correspondance du P. Marin Mersenne (Paris, 1960), vi, 349.Google Scholar

29 Harriot, T., op. cit. (5), Preface.Google Scholar

30 Cantor, M., Geschichte der Mathematik (Leipsig, 1892 ii, 720Google Scholar. Cantor says that the letter is Henry Percy's, but see Stevens, , op. cit. (27), 118124Google Scholar, where the letter is quoted in its entirety. The letter has been split; the first part was transcribed by von Zach, Monatliche Corr., viii (1803), and is given by Rigaud, op. cit. (2), Supplement, 42–45, together with the second part from BM Add MS. 6789, if. 427–428. The first part has been lost sight of; even Rigaud did not see it. The second part shows that the letter is from Sir William Lower. Rigaud, op. cit. (2), Supplement, 68–70, gives details about Lower, and so does Mee, Arthur, Trans. Carmarthenshire Antiquarian Society, iv (19081909), 4344.Google Scholar I do not know whether there are von Zach papers in which a search might be made for the missing part; it is possible that von Zach retained other papers, now unknown.

31 Torporley, N., Diclides Coelometricae, seu Valuae astronomicae universales, omnis artis totius munera psephophoretica in sat modicis finibus duarum tabularum, methodo nova, generali et facillima continentes authore Nathaniele Torporlaeo Salopiensi in secessu Philtheoro (London, 1602).Google Scholar This makes it clear that Torporley was from Shropshire, although Wood, , Athenae Oxoniensis and Fasti Oxoniensis (Oxford, 1815), ii, 524Google Scholar (Bliss's edition) says that he was made rector of Salwarpe (Worcestershire) “in his native county”.

32 Delambre, J., Histoire de l'Astronomie Moderne (Paris, 1821). ii, 40.Google Scholar

33 He could have been following the style of Lyly, J., Euphues, The Anatomy of Wyt (London, 1578?), later printing, London, 1580.Google Scholar

34 N. Torporley, Sion College MS. L4O.2/E10, Corrector Analylicus. This is printed, without its title page, in Halliwell, , op. cit. (3), 109117.Google Scholar

35 Jacquot, J., “Thomas Harriot's reputation for Impiety”, Notes and Records of the Royal Society, ix (19511952), 168Google Scholar. The most recent work is Kargon, R. H., Atomism in England from Hariot to Newton (Oxford, 1966).Google Scholar

36 Op. cit. (24), i, 263.Google Scholar

37 Op. cit. (23).

38 Diderot, D. and d'Alembert, J., Encyclopédie (Geneva, 1772), i, 259262Google Scholar; and de Gua, Abbé, Mémoire on Algebra, Mém. de l'Acad. des Sci. de Paris, 1741.Google Scholar Incidentally, there is difficulty in finding the details of Vieta's life.

39 Clark, A., op. cit. (15), ii, 79; iii, 88.Google ScholarEmden, C. S., Oriel Papers (Oxford, 1948), 1819Google Scholar, suggests that Richard Pigot, Fellow of Oriel (Ralegh's College) and Principal of St. Mary's Hall (Harriot's) was the contact. This is quoted in Quinn, D. B., The Roanoke Voyages, 1584–1590 (Hakluyt Society, London, 1955), 36.Google Scholar Pigot may have been Ralegh's tutor.

40 Martyr, Petrus, De Orbe novo Petrus Martyr … Decades octo (Paris, 1587, Hakluyt's edition)Google Scholar, quoted in Waters, , op. cit. (9), 546Google Scholar, and also Quinn, , op. cit. (39), 36.Google Scholar

41 Rowse, A. L., Ralegh and the Throckmortons (London, 1962), 141142, 232233.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

42 Batho, G. R., op. cit. (26), 154.Google Scholar

43 A letter of 11 July 1596 is quoted in Edwards, E., The Life of Sir Walter Ralegh (London, 1868), ii, 420422.Google Scholar See also Part VI of the Hist. MSS. Comm. Calendar of the Salisbury MSS. (London, 1895), vi, 256. Part VII of the same (London, 1899), vii, 285, describes another letter from Harriot, to Cecil, , dated 3 June 1597.Google Scholar

44 Motley, J. L., History of the Dutch Republic (London, 1860), ii, 20.Google Scholar

45 The Principal Works of Simon Stevin (Amsterdam, 1964), iv, 3.Google Scholar

46 Harriot, T., A Briefe and True Report of the new found land of Virginia, of the commodities & of the nature & manners of the naturall inhabitants (London, 1588).Google Scholar

47 Hakluyt, R., Principal Navigations … of the English Nation (London, 1589)Google Scholar. Reprinted in the Hakluyt Society's edition, Extra Series (London, 1904), viii, 348–386; and in Quinn, , op. cit. (39) 314387Google Scholar, who gives the Report in full, with detailed notes, and discusses the date of its completion. He says that the landing was at Plymouth, but Ralph Lane's account, printed in Hakluyt, (op. cit., viii, 345)Google Scholar says Portsmouth.

48 Rouse Ball, W. W., Short Account of the History of Mathematics (London, 1888), 205Google Scholar; also Cantor, M., op. cit. (30), ii, 536.Google Scholar

49 Op. cit. (31).

50 There is no tittle here, nor an m.

51 The seal is incomplete.

52 Travel, as in the titles of several contemporary books, rather than work, labour, or task, OED.

53 Perhaps m is intended for ni, as there is no dot, and all other i's in this letter are dotted. Meaning the land of Christ's Ministry, from Greek διάκονος a minister or deacon of the church.

54 Is this an abbreviation for non putaveram, I had not thought or considered? Perhaps used in disputations.

55 Free from journeying.

56 The elaborate style of the early part of the letter could be after Lyly, op. cit. (33).

57 Vieta. See above (11).

58 Vieta's printer in 1579 was J. Mettayer of Paris, see above (13).

59 The taxgatherer. St. Luke. xix. 1–10.

60 In his company, or with him, OED.

61 It is a pity that the end of this name is obscured in the binding. It could be that of Simon Stevin, who was connected with Maurice of Nassau subsequently, if not at the suggested date of the letter, and who wrote a number of works on the science of war, the earliest in 1594. See op. cit. (45).

62 There is room for “it” in the binding.

63 Again the binding. Most likely “&”.