Robert Recorde

Description

The inventor of the equals sign (=), Robert Recorde (1510?-1558) was the first English-writing mathematics educator: this book celebrates his work.
1 The lives and works of Robert Recorde Jack Williams 2 Robert Recorde and his remarkable Arithmetic John Denniss and Fenny Smith 3 Recorde and The Vrinal of Physick: context, uroscopy and the practice of medicine Margaret Pelling 4 The Pathway to Knowledg and the English Euclidean tradition Jacqueline Stedall 5 The Castle of Knowledge: astronomy and the sphere Stephen Johnston 6 The Whetstone of Witte: content and sources Ulrich Reich 7 The Welsh context of Robert Recorde Nia M. W. Powell 8 Commonwealth and Empire: Robert Recorde in Tudor England Howell A. Lloyd 9 Data, computation and the Tudor knowledge economy John V. Tucker

Sujets

• Sciences et techniques
• Mathematics

Informations

• Publié par: University of Wales Press
• Date de parution: 15 septembre 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780708325278
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

Robert Recorde The Life and Times of a Tudor Mathematician

Edited by Gareth Roberts and Fenny Smith

University of Wales Press

Robert Recorde

Title page ofThe Castle of Knowledge

Robert Recorde The Life and Times of a Tudor Mathematician 

Edited by Gareth Roberts and Fenny Smith

U N I V E R S I T Y O F WA L E S P R E S S C A R D I F F 2 0 1 2

© The Contributors, 2012

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any material form (includ ing photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written per mission of the copyright owner. Applications for the copyright owner’s written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the University of Wales Press,10 Columbus Walk, Brigantine Place, Cardiff CF10 4UP.

www.uwp.co.uk

British Library CIP Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN eISBN

9780708325261 9780708325178

The rights of the Contributors to be identified as authors of this work have been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 79 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act1988.

Designed and typeset by Chris Bell, cbdesign Printed by the MPG Group, Bodmin, Cornwall

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Contents 

List of illustrations Notes on contributors Acknowledgements Preface Editorial conventions

Introduction The lives and works of Robert Recorde Jack Williams Robert Recorde and his remarkable Arithmetic John Denniss and Fenny Smith Recorde andTheVrinal of Physick: context, uroscopy and the practice of medicine Margaret Pelling The Pathway to Knowledgand the English Euclidean tradition Jacqueline Stedall The Castle of Knowledge: astronomy and the sphere Stephen Johnston The Whetstone of Witte: content and sources Ulrich Reich

The Welsh context of Robert Recorde Nia M. W. Powell Commonwealth and Empire: Robert Recorde in Tudor England Howell A. Lloyd

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contents

9 Data, computation and the Tudor knowledge economy  John V. Tucker Appendix  From Recorde to relativity: a speculation  Gareth Wyn Evans

Bibliography Index

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165

189

201 219

List of illustrations 

F RONTISPIECE :title page ofThe Castle of Knowledge

C HAPTER 2 1. Recorde’s table of basic multiplication facts 2. The first stage in a calculation on a counting board 3. Finger notation

C HAPTER 3 1. Title page ofPhysickThe Vrinal of 2. Graduated urine flask

C HAPTER 5 1. An armillary sphere 2. Title page of a copy ofThe Castle of Knowledgeowned by William Cecil 3. Plasterwork renderings of Destiny and Fortune at Little Moreton Hall,  Cheshire 4. Woodcut of the letter T fromThe Castle of Knowledge 5. Annotations by William Cecil in his copy ofThe Castle of Knowledge

C HAPTER 6 1. Title page of Cardano’sPractica arithmetice, & mensurandi singularis 2. Title page of Stifel’sArithmetica integra 3. Title page of Scheubel’sDe numeris et diversis rationibus 4. Title page of Scheubel’sAlgebrae compendiosa facilisque descriptio 5. Recorde’s list of the first eightyone cossic numbers 6. Scheubel’s system of cossic numbers 7. Recorde’s method of adding algebraic expressions 8. Recorde’s method of multiplying algebraic expressions 9. The invention of the equals sign

list of illustrations

10. The first equations to be printed using the equals sign 11. A marginal annotation in Scheubel’sAlgebrae compendiosa facilisque descriptio

C HAPTER 7 1. Woodcut from the title page ofThe Ground of Artes 2. A marginal illustration from a1623 edition ofThe Ground of Artes 3. Gutun Owain’s use of Hindu−Arabic numerals in1488/9 4. Sir John Prise’s list of numbers as set out inYny Lhyvyr Hwnn(1546) 5. Use ofvaletto signify ‘equal to’ in tax documents

A PPENDIX 1locus of a point on a wheel rolling around a larger fixed wheel. The 2. A more likely depiction of the locus of a point on the rolling wheel 3. To prove that the opposite angles of a parallelogram are equal

Unless noted otherwise, illustrations from Recorde’s books have been provided courtesy of TGR Renascent Books.

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