A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts of Nicolaus Mercator, F. R. S. (1620-87), in Sheffield University Library

1986 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-37 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Alma Mater ◽  
University Library ◽  
Oliver Cromwell ◽  
The University ◽  
Scientific Achievements

The scientific achievements of Nicolaus Mercator have in recent years A begun to achieve a just measure of attention (1). Little beyond the bare details, however, is known about the life and career of this early Fellow of the Royal Society. Born Nicolaus Kauffman in Holstein, he was known throughout most of his life by the Latinized version of his name. He attended the University of Rostock and seems to have taught for a time at both his alma mater and at the University of Copenhagen. In 1654 he moved to England after his proposal for a revision of the calendar (2) caught the notice of Oliver Cromwell. He left England for France about 1683, having been engaged by Colbert to design the waterworks at Versailles.

Mortality of Europeans in British West and British East Africa

1927 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. E. Raynes
Keyword(s):  
East Africa ◽  
Finite Differences ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Sir Isaac Newton ◽  
Isaac Newton ◽  
Good Fortune ◽  
University Library ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The University

In two previous papers (vol. li, p. 77 and p. 211) an account has been given, of the published work of Newton on the subject of Interpolation by means of formulas of Finite Differences, and references have been made to the important letter which Newton sent on 24 October 1676, to Oldenburg, the Secretary of the Royal Society, with the intention that it should be communicated to Leibnitz. The second paper closed with a quotation from this letter, in which Newton mentions “a method [for the “construction of tables by interpolation] which I had almost “decided to describe here for the use of computers.” It has been my good fortune to discover that Newton had prepared an account of his method for inclusion in the letter and that the draft is preserved in the University Library at Cambridge among the Portsmouth Collection of Books and Papers written by or belonging to Sir Isaac Newton. By the freely granted permission of the Syndicate of the Library, I am able to give a reproduction and transcription of the manuscript, and I have added a translation.

scholarly journals James Gregory, the University observatory and the early acquisition of scientific instruments at the University of St Andrews

2015 ◽  
Vol 69 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen C. Rawson
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
British Isles ◽  
Scientific Instruments ◽  
University Library ◽  
Early Acquisition ◽  
And Mathematics ◽  
The University ◽  
Regius Professor

James Gregory, inventor of the reflecting telescope and Fellow of the Royal Society, was the first Regius Professor of Mathematics of the University of St Andrews, 1668–74. He attempted to establish in St Andrews what would, if completed, have been the first purpose-built observatory in the British Isles. He travelled to London in 1673 to purchase instruments for equipping the observatory and improving the teaching and study of natural philosophy and mathematics in the university, seeking the advice of John Flamsteed, later the first Astronomer Royal. This paper considers the observatory initiative and the early acquisition of instruments at the University of St Andrews, with reference to Gregory's correspondence, inventories made ca. 1699– ca. 1718 and extant instruments themselves, some of which predate Gregory's time. It examines the structure and fate of the university observatory, the legacy of Gregory's teaching and endeavours, and the meridian line laid down in 1748 in the University Library.

Further Newton correspondence

1982 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-34 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Cambridge University ◽  
Isaac Newton ◽  
University Library ◽  
The University

It is very unlikely that a group of thirty unknown ‘Newton letters’ will ever appear again. The group itself we recorded in vol. VII of The Correspondence of Isaac Newton (p. 357) when its whereabouts were unknown to us; it had been sold as Lot 129 in the great Sotheby sale of 1936. The purchaser was Dr Erik Waller, after whose death the letters passed with the rest of his collection into the Library of the University of Uppsala, which kindly supplied photocopies of them. I am very grateful to Mr Andrew Brown of the Voltaire Foundation, Oxford, who brought these letters to my attention. In fact, only two of them (X.984 and X .i342.1) are from ‘Newton’s pen’— and both of these are copies; these only, together with the Newtonian drafts from the Cambridge University Library here added to. the Uppsala letters for the sake of completeness (all of these drafts having been discovered by Dr Whiteside) I have printed here as accurately as possible. The letters to Newton in the Uppsala group, for the most part in Latin, I have reproduced in English, often severely abbreviated. Many of them are no more than letters of thanks for copies of Opticks, or for election to the Fellowship of the Royal Society.

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