Maligned for mathematics: Sir Thomas Urquhart and his Trissotetras.
Thomas Urquhart (1611–1660), celebrated for his English translation of Rabelais' Gargantua et Pantagruel, has earned some notoriety for his eccentric, putatively incomprehensible early book on trigonometry The Trissotetras (1645). The Trissotetras was too impractical to succeed in its own day as a t...
| Published in: | Annals of Science Vol. 76; no. 2; pp. 113 - 157 |
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| Format: | Article |
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Taylor & Francis Ltd
Apr2019
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=138886626&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 138886626 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00033790 7J1 jtl: Annals of Science issn: 00033790 maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: Apr2019 vid: 76 iid: 2 pid: 377 pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd artinfo: ui: 138886626 10.1080/00033790.2019.1625438 ppf: 113 ppct: 44 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 7.5MB tig: atl: Maligned for mathematics: Sir Thomas Urquhart and his Trissotetras. aug: au: Haas, Robert affil: Independent researcher su: Urquhart, Thomas Trigonometry Mathematicians Wallace, William Mathematics sug: subj: Urquhart, Thomas Trigonometry Mathematicians Wallace, William Mathematics ab: Thomas Urquhart (1611–1660), celebrated for his English translation of Rabelais' Gargantua et Pantagruel, has earned some notoriety for his eccentric, putatively incomprehensible early book on trigonometry The Trissotetras (1645). The Trissotetras was too impractical to succeed in its own day as a textbook, since it lacked both trigonometric tables and sample calculations. But its current bad reputation is based on literary authors' amplifications of the verdict prefaced to its 19th century reprinting by one mathematician, William Wallace, who lacked the background to appreciate the book's historical context. Considering that context (including seventeenth century 'copious' prose, and medieval logic and 'art of memory'), the bad reputation is undeserved: the book is mathematically clear, clever (e.g. in superimposing 16 problems into one diagram), and complete. The Trissotetras may thus be viewed as simply one more of Urquhart's polymathic projects and involvements – which included education, rise of the middle class, religious and class conflicts, development of science and mathematics, search for patronage, universal language construction, and development of English prose – which serve to make him a lively and instructive intellectual Everyman for his time. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Annals of Science is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Annals of Science holder: Taylor & Francis Ltd dt: @attributes: year: 2019 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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