Jost Bürgi's method for calculating sines (Q286028)

Jost Bürgi is known for his logarithmic tables \textit{Aritmetische und geometrische Progreß\ Tabulen}, recently edited and commented by \textit{K. Clark} [Jost Bürgi's \textit{Aritmetische und geometrische Progreß Tabulen} (1620). Edition and commentary. Translated from the German. New York, NY: Birkhäuser/Springer (2015; Zbl 1332.01065)], and for his discretion communicating them. ``The hesitant secretive [man] abandoned his child instead of raising it for the general benefit'', wrote Kepler in the foreword of his \textit{Tabulae Rudolphinae}, concerning Bürgi's keeping mum (citation from Kathleen Clark, p. 11). Besides logarithms it was known for some time that Bürgi also found a new method to calculate sine tables, called `Kunstweg' (artful way), but the secretive man apparently left no trace of his method. Recently, the first author found an hitherto unknown autograph of Bürgi in a library in Wrocław, Poland. In this autograph, Bürgi explained his `Kunstweg' and the present work is concerned with its explanation. In the first part of the paper, the authors describe the classical method used for the calculation of sine tables stemming from Ptolemaios's \textit{Almagest}. Then, Bürgi's method and the manuscript \textit{Fundamentum astronomiae} in which Bürgi described his `Kunstweg' are discussed in detail. In the third and final part, a modern proof of Bürgi's `Kunstweg' is given. The work under review is not only a great leap forward in the understanding of Bürgi's mathematical skills but also seems to open a fascinating insight into the transmission of the `Kunstweg' into the hands of Henry Briggs. In a copy of Raimarus Ursus's \textit{Fundamentum astronomicum} in the University Library of Leiden, the second author discovered a handwritten difference table very similar to the `Kunstweg' which was signed by Henry Briggs, cp. [Mitt. Dtsch. Math.-Ver. 24, No. 2, 89--94 (2016; Zbl 1417.01007), photograph on p. 92]. Hence, it may well be that the `Kunstweg' came into Briggs's hands (presumably through John Dee) and may therefore have had a great influence on the difference method which Henry Briggs used later to calculate his tables of logarithms.