Varieties of wonder: John Wilkins' mathematical magic and the perpetuity of invention

DOI10.1016/J.HM.2014.05.004MaRDI QIDQ465162zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Maarten Van Dyck, Koen Vermeir

Publication date 31 October 2014

Published in Historia Mathematica (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hm.2014.05.004

zbMATH Keywords

innovationJohn Wilkinsmachinesmathematical recreationsMathematicall Magickmathematics and religionwonder

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

History of mathematics in the 17th century (01A45)

Review text

The 17th-century English mathematician John Wilkins was one of the founders of the Royal Society. In 1648 he published \textit{Mathematicall Magick, or, The wonders that may be performed by mechanicall geometry.} This work comprises two books, the first of which focuses on the simple machines of lever, pulley, screw, etc. The second book treats more elaborate constructions, actual and speculative, ranging from clocks and ``spheres representing the heavenly motions to automata that emulate animals to submarines, flying machines, and even perpetual-motion machines. The present article discusses \textit{Mathematicall Magick,} with particular reference to the ``discourse of wonder it contains.

Recommendations

• Bishop John Wilkins, F .R. S. (1614-72): Analogies of thought-style in the protestant reformation and early modern science
• Calculemus -- Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz as a philosopher, mathematician, physicist and engineer
• The Elizabethan mathematics of everything: John Dee's `Mathematicall praeface' to Euclid's \textit{Elements}
• Samuel Morland and his calculating machines c.1666: the early career of a courtier–inventor in Restoration London
• Mathematical Wunderkammern

Cites work

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Cited in

(3)

• Bishop John Wilkins, F .R. S. (1614-72): Analogies of thought-style in the protestant reformation and early modern science
• Mathematical Wunderkammern
• Performing in a different place: the use of a prodigy to the Dublin Philosophical Society

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