The Welsh context of Robert Recorde

Publication date 13 October 2016

\textit{The whetstone of witte}algebraic and geometrical treatises Robert Recorde (1512--1558)sciences in Wales and England Wales, Cambridge, Oxford

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

History of mathematics in the 15th and 16th centuries, Renaissance (01A40) Biographies, obituaries, personalia, bibliographies (01A70)

Review text

Robert Recorde was born in 1512, at Tenby, Pembrokeshire, Wales, he died in 1558, at London, England. In this chapter regarding his life, the author describes his environment in Wales. Connections of sciences in Wales and in England (Oxford, Cambridge, etc.) are presented. There exist a lot of manuscripts and books already in the 16th century, being written in Welsh' tongue. Its mathematics is described in this chapter. An exposition of the contents of Recorde's books, like \textit{The grounde of artes}, \textit{The pathway to knowledge}, \textit{The castle of knowledge}, \textit{The whetstone of witte} (in which the equality-sign \(=\) was introduced for the first time in history), and also a medical work \textit{The urinal of physick}. More information on these books can be found in the electronic source Wikipedia (\url{https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q318192}) and the famous St. Andrews MacTutor Archive (\url{http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Recorde.html}).NEWLINENEWLINE The chapter under review is rather detailed in the good sense of the word. It is very instructive. It also includes 85 notes to sources in libraries, books, and scientific papers. The reviewer had as yet no access to the other chapters in the book, but due to Chapter 7 reviewed here, one might draw the conclusion that the book provides a very good impression on the life and works of Robert Recorde as embedded in his cultural environments.NEWLINENEWLINEFor the entire collection see [Zbl 1309.01006].

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