DeepDyve eBooks - Robert Recorde

A Chronology

Williams, Jack

Pages: 1 –9

[Son of a respected merchant, Robert Recorde was born in the small port of Tenby, Pembrokeshire, circa 1510. Following graduation at Oxford, he obtained a license to practise medicine. This he did for 12 years and was made a Doctor of Physicke by Cambridge University in 1545. By this time he had...

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Introduction

Williams, Jack

Pages: 13 –14

[Recorde’s intentions in writing his six books are expressed in their ‘Dedications’ and their ‘Readers Preface’s. The arguments pursued in the dedications are designed to engage the interest and support of the dedicatee and so vary from book to book. There are however no inconsistencies between...

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Robert Recorde and William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke

Williams, Jack

Pages: 15 –34

[William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke and Robert Recorde, Doctor of Physicke seem unlikely and unevenly matched antagonists. Herbert was a courtier, soldier and magnate, Recorde the son of a merchant and an intellectual. Their clash arose from Recorde’s Crown appointments. In January 1549, Herbert’s...

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The Affair at Clonmines

Williams, Jack

Pages: 35 –52

[The prospect of an indigenous supply of silver at Clonmines, co. Wexford, would have excited Henry VIII given the parlous state of his finances. Initial results were mildly encouraging. Henry died before any serious action was undertaken, although the necessary legal instruments to do so were...

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The Physician

Williams, Jack

Pages: 53 –64

[Three professions were open to graduates in the sixteenth century, the church, law and that of the Physician. Robert Recorde chose the latter, was licensed to practice by Oxford University, did so for 12 years and so was made a Doctor of Physicke by Cambridge University in 1545, being one of...

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Introduction

Williams, Jack

Pages: 67 –76

[Robert Recorde’s views on the intrinsic worth of learning are scattered throughout the Dedications and Prefaces to his books. His views accord with those of Plato on counts other than the practical application of mathematics, of which Recorde was strongly in favour. He justifies the values of...

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The Grounde of Artes

Williams, Jack

Pages: 77 –101

[The choice of title was not an idle gesture. Record took great care to make the foundations of his arithmetic as sound and durable as possible, as is apparent from the way in which he introduced the Hindu-Arabic place value system and his meticulous treatment of Numeration, the first topic he...

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The Pathway to Knowledg Containing the First Principles of Geometrie, as They May Moste Aptly Be Applied unto Practise, Both for Use of Instrumentes Geometricall, and Astronomicall and Also for the Projection of Plattes in Everye Kinde, and Therfore Much Necessary for All Sortes of Men

Williams, Jack

Pages: 103 –115

[The Pathway to Knowledg presents the contents of the first four books of Euclid, as adapted to meet the needs for an understanding of the principles of Geometry by mathematical practitioners and also as an essential precursor to Recorde’s mathematical treatises yet to come. Thus, in the first...

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The Castle of Knowledge

Williams, Jack

Pages: 117 –171

[The book is a sequence of four treatises that approximate in terms of presentation, to that found in the Pathway.The first treatise defines the terms used to describe the parts of earth and sky and of the sphere on which they are to be represented. Great care is exercised in choosing between...

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The Whetstone of Witte

Williams, Jack

Pages: 173 –196

[Recorde’s, second book of arithmetic, the Whetstone of Witte, contains expositions on number theory and the roots of abstract and denominate numbers, the rule of Algeber and on surds The number theory described is that of Pythagoras as presented by Euclid, modified by Theon and Nichomacus,...

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Robert Recorde

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Robert Recorde

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