Thomas Harriot's Artis analyticae praxis : an English translation with commentary / Muriel Seltman, Robert Goulding, editors and translators.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Harriot, Thomas, 1560-1621.

Contributor:

Seltman, Muriel.

Goulding, Robert.

Series:

Sources and studies in the history of mathematics and physical sciences

Language:

English

Latin

Subjects (All):

Harriot, Thomas, 1560-1621. Artis analyticae praxis.

Harriot, Thomas.

Mathematics--Early works to 1800.

Mathematics.

Equations, Theory of--Early works to 1800.

Equations, Theory of.

Physical Description:

viii, 299 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York : Springer, 2007.

Language Note:

Translated from the Latin.

Summary:

The present work is the first ever English translation of the original text of Thomas Harriot's Artis Analyticae Praxis, first published in 1631 in Latin. Thomas Harriot's Praxis is an essential work in the history of algebra. Even though Harriot's contemporary, Viete, was among the first to use literal symbols to stand for known and unknown quantities, it was Harriot who took the crucial step of creating an entirely symbolic algebra. This allowed reasoning to be reduced to a quasi-mechanical manipulation of symbols. Although Harriot's algebra was still limited in scope (he insisted, for example, on strict homogeneity, so only terms of the same powers could be added or equated to one another), it is recognizably modern. While Harriot's book was highly influential in the development of analysis in England before Newton, it has recently become clear that the posthumously published Praxis contains only an incomplete account of Harriot's achievement: his editor substantially rearranged the work before publishing it, and omitted sections that were apparently beyond comprehension, such as negative and complex roots of equations. The commentary included with this translation relates the contents of the Praxis to the corresponding pages in his manuscript papers, which enables much of Harriot's most novel and advanced mathematics to be explored. This publication will become an important contribution to the history of mathematics, and it will provide the basis for a reassessment of the development of algebra.

Contents:

The Practice of the Analytic Art (translation) 17

Numerical Exegesis 131

Rules for Guidance 183

Notes on Definitions 209

Notes on Section 1 213

Notes on Section 2 217

Notes on Section 3 223

Notes on Section 4 229

Notes on Section 5 233

Notes on Section 6 239

Notes on Numerical Exegesis 253

Comparative Table of Equations Solved 263.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 293-294) and index.

ISBN:

0387495118

9780387495118

0387495126

9780387495125

OCLC:

86167057