| RefNo | MS/81/17 |
| Previous numbers | MS 81.14 |
| Level | Item |
| Title | Draft letter, from [John Collins] to [Thomas] Strode |
| Recipient | Strode; Thomas (fl 1626-1690); English mathematician; student of Abraham Woodhead |
| Date | 26 July 1672 |
| Description | Heavily corrected and annotated copy of a letter in Collins' hand, dated with endorsement "to Mr Strode" on cover page and at the back; some inserts on verso of cover page. Likely draft letter.
Attributed to Collins on the basis of hand and context.
Collins responds to a letter from Strode dated 11 July, in which Strode apologised for his poor Latin; Collins responds that despite being educated 3 miles from Oxford he himself only studied Latin in Grammar School and had to be employed as an apprentice with a Bookseller rather than going to University, then was employed for 7 years at Sea as part of the Venetian service against Turkey; then "enjoying some leisure" recovered enough of his Latin to be able to translate treatises. Gives details of his employment; financial situation and interest in mathematics. Shares some of the latest publications in mathematics ([René-François de] Sluse and [Honoré] Fabri), also announces that the King of France signified via Colbert that the members of the Royal Academie ought to publish their knowledge and therefore treatises are expected to circulate soon, names treatises by [Bernard] Frénicle [de Bessy]; [Christiaan] Huygens; [Jean] Picard; [Ismael] Bullialdus; [Claude] Millet; Lalovera [Antoine de Lalouvere]).
Discusses further furthcoming continental mathematical treastises; from Italy ([Gilles-François de] Gottignies' Euclid; [Vincenzo] Viviani's Life of Galileo; [Pietro] Mengoli's works); Liege (Sluse's methods); Dantzick [now Gdansk, Poland] ([Johannes] Hevelius's Life of Kepler and Machina Celestes); Cambridge ([Isaac] Newton's Geography of Varenius); London (Wallis' edition of Horrox's Astronomy; Kerrey's Algebra).
Proposes a scheme for a possible publication with references structured as:
1)section on reduction of equations
2) treatise of analytical conics
3)Curvilinear and solid geometry using "calculus analyticus", [Note this passage which refers directly to Newton's work on calculus building on Mercator's logarithmic method and Gregory's contributionis underlined in red and encirculed with pencil, to note the inclusion in the printed version of the Commercium Epistolicum]
4)Angular sections using algebra following Wallis's method.
Sent a translation of [Gerard] Kinckhuysen's conics into "bad Latin" lent by Jonas Moore, to send to [Edward] Bernard at St John's Oxford so that he can amend the bad Latin.
Different hands at the top of first page ' No 24: p. 103' in reference to the inclusion of the passage referring to Newton's algebra in the printed 'Commercium Epistolicum' 1722 edition, page 103, paragraph XXIV.
Numbered 9; 14 at the end |
| Extent | 8pp. |
| Format | Manuscript |
| PhysicalDescription | Ink on paper |
| AccessStatus | Open |
| RelatedMaterial | Cited in Whiteside, The mathematical papers of Isaac Newton, vol.8 (1981) |
Fellows associated with this archive
| Code | PersonName | Dates |
| NA2898 | Collins; John (1625 - 1683); mathematician and scientific administrator | 1625 - 1683 |