Record

RefNoMS/81/20
Previous numbersMS 81.17
LevelItem
TitleCopy letter, from [Henry] Oldenburg to [René-Francois] Slusius
Date29 January 1673
DescriptionCopy of a letter, titled "An Answer to Monsr Slusius his letter of Januar. 17 1672/73" in Oldenburg's hand, likely a clean draft.
Dated and attributed at the end and with address at the top in another hand. Endorsed 'No. 27: p. 106'

Discusses Sluse's method for drawing the tangents to curves which Oldenburg received in a previous letter. Will present the method at the next meeting of the Royal Society and then expects to include it shortly after in print in the Philosophical Transactions. Includes [Isaac] Newton's latest work on the same topic, taken from a letter to John Collins, so that Sluse can compare it to his own method. The quoted passage from Newton's calculus is the majority of the letter, it was underlined in red in parts and quotations marks were included in the margins to denote the inclusion of the sections in the printed version of the Commercium Epistolium. Oldenburg will share Sluse's method with the President of the Royal Society [Viscount William Brouncker] and with [John] Pell.

The original letter by Sluse was published in the issue for January 1673 of the Philosophical Transaction, volume 7, pp. 5143-5147.
Passages quoting Newton's letter to Collins were printed in 'Commercium Epistolicum' 1722 edition, page 106, paragraph XXVII
LanguageLatin
Extent2pp.
FormatManuscript
PhysicalDescriptionInk; pencil; paper
AccessStatusOpen
RelatedMaterialDOI: 10.1098/rstl.1672.0061
Fellows associated with this archive
CodePersonNameDates
NA8001Oldenburg; Henry (c 1619 - 1677); natural philosopher and scientific correspondentc 1619 - 1677
NA5659Slusius; Renatus Franciscus (1622 - 1685); mathematician and clergyman1622 - 1685
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