M chapter.indd - Charles Babbage Institute

870
Erwin Tomash Library
Mercator, Nicolaus Meredith, Nicholas
Nicolaus Mercator, not to be confused with Gerardus
Mercator, was born in Cismar, Holstein (then part of
Denmark). He attended the University of Rostock and
after graduation held a teaching post there. He then
received an appointment at the University of Copenhagen.
That institution was closed in 1660 due to the plague,
so Mercator moved to London. There, in 1666, he was
one of the founding members of the Royal Society.
He remained in London until 1682, when he moved to
France to design the waterworks at Versailles.
Mercator is known for his writings on cosmography,
trigonometry and logarithms and for editing an edition
of Euclid’s Elements. In this work he shows how
logarithms may be calculated and introduces the series
(log(1+x) = x – x 2 /2 + x 3 /3 – x 4 /4 ….) that is now known
as the Mercator series. It is said that this work inspired
Mercator’s contemporary Isaac Newton to write his
famous paper De analysi giving an account of infinite
series.
Illustrations available:
Title page
M 88
M 88
Mercator, Nicolaus [Niklaus Kauffman] (1620–1687)
Trigonometria sphæricorum logarithmica, præceptis
rotüdis ac planè sphæricis, quibus nihil addere
possis, neque demere; cum canone triangulorum
emendatissimo, continente logarithmos sinuum
& tangentium ad singula graduum quadrantis
minuta prima, & ad radium 100000.00. Posterioris
formæ, præstantiâ & commoditate, illustri Nepero
commendatâ, priorem longè superantis
Year: 1651
Place: Danzig
Publisher: Andreas Hünefeldt
Edition: 1st
Language: Latin
Binding: contemporary vellum boards
Pagination: pp. [4], 12, [4], [94]
Collation: A 10 B–F 8 G 7 (A9–A10 blank)
Size: 162x94 mm
This is Mercator’s logarithm table. After a short
introduction explaining the use of logarithms in the
solution of triangles, it gives values for the sine, cosine,
tangent and cotangent function at one-minute intervals.
Two blank pages are bound between the introduction and
the tables that were evidently supposed to contain the
figures referred to in the text. Whether these pages were
originally blank or a later introduction is not clear. The
two blank pages are of different paper than the others in
this volume, and they have a watermark that is not seen
elsewhere.
Illustrations available:
Title page
Colophon
Table page
M 89
Meredith, Nicholas (1770–1801)
M 89
The description and use of pocket cases of
mathematical, or drawing instruments …
Year: [1790]
Place: London
Publisher: Author
Edition: 1st
Language: English
Figures: 3 engraved plates (1 folding)
Binding: three-quarter bound leather over marbled boards
Pagination: pp. iv, 47, [1]
Collation: π 2 B–D 8
Size: 210x128 mm