B chapter.indd - Charles Babbage Institute - University of Minnesota

176
Erwin Tomash Library
Borda, Jean Charles de Borghi, Pietro
serial and parallel machine architecture and a description
of the operation code for the Booth ARC (Automatic
Relay Computer).
It should be noted that this paper was written (but not
published) before an operating stored program computer
existed.
Illustrations available:
ARC instruction set.
B 207
Borda, Jean Charles de (1733–1799)
Tables trigonométriques décimales, ou table des
logarithmes des sinus, sécantes et tangentes, suivant
la division du quart de cercle en 100 degrés, du degré
en 100 minutes, et de la minute en 100 secondes.
Précédées de la table des logarithmes des nombres
depuis dix mille jusqu’à cent mille, et de plusiers tables
subsidiares.
Year: 1801
Place: Paris
Publisher: Imprimerie de la République
Edition: 1st
Language: French
Binding: quarter bound leather, marbled boards
Pagination: pp. [4],120, [510]
Collation: π 2 a–p 4 a–2d 4 2e 2 A–2N 4 2O 1
Size: 237x187 mm
Reference: Glais RCMT, pp. 88–89; Kno NTMV, p. 71
Borda was a major figure in the French Navy who
participated in several scientific voyages and in the
American Revolution. He was a member of the group
B 207
responsible for measuring the length of the meridional
arc from the North Pole to the equator and thus was
active in establishing the metric system. He attained
the rank of Capitaine de Vaisseau and was appointed as
inspector of the French naval academy in 1784. Borda
was taken prisoner by the British during a naval action
in the Antilles in 1782; thereafter his health suffered
to the point where he was unable to take up his former
sea duties. His main contributions were to the design of
ships and in studies showing Newton was incorrect in his
theory of fluid flow. He invented a surveying instrument
(circle de réflexion), and these tables may well have
begun as an adjunct to its use.
This is the first publication of a table of logarithms of
trigonometric functions calculated according to the one
hundred-degree division of the quadrant that was initially
proposed for the metric system. The tables have entries
for each degree, minute and second of this division
scheme. It contains two prefaces, the first of 38 pages
by Borda and the second of 76 pages by Delambre, who
saw the work through the press after Borda died.
Illustrations available:
Title page
Tape of the tables
B 208
Borghi, Pietro (–1494)
Qui comenza la nobel opera de arithmethica ne la
qual se tracta tute cosse amercantia pertinente facta e
compilata p[er] Piero Borgi da veniesia.
First page: SDSU Chi d’arte mathematice ha paicere
… [17 line sonnet]
Year: 1484
Place: Venice
Publisher: Erhard Ratdolt
Edition: 1st
Language: Italian
Binding: later limp vellum
Pagination: ff. [1], 116, [1] (misnumbered 22 as 32, 23 as 32,
102 as 103)
Collation: π 8 b–o 8 p 6
Size: 202x152 mm
Reference: Smi Rara, pp. 16-18
Pietro Borghi (Piero Borgi) was a Venetian who died
sometime after 1494, but nothing more is known of his
life.
This is an important book in the history of arithmetic.
It is the second arithmetic book printed in Italy (after
the Treviso arithmetic). The description done by Smith
(Rara) cannot be bettered, and what follows is drawn
freely from that source.