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

100
Erwin Tomash Library
Baker, Humphrey Baker, Humphrey
Language: English
Binding: contemporary leather; rebacked; red leather label
Pagination: pp. [16], 128, 139–362, 367–398 (misnumbering
390 as 388, 391 as 389, 394 as 392, 395 as 393, 398 as
396)
Collation: A–2B 8
Size: 163x106 mm
Reference: Smi Rara, p. 327
Henry Phillippes, the editor, was a teacher of mathematics,
surveying and gauging in London. He lived for most of
his life in a house built on London Bridge. He took part
in the Royal Society investigations of the variation of the
compass and was considered an authority on the subject.
He is known to have published a number of works on
mathematical subjects (see entries under Phillippes).
A comparison with the Baker 1583 edition reveals this
to be an almost completely new work. It seems likely
that the publisher sought to take advantage of Baker’s
better-known name. It does contain many of the same
tables (although they have been updated and often show
different values—compare the illustration of the table for
Roan here with the one in the entry for the 1583 edition—
see illustrations) with the addition of tables such as ones
showing the decimal equivalent of common fractions
and decimal equivalents of sterling money. Baker’s more
difficult passages, for example, the definition of number,
have been rewritten.
Illustrations available:
Title page
Roan table
Decimal tables
B 79
Baker, Humphrey (fl.1557–1587)
The well spring of sciences. Which teacheth the perfect
worke and practise of arithmeticke, both in whole
numbers and fractions …
Year: 1583
Place: [London]
Publisher: [Thomas Purfoot]
Edition: 7th
Language: English
Binding: contemporary leather
Pagination: ff. [8], 198, 18
Collation: A 8 (-A1, title page replaced by title of 1580 edition)
B–V 8 (-T2 torn away) W– 2C 8 D 6 a 2 (a 2 misbound at end)
Size: 144x89 mm
Reference: H&J
Humphrey Baker was a native of London, but of him
little else is known other than that he translated, from the
French, a book on astrology (The rules touching the use
and practice of the common almanacs, 1587).
B 78
B 79
When Baker first published this small pocket arithmetic
in 1562, the only other work on arithmetic in the English
language was Robert Recorde’s Ground of Artes.
Record’s book had been criticized as weak, particularly
on the continent, for it was, indeed, inferior to several
works available there. This criticism prompted Baker
to compose this volume, first published in 1568, which
proved to be quite popular.
Baker’s descriptions are lengthy and not easily understood
by a modern reader because they rely on outmoded