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

Erwin Tomash Library
Beman, Wooster Woodruff Benese, Richard
peak of the surveyor’s cap, all methods that would have
been quite useful in military campaigns or emergency
situations.
The final chapters discuss means for measuring the
depths of the oceans and finding the circumference of
the earth.
Illustrations available:
Title page
Geometric square and sight
Estimating using the peak of a cap
Drumhead surveying
Drumhead and geometric square surveying
Drumhead surveying, B 134
Drumhead surveying, B 134
Beman, Wooster Woodruff (1850–1922) and David
Eugene Smith (1860–1944)
See Fink, Karl; A brief history of mathematics, 1910
B 135
Benese, Richard de (fl.1537–1547)
The boke of measurying of lande as well of woodland as
plowland, & pasture in the feelde; & to compt the true
nombre of acres of the same …
Year: ca.1565
Place: London
Publisher: Thomas Colwell
Edition: 4th
Language: English
Binding: Straight grained green morocco by W. Pratt for F. S.
Ellis; marbled end papers; gilt edges; gilt tooled spine
Pagination: ff. [56]
Collation: A–G 8
Size: 140x92 mm
Reference: Win ESTC, 1876; Hymn AC, #277; Ken, #1457
B 135
Benese (sometimes de Benese) was the author of the
first book on surveying in English. He was Canon of
the Augustinian priory of Merton and was forced to
surrender it to Henry VIII upon the dissolution of the
monasteries in 1538. Nevertheless, his career prospered,
for his expertise led to his appointment as Surveyor of
Works at Hampton Court and Chaplain to Henry VIII.
This very simple book on surveying practices was first
published around 1537. It remained the standard work
on the subject in the English language for almost forty
years, this fourth edition being the last. The demise
of serfdom in England, and the rise of individual land
ownership, spurred interest in and the development of
surveying techniques. This little work was timely and
popular in its day because survey techniques were little
known, and unscrupulous sellers would often overstate
the amount of land being sold.
Earlier editions of this book contain tables (evidently the
first ever printed in English) relating lengths in perches
of the sides of rectangular fields to the area they contain
in acres. This edition contains a table that relates money
to area, as Benese explains:
By cause in coumptyng of money it is not muche
used to compte anye summes in markes, but
most comomlye in poudes. Thefore because
Marks do sygnyfye acres in comptynge the
measures of lande, & poundes be no lyghtly
turned into Markes by them that bee not experte
in reakenynge, and castyng of a compt. Therefore
in these sumes folowyine ye shall se pence turned
131