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

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Bloch, Richard Milton (1901–2000) See Mathematical tables and other aids to computation (MTAC) B 179 Blom, Frans Ferdinand (1893–1963) Commerce, trade and monetary units of the Maya 160 Year: 1935 Place: Washington, D.C. Publisher: Smithsonian Edition: Extract Language: English Binding: wrappers, uncut Pagination: pp. 423–440 Size: 243x157 mm This is an extract from the Smithsonian report for 1934, pp. 423–440. It is uncut. Illustrations available: Title page Blount, Thomas (1857–1911) See Addenda entry: Estienne, Henri; The art of making devises: treating of hieroglyphicks, symbols, emblemes, ænigma’s, sentences, parables, reverses of medalls, armes, blazons, cimiers, cyphres and rebus. Fisrt written in French by Henry Estienne … Translated into English, and embelished with divers brasse figures by T[homas] B[lount]. Whereunto is added, a catalogue of coronetdevises, both on the Kings and the Parliaments side, in the late warres. Paris, 1894. Erwin Tomash Library Bloch, Richard Milton Blundeville, Thomas B 180 B 180 Blundeville, Thomas (fl.1560–1602) His exercises, containing sixe treatises, the titles whereof are set down in the next printed page: which treatises are verie necessarie to be read and learned of all yoong gentlemen that have not bene exercised in such disciplines, and yet are desirous to have knowledge as well in cosmographie, astronomie, and geographie, as also in the arte of navigation, in which arte it is impossible to profite without the helpe of these, or such like instructions. To the furtherance of which arte of navigation, the said M. Blundevile speciallie wrote the said treatises and of meere good will doth dedicate the same to all young gentlemen of this realme. Year: 1594 Place: London Publisher: John Windet Edition: 1st Language: English Figures: 4 woodcuts with volvelles (3 original moving parts, one replacement), 1 folding plate, 2 folding tables Binding: contemporary vellum Pagination: ff. [7], 350 (misnumbered ff. 151 as 149) Collation: A 7 B–2X 8 2Y 6 Size: 197x147 mm Reference: Cro CL, #90 Nocturnal, B 180 Thomas Blundeville was educated at Cambridge, where he almost certainly met Edward Wright, who was to play a major role in the reform of navigation in England. After leaving Cambridge, he resided near Norwich, where he taught mathematics to the sons of the nobility.
Erwin Tomash Library Blundeville, Thomas Blundeville, Thomas He is known as the author of a number of works, mostly dealing with horsemanship; however, some were about maps, globes and the use of instruments in navigation. He was well connected to the scientific establishment of his day, for among his friends were such notables as Henry Briggs, Edward Wright, William Gilbert, etc. This is an important book in the history of navigation. Here for the first time the modern forms of the trigonometric functions of sine, tangent and secant were published in English (see essay on the sector for a description of the old forms based on a circle of given radius). These new tables, first suggested by Peuerbach and Regiomontanus about a hundred years earlier, had been long known to astronomers and mathematicians but had seldom been considered in the context of navigation. It is also the first description of navigation based on Mercator’s projection (as revised by Edward Wright) to be available in English and also included the latest navigational techniques of continental European authors. Blundeville occasionally added his own observations on minor points (such as noting that large astrolabes are more accurate, but they have a tendency to blow in the wind, and thus the smaller, heavier Spanish astrolabes are more practical for use on a ship). The work begins with the elements of arithmetic, including fractions and square roots. The necessity for knowing of square roots is justified by the strange example, occasionally seen in other works from this era, of a sergeant needing to arrange his men in square formation on the battlefield. The arithmetic proceeds with a discussion of sexagesimal numbers (degrees, minutes and seconds) and how they are manipulated and included is a large foldout multiplication table for sexagesimal numbers. The second major section contains the tables of sines, tangents and secants. In his introduction he credits Peuerbach and Regiomontanus with the concept and indicates that the tables he is reproducing were first done by Regiomontanus in folio and recently corrected by Clavius. The values given for sine range between 4 and 7 places of decimals, depending on their position in the table. Tangent values range from 4 to 11 decimal digits while secants are between 8 and 11 digits. The third book describes spherical trigonometry and the calculations necessary for navigation. It presents a graphical process (using only a protractor and straight edge) for determining the distances between any two points when knowing only their longitude and latitude. A treatise on the use of the terrestrial and celestial globes then follows. The next section discusses the map, not shown, created by Petrus Plancius in 1592. Not only does Blundeville describe the areas shown on the map, but he also covers the people, rulers and climates of each location. The descriptions are often remarkably detailed. For example, the city of Catan (Canton?) in China is noted as being surrounded by walls that extend for twelve Italian miles and three hundred fifty paces and which is more than foure houres journey, not reckoning the suburbs, which are very large and full of people. He also mentions the Great Wall (which hath in length 400 Spanish Leagues) and explains why it was constructed. Some of these facts so impressed an earlier owner that they are pointed out in marginal inscriptions. The facts about the Great Wall have been recopied onto the blank first leaf. Pages 280 to 303 contain a description of the mathematical jewel or astrolabe of Blagrave. While the instrument is not illustrated, each of its component parts is described in some detail. Blundeville does not present Blagrave’s entire text but limits himself to the subject of navigation. For example, he does not describe, as did Blagrave, the use of the instrument in creating sundials. It seems clear that if a jewel were at hand, Blundeville’s text would be sufficient for use by a navigator. The last section of the book is entitled A new and necessaire Treatise of Navigation, a title that gives only a general indication of its wide-ranging content. The section begins with a description of the cross-staff (Jacob’s staff), the mariner’s astrolabe (mariner’s ring) and the magnetic compass. Notable is a description of a nocturnal or Rectifier of the North Star (one of the few instruments illustrated). There is also a section on calendar computation, in particular the calculation of Easter and other movable festivals. This latter can be considered an example of finger reckoning in that the calculation of calendar items such as the Epact are accomplished by counting off various spaces on the left thumb. It was in this last section on navigation that Blundeville (p. 326) indicates that (see illustration) … Mercator hath in his universal carde or Mappe made the spaces of the Parallels of latitude to be wider euveie one than other from the Equinoctiall towards either of the Poles, by what rule I knowe not, unlesse it be by such a Table, as my friend E. Wright of Cais colledge in Cambridge at my request sent me (I thanke him) not long since for that purpose… There was a second edition in 1597 and a seventh in 1636. 161
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