Introduction
Three hundred years after the death of Thomas Harriot or Hariot (?1560-1621), the American journal Science sketched the life of a man who, though almost forgotten by succeeding generations, was involved in some of the greatest discoveries of European science, and embroiled in some of the most stirring events in English politics.
THE tercentenary of the death of Thomas Harriot, the mathematician and astronomer, occurred on July 2 [1921]. Not only was he the most celebrated English algebraist of his time, but he was also one of the first astronomers in England to use a telescope,* and, like Galileo,* Fabricius,* and Scheiner,* was one of the early observers of the spots on the sun. Born at Oxford in 1560, he was a year older than Henry Briggs.* He graduated from St Mary’s Hall, and became an ardent student of mathematics forty years before the inauguration of the first university chair of mathematics.* At the age of twenty-five he entered the service of Sir Walter Raleigh,* by whom he was employed in the survey of the newly founded colony of Virginia.*
The greater part of Harriot’s life, however, was passed in the neighbourhood of London, where he came under the patronage of Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, who gave him a pension and assigned him rooms at Sion House, which stands on the banks of the Thames opposite Kew.
* The telescope was invented by Dutch spectacle-maker Hans Lipperhey or Lippershey (1570-1619). Harriot’s descriptive but ungainly name for the telescope was ‘the perspective truncke’.
* Henry Briggs (1561–1630) was a distinguished English mathematician, remembered today for Briggsian logarithms and for anticipating the binomial theorem.
Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de’ Galilei (1564–1642) was professor of mathematics in Pisa, and later taught geometry, mechanics, and astronomy at Padua. His career was interrupted in 1616 when he was investigated by the Inquisition: in his researches, he had challenged geocentrism (the theory that the sun orbits the earth) and in doing so undermined confidence in Aristotle (384–322 BC), an early advocate of geocentrism and the Roman Church’s favourite philosopher. Galileo protested that he was talking about science, not faith or morals, but Rome had invested her credibility in Aristotle’s philosophy quite recklessly and her scientific advisers were as frightened as her theologians were. The controversy rumbled on for years; Galileo was forced to recant, and spent the years from 1634 to his death in 1642 under oppressive suspicion and surveillance.
Johann Goldsmid, Latinised to ‘Johannes Fabricius’ (1587–1616), was a Frisian astronomer who in 1610 discovered sunspots independently of Galileo Galilei.
Christoph Scheiner (?1573–1650) was a Jesuit priest, physicist and astronomer in Ingolstadt, Bavaria.
The position of Savilian Professor of Geometry at the University of Oxford was established in 1619, and awarded to Henry Briggs.
* Sir Walter Raleigh (1554-1618), the dashing Elizabethan soldier, sea-captain and explorer who was disappointed in his attempt to found a colony at Roanoke, and in his search for Eldorado. A favourite (though an exasperating one) of Eliabeth I, he fell out of favour under James I when his enthusiastic participation in Elizabeth’s policy of harassing Spanish shipping became a diplomatic embarrassment, and Raleigh was executed in 1618. See Sir Walter Raleigh.
* Harriot’s A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia, published in 1588, recorded his involvement with ill-fated Roanoke colony off the coast of what is now North Carolina (the colony of Virginia that subsequently became the State of Virginia was not founded until 1607). He was taken along primarily as a surveyor, but possessed the additional advantage that Harriot alone could speak Carolina Algonquian, which he had learnt from two Pamlico natives, Manteo and Wanchese, brought over to visit England by Raleigh. While in the New World, Thomas Harriot tried smoking tobacco; he found it most agreeable, and credited it with modest health benefits.
Précis
Thomas Harriot (1560-1621) was an English mathematician and astronomer, remembered today for his contributions to algebra and for his pioneering research with the newly-invented telescope, which included the first descriptions of sunspots. His early career, however, took him far away to Roanoke Island in North America, assisting Sir Walter Raleigh in the establishment of an English colony there. (58 / 60 words)
Thomas Harriot (1560-1621) was an English mathematician and astronomer, remembered today for his contributions to algebra and for his pioneering research with the newly-invented telescope, which included the first descriptions of sunspots. His early career, however, took him far away to Roanoke Island in North America, assisting Sir Walter Raleigh in the establishment of an English colony there.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: because, if, not, or, since, unless, until, who.
If you like what I’m doing here on Clay Lane, from time to time you could buy me a coffee.
Buy Me a Coffee is a crowdfunding website, used by over a million people. It is designed to help content creators like me make a living from their work. ‘Buy Me a Coffee’ prides itself on its security, and there is no need to register.
