Introduction
Mathematical Bridge,
Sir Isaac Newton,
Charles L. Dodgson,
Carroll's "flowchart" for applying the propositions in Euclid.
Medieval Illuminated MS.
Archimedes |
College of Natural and Social Sciences
Department of Mathematics Shirley B. Gray Office: ST F218 INTRODUCTION At the Huntington, we have examined the the following titles: A Sampler of the Huntington Collection
Highlights of PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES Among other delights, Gray has been privileged
to examine the Bodleian Library's copy of Euclid's Elements (888 A.D.)
at Oxford University. This is the world's oldest dated edition. Another historically
important edition, ca. 900 A.D., is housed in the Vatican Library.
In 2004, Gray was permitted to examine this copy once stolen by Napoleon
and now returned to the archives
of the Biblioteca Vaticana, Roma.
This trip also permitted her the time to be a Reader in the famed Laurentian
Library in Florence, Italy. Later, in 2005, she viewed the oldest surviving
copy of the Nine Chapters on Mathematical
Art in the Shanghai Library. Dr. Gray concurred when a student
once told her, "You are a very lucky woman." A "short list" of other favorite trips
and talks includes:
A trip to Dublin, Ireland where she
saw the Quaternion
Bridge and examined the papers of Sir William Rowan Hamilton.
A trip to Edinburgh, Scotland where she saw the home of James Clerk Maxwell. Many trips to Copenhagen, Denmark where she examined the papers of the great classical scholar Johan Ludvig Heiberg in the Kongelige Bibliotek. Many hours in the British Library in London. AMS-MAA National Meetings. The newly established National Curve Bank. Baltimore, MD, January 15, 2003 and all subsequent NSF Poster Sessions. Brown Bag Lunch Series, The National Curve Bank, Northwestern University, March, 2003. AMS - MAA National Meeting, San Antonio, Texas. The Lost Palimpsest of Archimedes: The Method. January, 1999.Gray's first web project was on Maria Gaetana Agnesi and includes
the first translation of the closing of her famous calculus book. Gray's first videotape project appeared on KLAC-TV Channel 58 and
featured students learning to use the rather new graphing calculators in
April, 1997. Using a Graphing Calculator had five airings of
the tape just prior to the AP Calculus Exam. Gray has especially enjoyed the network of friends that was created
by participating in |
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Flowers were a gift of MATH 320 History of
Mathematics, Winter, 2006.
Claudius Ptolemy Ptolemy wrote the Almagest, or "the greatest," in the second century A.D. He produced the definitive Greek work in mathematical astronomy for determining the location of the planets. His mathematics and its geocentric theory stood unchallenged for 1400 years until Copernicus proposed his heliocentric theory in 1513. The surviving copy at the Huntington uses the sexagesimal number system. It is thought to have been produced in the south of France, but the monastery, or atelier, is unknown. As for esthetics, this copy is illuminated with gold and color adornment. The hand-printed vellum is not thick, but has an unforgettable texture of strength tempered with the appeal of the finest of translucent paper. To view the Vatican's copy and other interesting titles: http://sunsite.unc.edu/expo/vatican.exhibit/exhibit/Main_Hall.htmlReturn to Ptolemy.
Euclid The Huntington has more than 30 editions of the Elements, but counting the number of editions is arbitrary, for not all books have survived in all editions. This collection was expanded (Fall, 2006) by the addition of the Burndy Library from M.I.T. Following the invention of printing, Erhard Ratdolt's translation in 1482 was the first mathematics material to be printed. The manuscript opens immediately with 23 definitions, including those for the point, line and plane! Impressively, the Latin illustrations of "puntus, linea, plana," are clear to English readers 500 years later. On later pages, students will immediately recognize the "windmill" or "bride's chair" proof of the Pythagorean Theorem. The Huntington has two copies of the first English translation by Sir Henry Billingsley (London, 1570). It contains pop-up, three-dimensional models, embedded in the text. For example, the book includes fold-out models of two perpendicular planes, a tetrahedron and a pyramid.Many of the authors of the other editions are, themselves, famous, e.g., Lewis Carroll. Return to Euclid.
Copernicus This first edition of Copernicus at the Huntington was the gift of Edwin Hubble of the "Hubble Space Telescope." It is nearly always on display in the Main Reading Room of the Library. Most of the other titles are seldom seen by the public. Return to Copernicus
Maria Agnesi and the Marquise
du Châtelet
Apollonius The Library also has Sir Edmond Halley's edition of Apollonius' works. Return to Apollonius.
Euler The CSULA Spring, 1997 students remarked that of all the books we had seen in chronological order, this was the first to look like a "math" book. By the 18th century, the equation and notation had evolved, as well as printing techniques, to have math equations, not verbal explanations, embedded in the text. Calculus students will immediately recognize that Euler was working on infinite series. Return to Euler.
Brother Juan Diez, O.F.M.The Sumario Compendioso in Spanish is the first book other than religious instruction printed in the entire Western Hemisphere. With a publication date of 1556 in Mexico City, it predates all North American settlement, e.g., Jamestown (1607), Plymouth Rock (1620), and Quebec City (1608). The Huntinton Library has been the Sumario 's home since 1920. It is one of three remaining known copies in the World, with the other two being in the British Museum in London and in the Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid. The cover is primitive heavy leather. On opening the cover, the first thing one sees on the left is a recycled piece of printed matter that is pasted vertically. Paper must have been in very short supply in Mexico City in 1556. A gorgeous frontispiece is on the right opening page, and bears reference to the kingdoms of Peru (sic ).Return to Brother Juan
Diez.
Robert Recorde In the summer of 2006 a student asked who was the very first to use the equals sign. The question was answered by showing him Robert Recorde's "The whetstone of witte, which is the seconde part of Arithmetike . . ." published in London (1557) at the Huntington Library. Return to Recorde
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