Edward Wright (1561 to 1615): Mathematician, Practitioner and Privateer

Speaker: Stephen Johnston (University of `Oxford)

What did it mean to be a mathematician in the past? What range of activity and interest might that term encompass?

The 16th-century Edward Wright is little known today, but certainly has a part in the history of mathematics, however conceived. He translated John Napier on logarithms and worked out the mathematical basis of the Mercator map projection. But he ranged much more widely too, from fundamental astronomical observations to magnetism, surveying and water engineering. Though a Cambridge fellow he went to sea on expeditions with the privateering Earl of Cumberland and subsequently served as royal librarian and tutor to Prince Henry.

Taking Wright as a biographical case study requires an understanding of Renaissance mathematics as a practical as well as intellectual discipline, as much about material culture as conceptual innovation.

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