Thomas Harriot's "Artis analyticae praxis" is an essential work in the history of algebra. This is the first English translation of his work, first published in Latin in 1631. It has recently become clear that Harriot's editor substantially rearranged the work, and omitted sections beyond his comprehension. Basing their work on manuscripts in the British Library, Pentworth House, and Lambeth Palace, the commentary contains some of Harriot's most novel and advanced mathematics, very little of which has been published in the past. Commentary included with this translation relates to corresponding pages in the manuscript papers, enabling exploration of Harriot's novel and advanced mathematics. This publication provides the basis for a reassessment of the development of algebra.

Contains errata for the original text, as well as commentary and historical information First modern translation of the 17th century's most important mathematician Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Autorentext
Thomas Harriot's "Artis analyticae praxis" is an essential work in the history of algebra. This is the first English translation of his work, first published in Latin in 1631. It has recently become clear that Harriot's editor substantially rearranged the work, and omitted sections beyond his comprehension. Basing their work on manuscripts in the British Library, Pentworth House, and Lambeth Palace, the commentary contains some of Harriot's most novel and advanced mathematics, very little of which has been published in the past. Commentary included with this translation relates to corresponding pages in the manuscript papers, enabling exploration of Harriot's novel and advanced mathematics. This publication provides the basis for a reassessment of the development of algebra.

Klappentext

The present work is the first ever English translation of the original text of Thomas Harriot's Artis Analyticae Praxis, first published in 1631 in Latin. Thomas Harriot's Praxis is an essential work in the history of algebra. Even though Harriot's contemporary, Viete, was among the first to use literal symbols to stand for known and unknown quantities, it was Harriott who took the crucial step of creating an entirely symbolic algebra. This allowed reasoning to be reduced to a quasi-mechanical manipulation of symbols. Although Harriot's algebra was still limited in scope (he insisted, for example, on strict homogeneity, so only terms of the same powers could be added or equated to one another), it is recognizably modern.

While Harriot's book was highly influential in the development of analysis in England before Newton, it has recently become clear that the posthumously published Praxis contains only an incomplete account of Harriot's achievement: his editor substantially rearranged the work before publishing it, and omitted sections that were apparently beyond comprehension, such as negative and complex roots of equations.

The commentary included with this translation attempts to restore the Praxis to the state of Harrios draft. The authors based their work on manuscripts in the British Library, Pentworth House, and Lambeth Palace, and the commentary explores some of Harriot's most novel and advanced mathematics, very little of which has been published in the past. This publication will become an important contribution to the history of mathematics, and it will provide the basis for a reassessment of the development of algebra.

The present work is the first ever English translation of the original text of Thomas Harriot's Artis Analyticae Praxis, first published in 1631 in Latin. Thomas Harriot's Praxis is an essential work in the history of algebra. Even though Harriot's contemporary, Viete, was amongthe first to use literal symbols to stand for known and unknown quantities, it was Harriott who took the crucial step of creating an entirely symbolic algebra. This allowed reasoning to be reduced to a quasi-mechanical manipulation of symbols. Although Harriot's algebra was still limited in scope (he insisted, for example, on strict homogeneity, so only terms of the same powers could be added or equated to one another), it is recognizably modern.

While Harriot's book was highly influential in the development of analysis in England before Newton, it has recently become clear that the posthumously published Praxis contains only an incomplete account of Harriot's achievement: his editor substantially rearranged the work before publishing it, and omitted sections that were apparently beyond comprehension, such as negative and complex roots of equations.

The commentary included with this translation relates the contents of the Praxis to the corresponding pages in his manuscript papers, which enables much of Harriot's most novel and advanced mathematics to be explored. This publication will become an important contribution to the history of mathematics, and it will provide the basis for a reassessment of the development of algebra.

Inhalt
The Practice of the Analytic Art (translation).- Preface to Analysts.- Definitions.- Section One.- Section Two.- Section Three.- Section Four.- Section Five.- Section Six.- Numerical Exegesis.- Rules for Guidance.- Commentary.- Comparative Table of Equations Solved.- Textual Emendations.