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Books > History > World history > 1500 to 1750
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John Pell (1611-1685) and His Correspondence with Sir Charles Cavendish - The Mental World of an Early Modern Mathematician (Hardcover, Revised)
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John Pell (1611-1685) and His Correspondence with Sir Charles Cavendish - The Mental World of an Early Modern Mathematician (Hardcover, Revised)
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The mathematician John Pell was a member of that golden generation
of scientists Boyle, Wren, Hooke, and others which came together in
the early Royal Society. Although he left a huge body of manuscript
materials, he has remained an extraordinarily neglected figure,
whose papers have never been properly explored. This book, the
first ever full-length study of Pell, presents an in-depth account
of his life and mathematical thinking, based on a detailed study of
his manuscripts. It not only restores to his proper place in
history a figure who was one of the leading mathematicians of his
day; it also brings to life a strange, appealing, but awkward
character, whose failure to publish his discoveries was caused by
powerful scruples. In addition, this book shows that the range of
Pell's interests extended far beyond mathematics. He was a key
member of the circle of the 'intelligencer' Samuel Hartlib; he
prepared translations of works by Descartes and Comenius; in the
1650s he served as Cromwell's envoy to Switzerland; and in the last
part of his life he was an active member of the Royal Society,
interested in the whole range of its activities. The study of
Pell's life and thought thus illuminates many different aspects of
17th-century intellectual life. The book is in three parts. The
first is a detailed biography of Pell; the second is an extended
essay on his mathematical work; the third is a richly annotated
edition of his correspondence with Sir Charles Cavendish. This
correspondence, which has often been cited by scholars but has
never been published in full, is concerned not only with
mathematics but also with optics, philosophy, and many other
subjects; conducted mainly while Pell was in the Netherlands and
Cavendish was also on the Continent, it is an unusually fascinating
example of the correspondence that flourished in the 17th-century
'Republic of letters'. This book will be an essential resource not
only for historians of mathematics, science, and philosophy, but
also for intellectual and cultural historians of early modern
Europe.
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