Downloaded <strong>from</strong> rsnr.royalsocietypublishing.org on December 6, 2012 Letter <strong>from</strong> Henry Oldenburg <strong>to</strong> Joh<strong>an</strong>n Heinrich Rahn 265 Padua in the period 1665–69, was a younger relative (nephew or cousin) of the prominent Zurich church his<strong>to</strong>ri<strong>an</strong> <strong>an</strong>d Hebrew scholar Joh<strong>an</strong>n Heinrich Ott (1617–82), who was a friend <strong>an</strong>d correspondent of Rahn (see A Calendar of the Correspondence of J. H. Ott, 1658–1671 (ed. L. Forster), Publications of the Huguenot Society of London, xlvi (Frome, 1960), pp. xiv, 14, 17, 28, 40, 46). Oldenburg had been notified of his work by Leibniz’s <strong>letter</strong> of 29 April 1671 (OC viii, p. 25); he published a notice of Ott’s Cogitationes (probably by Collins) in Philosophical Tr<strong>an</strong>sactions, no. 71 (22 May 1671), pp. 2163–2165; <strong>an</strong>d on 15 J<strong>an</strong>uary 1671 he sent a <strong>letter</strong> <strong>to</strong> Ott, requesting further information about his inventions (OC viii, pp. 474–475). Ott’s only other published work was a long <strong>letter</strong> on the physics of sound (commenting on the theories of Ath<strong>an</strong>asius Kircher <strong>an</strong>d Sir Samuel Morl<strong>an</strong>d), printed in J. J. Wepfer, Observationes <strong>an</strong>a<strong>to</strong>micae ex cadaveribus eorum, quos sustulit apoplexia (Amsterdam, 1681), pp. 440–464. 51 This might refer <strong>to</strong> either of two works by Dona<strong>to</strong> Rossetti: Antignome fisico-mathematiche, con il nuovo orbe, e sistema terrestre (Livorno, 1667; 2nd edn Florence, 1668); Dimostrazione fisicomathematica delle sette proposizioni che promesse D. Rossetti (Florence, 1668). The former is on cosmology, meteorology, <strong>an</strong>d earthquakes; the latter is mostly on barometrics. Collins’s draft (StAUL, MS 31009, fo. 32 v ) shows that it was the former that was intended. 52 Benedet<strong>to</strong> Castelli, Alcuni opuscoli filosofici del padre abbate D. Benedet<strong>to</strong> Castelli (Bologna, 1669). 53 Giov<strong>an</strong>ni Battista Bali<strong>an</strong>i, Opere diverse (Genoa, 1666). 54 Giov<strong>an</strong>ni Alfonso Borelli, De motionibus naturalibus a gravitate pendentibus (Reggio di Calabria, 1670). 55 Gemini<strong>an</strong>o Mont<strong>an</strong>ari, Pensieri fisico-matematici sopra alcune esperienze fatte in Bologna … in<strong>to</strong>rno diversi effetti de’liquidi in c<strong>an</strong>nuccie di vetro, & altri vasi (Bologna, 1667); Speculazioni fisiche … sopra gli effetti di que’ vetri temprati, che rotti in una parte si risolvono tutti in polvere (Bologna, 1671). The latter work was devoted <strong>to</strong> the phenomenon known in Engl<strong>an</strong>d as ‘Rupert’s drops’. 56 Pietro Mengoli, Speculationi di musica (Bologna, 1670). 57 Fr<strong>an</strong>çois Blondel, Epis<strong>to</strong>la ad P.W. [Paulum Wurzium], in qua famosa Galilaei propositio discutitur, circa naturam lineae qua trabes secari debent ut sint aequalis ubique resistentiae et in qua lineam illam non quidem parabolicam, ut ipse Galilaeus arbitratus est, sed ellipticam esse demonstratur (Paris, 1661). 58 Claude Fr<strong>an</strong>çois Milliet de Chales, Euclidis elemen<strong>to</strong>rum libri oc<strong>to</strong>. Ad faciliorem captum accommodati (Lyon, 1660). 59 Gabriel Mou<strong>to</strong>n, Observationes diametrorum solis et lunae apparentium (Lyon, 1670). 60 An<strong>to</strong>ine de la Loubère, Veterum geometria promota in septem de cycloide libris. Et in duabus appendicibus (Toulouse, 1660). The appendices contained criticisms of the Minim friar Emm<strong>an</strong>uel Maign<strong>an</strong>. 61 Knowledge about Fabri’s work on Archimedes was derived originally <strong>from</strong> Bertet’s <strong>letter</strong> <strong>to</strong> Collins of November or December 1670 (copied in Collins’s <strong>letter</strong> <strong>to</strong> Gregory of 15 December 1670: Turnbull, op. cit. (note 12), p. 140). This was then confirmed by Doding<strong>to</strong>n’s <strong>letter</strong> <strong>to</strong> Oldenburg of 20 J<strong>an</strong>uary 1671, which declared that ‘Padre Fabri hath lately putt forth a most accurate peece intituled Commentarij novi in Archimedem’ (OC vii, p. 405). Possibly Doding<strong>to</strong>n’s information (which he said came <strong>from</strong> ‘some <strong>letter</strong>s <strong>from</strong> Rome’) <strong>an</strong>d Bertet’s derived <strong>from</strong> the same source. (Cf. note 44 above, on de Gottignies.) In February 1672, however, Collins wrote (in a draft for a <strong>letter</strong> <strong>from</strong> Oldenburg <strong>to</strong> de Sluse) that ‘of the Comments on Archimedes by … Honora<strong>to</strong> Fabry we hear nothing’ (OC viii, p. 546); the work appears never <strong>to</strong> have been published. 62 These titles correspond <strong>to</strong> section or chapter headings in the three parts (separately published, but with continuous pagination) of John Wallis, Mech<strong>an</strong>ica, sive de motu, tractatus geometricus (London, 1670–71); the copyist has mistakenly written ‘ie Percussionis’. 63 James Gregory, Exercitationes geometricae: appendicula ad veram circuli et hyperbolae quadraturam. N. Merca<strong>to</strong>ris quadratura hyperbolae geometrice demonstrata (London, 1668).
Downloaded <strong>from</strong> rsnr.royalsocietypublishing.org on December 6, 2012 266 Noel Malcolm 64 Nicolaus Merca<strong>to</strong>r, Logarithmo-technia (London, 1668). 65 Jeremy Horrox [‘Jeremias Horroxius’], Opera posthuma, ed. John Wallis (London, 1672). 66 This responds <strong>to</strong> Rahn’s request for information about the specifications of the microscope used by Hooke (see his <strong>letter</strong> <strong>to</strong> Haak, above). 67 The dash appears <strong>to</strong> have been left by the copyist for <strong>an</strong> illegible word. 68 Zentralbibliothek, Zurich, MS S. 353, fos. 137–138. 69 Rahn wrote ‘retiaui’; Pell has written ‘retinui’ above the line. 70 This ‘non’ is superfluous, <strong>an</strong>d is not reflected in the tr<strong>an</strong>slation. 71 BL, MS Add. 4398, fo. 143 (original). This <strong>letter</strong> is cited, but with the incorrect statement that it is tipped in <strong>to</strong> a copy of Rahn’s Introduction <strong>to</strong> Algebra (see above, note 9) in the British Library, in G. Wertheim, ‘Die Algebra des Joh<strong>an</strong> Heinrich Rahn (1659) und die englische Übersetzung derselben’, Bibliotheca Mathematica: Z. Geschichte Math. Wiss. (3) 3, 113–126 (1902), here pp. 122–123 (n.).
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