an unpublished letter from henry oldenburg to johann heinrich rahn

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Downloaded from rsnr.royalsocietypublishing.org on December 6, 2012 Letter from Henry Oldenburg to Johann Heinrich Rahn 255 OLDENBURG’S LETTER TO RAHN That Henry Oldenburg turned to Collins for assistance in the preparation of his letter to Rahn is not in itself surprising. Collins had performed this sort of service for him before (producing, for example, a so-called ‘model’ for Oldenburg’s letter to the Liègeois mathematician de Sluse a few months earlier), and in subsequent years Oldenburg would come to depend on Collins as the drafter of his letters on mathematical subjects to Leibniz. 22 However, what is slightly surprising is that Oldenburg seems not to have contacted John Pell in this connection—despite Pell’s known links to Rahn, his wide-ranging knowledge of contemporary mathematical publications, and the fact that it was in response to promptings by Pell that Haak had written to Rahn in the first place. Oldenburg (who had married the young daughter of one of Pell’s oldest friends, John Dury) enjoyed a close friendship with Pell, and, indeed, lived in the same street. 23 In April 1670 Pell had performed a useful service for Oldenburg, obtaining a licence from the Archbishop of Canterbury ‘to veiw a Parcell of Bookes lately imported from Hamborough [sc. Hamburg] … for the use of H. Oldenburg Esq.’. 24 Pell had been a fairly active member of The Royal Society, and Oldenburg was evidently keen to make use of his mathematical expertise: during the winter of 1672–73, for example, he would pass to Pell copies of all the letters he had received from de Sluse and Huygens on the subject of ‘Alhazen’s problem’, in the hope that Pell would prepare them for publication and add his own adjudication of the dispute. 25 And yet there is no sign of Pell’s involvement in the preparation of the letter to Rahn; no greetings from Pell were included in the text of the letter, and no trace or inkling of its existence is to be found among Pell’s own voluminous papers. The reason for this must surely be located in Collins’s request—which asked Rahn, in effect, if he could shed some light on Pell’s own method of using logarithms in the reduction of higher equations. A letter that thus involved going behind Pell’s back could hardly be shown to Pell himself. What scruples Oldenburg might have felt about this method of proceeding can only be guessed at; on the one hand there was his loyalty to Pell, but on the other hand there were both his cultivation of the ever-helpful Collins and his own overriding desire to further the advancement of knowledge. For Oldenburg, too, was frustrated by Pell’s incommunicativeness. Four years later, when Collins had inserted another reference to this topic in a draft of a letter from Oldenburg to Leibniz and the German mathematician had replied that ‘To unravel equations by means of a table of logarithmic sines will be a most useful thing’, Oldenburg impatiently annotated the margin of Leibniz’s letter: ‘Pell promises much about these things, but when?’ 26 The true answer, alas, was ‘never’. The text of Oldenburg’s letter to Rahn, as preserved in the surviving scribal copy, is as follows. Ampliss. o et Consultiss. o Viro Domino Joh. Henrico Rahn, è secretiori Consiliori Tigurino, Henricus Oldenburg Soc. Reg. Secr. Salutem Cum mihi prae caeteris hîc in Anglia incumbat, Vir Ampliss[im] e , literarium in re Philosophica commercium urgere, visum omnino fuit, meam praestantiss[im] o Haakio meo literis tuis nuperrimis respondenti, opellam consociare. A principio quidem quam volup[tabile] nob[is] est intelligere, p[rae]claros etiam in Helvetia viros (quos inter Tu prima subsellia jure occupas) in excolenda Physica et Mathesi mentem et manum addictam habere. Arduum profecto id opus est,
Downloaded from rsnr.royalsocietypublishing.org on December 6, 2012 256 Noel Malcolm q[uo]d Regis Societas Britannica molit[ur], Naturae scil[icet] penetralia vestigare, atq[ue] Artis vires excutere, et utrumq[ue] in vitae humanae usus et commoda transferre. Res equidem non est gentis unius; omnium terrarum viri docti et sagaces ingenia et operas jungant necesse est ad tanti instituti finem consequendam. Denuo et Te, Vir Consultiss[ime], laude p[er] quam dignum censemus, q[uo]d Tuam quoq[ue] Symbolam huc conferre, et studiorum Tuorum rationem nobis communicare statuisti. Perplacet, Te Diophantis problemata ad speciosam reduxisse, ejusq[ue] editionem Latinam avide praestolamur. Nossi sine dubio, quae novissimis annis in re Algebraica ubivis terrarum gesta fuerint. Edidit sc[ilicet] Kinckhusius in Lingua Belgica Introductionem in Algebram, excusam 1661; evulgatis jam etiam duobus libris aliis, quorum Tituli; The grondt der Metkonst or Analytical [Calculus corrected to Conicks] A 1660 et, Geometrische Problemata met haën Analytical Calculus A. 1663 27 Emisit Jacobus Ferguson, Labyrinthum Algebriae; 28 et Martinus van Wilkins, Officinam Algebriae. 29 Cui addi possunt Algebra Smyteri, 30 et Algebra Francisci van der Huyps. 31 In Dania prodijt ante aliquot annos Erasmi Bartholini Dioristice sive Methodus aequationum prima et secunda; ad cujus Tractatus calcem, Algebrae Systema generale promittit Author; 32 qui ex eo tempore Observationib[us] Tychonicis accurate edendis invigilavit. 33 Leodii celebrem reddidit Slusium insignis ille liber, cui titulus, Mesolabum, cum parte altera de Analysi et Miscellaneis, A. 1661. 34 In Italia lucem vidit Reinaldini Geometra promotus, qui nunc magni fiat a doctis, necdum mihi constat. [Marginal note: V. in Ephemer[idibus] Venetis descriptionum libri, cui Titulus Analytica Mathematu[m] Caroli Rinaldini in Padoa 1671. In 3 Vol. in fol.] 35 In Gallia Tolosae nup[er] editus fuit Diophantus cum notis Fermati, et hujus Analyticae invento novo, ex varijs ipsius Epistolis a Billio Jesuita collecto, quóq[ue] complura Problemata Numeralia, ab alijs omissa, solvuntur. 36 Iste Billius edidit duo volumina Diophanti redivivi. 37 Hic in Anglia, quatuor circiter abhinc annis, Tua ipsius in Algebra[m] introductio, una cum plurimis Doctoris Pellii additionibus sermone Anglico in luce[m] prodiit: 38 Atq[ue] ex eo tempore lectio de Curvis ad Aequationes solvendas; ad finem Lectionum Geometricarum Dris Barrovii, 39 ut M Darii Miscellanea de Curvi-mensoria. 40 Id q[uo]d in Votis praecipue habemus, hoc est, invenire scil[icet] et publici Juris facere Methodum facilem, supremarum Aequationum radices per Logarithmos consequendi, qua in re cum laborasse utiliter D[omi]num Pellium noverimus, nec t[ame]n hactenus qua[m]qua[m] in lucem emisisse, visum fuit id ipsum tibi significare, tuaq[ue] de eo cogitata explorare. Rem optica[m] q[uo]d spectat, gaudemus, Te de Optica, Dioptrica et Catoptrica Tractatum absolvisse, cum annexa Dioptrica practica, morem (modium forte) et instrumenta limandis et poliendis necessaria exhibente. 41 Speramus, ejus Exemplaria brevi ad nos transvectum iri. Nota tibi haud dubie fuerint Dioptrica Mancini, 42 nec n[on] Problematum Opticorum Centuria Eschinardi 43 in Italia; ubi etiam prodijsse nuper accepimus Dioptricam Gottignei, Gregorii de S to Vincentio Discipuli, una cum Tractatu de Telescopiis et Microscopiis. 44 Adde synopsin opticam Honorati Fabri, ubi de Lente oculari ex duab[us] semi-lentibus, in centro convexitatum conjunctis, et extrinsecus utrinq[ue] planis, ceu Eustachii Divini invento praestantissimo, ab Authore primum, ut ipse vult, demonstrato, agit[ur]. 45 Accedit elegans P. Cherubini Dioptrica, in Galliis nup[er] edita, 46 cui hoc Elogium p[rae]hibet Regnaltius Lugdenensis, q[uo] d scil[icet] bellam huj[us] libri Editionem miret[ur], et doctrinam Authoris inibi traditam valde praebet, remq[ue] publicam literarium multum ipsi debere arbitret[ur]. 47 Hîc Londini prodiere Lectiones Barrovii Dioptricae, 48 quae magni fiunt. In Dania Erasmus Bartholinus Dissert[at]ione[m] edidit de Chrystallo Islandico Dis-diaclastico, 49 de quo multa ab ipso et curiose explorata et docte explicata sunt. Latere Te no[n] potest, quid gentilis vester, Doctissimus Johannes Ott, Heidelbergae nup[er] praestiterit, dum Cogita[ti]ones Physico-Mechanicas de Natura Visionis luci dedit. 50 De coetero, evulgarunt Itali Tractatum Physico-Mathematicum Rosetti; 51 Bened[icti] Castelli opera in unum Volumen collecta; 52 Baliani opuscula posthuma; 53 Borelli motiones naturales in Grauitate dependentes; 54 Montanari Exp[er]imenta de ascensu liquorum in tubulis, deq[ue] Bullulis vitreis in minutissimas partes, fracta extremitate, dissipantibus. 55 Mengoli opera Musica. 56 In Gallia prodierunt Blondellus de Resistentia Corporum Ellipticorum; 57 Milleti de [Cales deleted] Chales Euclides, 58 Moutonus de mensura Diametri Solis et Lunae; 59 Antonii Lalovera appendices polemicae contra Magnanum; 60 Honorati Fabri commentaria in Archimedem. 61 In Anglia vero, D r Wallisius in Motu et Libra; Idem de Calculo Centri Gravitatis;
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an unpublished letter from henry oldenburg to johann heinrich rahn

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