NAPIER, John.

by John Napier

£4,500 · Offered by Sokol Books

Rare first edition of John Napier s major theological treatise, the work he considered his most important: The Plaine Discovery is an important text for anyone with an interest in Napier and his works because it explains the faith that governed his intellectual, public, and private lives. His hopes and fears, and those of his audiences, were reflected in the book, and the first shoots of his interest in mathematics that blossomed two decades later in the logarithms may be seen Alexander Corrigan, The Life and Works of John Napier. It was his writing on a non mathematical subject that first brought Napier to public notice in this book criticising Catholicism. In 16th Century terms, and in post Reformation Scotland, the book proved to be a best seller and was translated into a number of other languages. Although the title-page is dated 1593, Napier s Episle Dedicatorie is dated the 29. Daye of Ianuar. 1593 i.e. 1594, as Scotland adopted 1 January as New Years Day in 1600. Napier s life, personality, worldview and mathematical achievements cannot be understood fully unless one understands something of this, his first published work. In the early modern period, Christianity provided people in Europe and the British Isles with a framework for understanding oneself, the rest of humanity, the universe, and everything in it. The Plaine Discovery is an important text for anyone with an interest in Napier and his works because it explains the faith that governed his intellectual, publi

• Binding: Hardcover

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