SINCLAIR, George.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

The Principles of Astronomy and Navigation: First edition, comprising three separately paginated texts, each with their own title page or drop-head title, but with a continuous register. The second work is titled "Proteus Bound with Chains", the third simply headed "Postscript. To Buoy up a ship, of any Burden, from the Ground of the Sea".The natural philosopher George Sinclair (d. 1696?) "described himself as from the Lothians and possessed property in Haddington, Haddingtonshire. He and his brother John were probably educated at the University of St Andrews... George Sinclair taught at St Andrews before moving to Glasgow in 1655, where he was admitted master and appointed professor of philosophy. In 1656 he gave 100 marks towards the building of Glasgow College, and lent a larger sum which was repaid with interest in 1659. During this time the marquess of Argyll obtained rights to the wreck of the Spanish vessel Florida, which had foundered in Tobermory Bay after the defeat of the Armada. Sinclair, 'almost the only cultivator of physics during this age' as Stevenson generously described him (Stevenson, xi), assisted when a diving bell was brought to the site, possibly by Archibald Millar of Greenock. Several pieces of ordnance were recovered before stormy weather ended the exercise. Sinclair subsequently devised his own diving bell and described its use in a stylized classical debate in his Ars nova et magna gravitatis et levitatis (1669, pp. 220-44)" (ODNB). Sinclair publi

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