H O V E R N O T E S

F O R C A L L I N G P A G E

#1 (of 4)

“a handful of boys” — Yearly attendance for the King’s Foundation of Christ’s Hospital was capped at only 40 boys. ::

#2 (of 4)

“him” — That is, John Flamsteed (1646–1719), the first Astronomer Royal, whom Pepys had asked for his opinion concerning the educational standards and proper direction for Christ Church Hospital Mathematical-School for Boys. ::

#3 (of 4)

“his little tract on navigation” — That is, William Oughtred’s Additament for Navigation, or An Addition unto the Use of ... the Circles of Proportion, for the Working of Nauticall Questions (1633). Oughtred (bap. 1575, d. 1660), who benefitted from the patronage of Thomas Howard, second earl of Arundel (1586–1646), beginning about 1628, was well-connected to the mathematical community in London, including the best instrument-makers of the day, such as Elias Allen (fl. 1606–1654), whose apprentice, the former seaman Christopher Brookes (fl. 1649–1651), married one of Oughtred’s daughters, and edited some of Oughtred’s notes for publication as The Solution of all Spherical Triangles by the Planisphere (1651), sold along with Brookes’ own redesign of the planisphere Oughtred had designed and inscribed 40 years earlier.
Oughtred invented trigonometrical abbreviations and introduced the multiplication and proportion signs, and his popular algebra, Arithmeticae in numeris et speciebus institutio: quae … totius mathematicae quasi clavis est (1631), originally written as a textbook for Arundel’s son, William Howard (1612–1680), later Viscount Stafford, established his reputation. Oughtred was described by the famous astrologer, William Lilly, as “A person of such honour, integrity, and rare learning in the mathematics that he is not at this time to be paralleled in Europe.” In Pepys’ day, Oughtred enjoyed a unique status among eminent contemporary mathematicians and scholars, many of whom — including Seth Ward, Christopher Wren, Laurence Rooke, and Jonas Moore — had been his pupils and/or disciples. ::

#4 (of 4)

“Jonas Moore’s compendium” — That is, Sir Jonas Moore’s two-volume A New Systeme of the Mathematicks: containing I. Arithmetick ... II. Practical Geometry ... III. Trigonometry ... IV. Cosmography ... V. Navigation ... VI. the Doctrine of the Sphere ... VII. Astronomical Tables ... VIII. A New Geography ... Designed for the Use of the Royal Foundation of the Mathematical School in Christ-Hospital, posthumously published in 1681. The work featured handsomely-engraved diagrams, maps and illustrations, along with complete nautical, trigonometrical and logarithmic tables, besides a table of proportional parts, and was printed by a woman, Anne Godbid, with her partner, John Playford. ::