Clark Library

Science & Mathematics

Patrich Murdoch. Nouvelles tables loxodromiques, ou application de la théorie de la veritable figure de la terre. Paris: 1742.

By good luck, the Clark was able to buy both the original English version (below) and the French translation (left) of Patrick Murdoch’s only published book. Murdoch was a devoted Newtonian, and planned a complete edition of Newton’s works, until old age forced him to abandon the project. He was a good friend of the poet James Thomson, who called him (in a poem) “a little, round, fat, oily man of God.” (With friends like that…..). *QB283.M97F

Patrich Murdoch. Mercator’s Sailing, Applied to the True Figure of the Earth. London: 1741. *QB283.M97.

Pietro Cossali. Origine, trasporto in Italia, primi progressi in essa dell’algebra. Parma: 1797.

Cossali taught scientific subjects first at the University of Parma, and subsequently at the University of Padua. This still useful history of algebra was printed by the great Italian printer, Giambattista Bodoni, whose name is still remembered in a type style. (*QA35.C83).