NAPIER, John (1550-1617). Rabdologiae, seu numerationis per virgulas libri duo . Edinburgh: Andrew Hart, 1617. First edition of the publication of the invention of Napier's Bones. Napier's most famous accomplishment was his invention of logarithms (first published in his Mirifici logarithmorum canonis description , 1614), which reduced complex mathematical operations to the simpler ones of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Seeking to ease his own difficulties in calculating logarithmic tables, and impatient with the tedious and error-prone process of working with large numbers, Napier devised several mechanical methods of simplifying and speeding up multiplication, the most famous being the rods known as 'Napier's bones,' each engraved with a table of multiples of a particular digit. He published an account of these in Book I of his Rabdologiae , the title of which Napier derived from the Greek rhabdos (rod); this section of Napier's work also contains the first printed reference to the decimal point . Book II 'offers forty-seven pages of tables, examples, and general problems demonstrating the utility of the rods in solving questions of geometry and mechanics' (Rider 1990, xii); Book III is an appendix on Napier's 'promptuary', a more elaborate calculating device consisting of engraved rods and strips; and Book IV, devoted to 'local arithmetic,' and contains one of the first explorations of binary arithmetic as a computation aid. Napier's promptuary has been called the first attempt at the invention of a calculating machine (Hawkins 1988). The only seventeenth-century example of the promptuary extant is preserved at Madrid's Museo Arqueologico; it is described in Tomash 1988. Dibner Heralds of Science 107; Norman 1574; Origins of Cyberspace 11. 12mo (133 x 76mm). 4 folding engraved tables, engraved and woodcut text diagrams (without final blank, as often). Contemporary blindstamped pigskin (possibly a remboitage, rebacked, preserving original spine, rubbed, the textblock trimmed post-blindstamp and edges dyed red), modern slipcase. Provenance : Dom-Gymnasium, Merseburg (library blindstamp on title).
NAPIER, John (1550-1617). Rabdologiae, seu numerationis per virgulas libri duo . Edinburgh: Andrew Hart, 1617. First edition of the publication of the invention of Napier's Bones. Napier's most famous accomplishment was his invention of logarithms (first published in his Mirifici logarithmorum canonis description , 1614), which reduced complex mathematical operations to the simpler ones of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Seeking to ease his own difficulties in calculating logarithmic tables, and impatient with the tedious and error-prone process of working with large numbers, Napier devised several mechanical methods of simplifying and speeding up multiplication, the most famous being the rods known as 'Napier's bones,' each engraved with a table of multiples of a particular digit. He published an account of these in Book I of his Rabdologiae , the title of which Napier derived from the Greek rhabdos (rod); this section of Napier's work also contains the first printed reference to the decimal point . Book II 'offers forty-seven pages of tables, examples, and general problems demonstrating the utility of the rods in solving questions of geometry and mechanics' (Rider 1990, xii); Book III is an appendix on Napier's 'promptuary', a more elaborate calculating device consisting of engraved rods and strips; and Book IV, devoted to 'local arithmetic,' and contains one of the first explorations of binary arithmetic as a computation aid. Napier's promptuary has been called the first attempt at the invention of a calculating machine (Hawkins 1988). The only seventeenth-century example of the promptuary extant is preserved at Madrid's Museo Arqueologico; it is described in Tomash 1988. Dibner Heralds of Science 107; Norman 1574; Origins of Cyberspace 11. 12mo (133 x 76mm). 4 folding engraved tables, engraved and woodcut text diagrams (without final blank, as often). Contemporary blindstamped pigskin (possibly a remboitage, rebacked, preserving original spine, rubbed, the textblock trimmed post-blindstamp and edges dyed red), modern slipcase. Provenance : Dom-Gymnasium, Merseburg (library blindstamp on title).
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