Correspondence of John Wallis (1616-1703) October 1668-1671: Volume III

665 Pages·2012·4.603 MB·English

by  Philip Beeley, Christoph J. Scriba

John Wallis c.1668
Engraving after W. Fairthorne by Giovanni Battista Cipriani (1727–85)
In Memoriam
Adolf Prag
(1906–2004)
The Correspondence of
John Wallis
Volume III
(October 1668–1671)
Editors
philip beeley
christoph j. scriba
1
3
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PREFACE
The period covered by this third volume of The Correspondence of John
Wallis (1616–1703) was one of remarkable political stability and economic
prosperity.Toanunprecedenteddegree,Englandwasatpeacewithitselfand
with its neighbours. Scientific activity alsoprosperedwith the Royal Society
and especially its industrious secretary Henry Oldenburg at the core. The
institutional role of the Royal Society reflected London’s increasing impor-
tance as a centre of intellectual and material commerce, of coffee houses and
meeting places, of trade and shipping, of government and court, of finance,
and of a postal service spreading out like so many arteries to the provinces.
TheOxford–Londonaxisisofcentralimportancetothepresentvolume.
Oldenburg regularly sent Wallis news of the weekly meetings of the Royal
Society in London, to which Wallis replied as a matter of course. Through
the medium of correspondence, the Savilian professor was a key participant
in Royal Society debates such as those on the laws of motion or the theory
of tides. With ordinary post between the English capital and the university
city usually requiring at most one day, Wallis was able to make his presence
felt, even when not in London.
The very nature of intellectual commerce and scientific debates con-
ductedoverdistanceposesdifficultieswhencompilinganeditionsuchasthis.
Many letters sent to Oldenburg by his correspondents around the country
andabroadwereactuallyintendedforWallis,eveniftheywerenotaddressed
to him. Such letters are of course included in the present volume together
with letters between third parties which throw light on Wallis letters which
cannot be gained from elsewhere. In this way, the editors seek to provide
as complete a picture as possible of Wallis’s intellectual activity during the
period concerned.
The volume contains a total of 254 existent or identified letters exchan-
ged between Wallis and thirty-two correspondents in England, Scotland,
Ireland, France, Italy, Poland, the Dutch Republic, and the Spanish Nether-
lands. More than thirty-five of these letters have never appeared in print
before, while many of the others have only been published in part or are to
be found in publications which are either rare or not widely accessible. Only
v
a very few of the letters have previously appeared in the form of a critical
edition.
Much of the work on the volume has been generously funded by the
Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), and was carried out in the
framework of the Oxford-based project on John Wallis entitled ‘Harmony
and Controversy in Seventeenth-Century Thought’ between 2007 and 2010.
TheeditorswouldliketothanktheAHRCforitsgeneroussupportthrough-
out the duration of that project. Since September 2010 the edition of the
correspondence of John Wallis has become an integral part of the Cultures
of Knowledge project—a collaboration between the Bodleian Libraries and
the Humanities Division of the University of Oxford funded by The Andrew
W.MellonFoundation. TheeditorsaredeeplyindebtedtotheMellonFoun-
dation and to the Director of the Cultures of Knowledge project, Howard
Hotson, for enabling this transfer to take place and for providing necessary
financial support for the conclusion of this volume.
The editors would like to express their gratitude also to David Cram
for his enthusiasm and assistance in bringing the edition to Oxford, and to
the Faculty of Linguistics, Philology, and Phonetics for accommodating it
before its move to the Faculty of History.
The excellent facilities of the Oxford Faculty of History, and the con-
genial and frequently inspirational environment provided by friends and
colleagues in the Cultures of Knowledge project have enabled this volume
to be brought to a rapid conclusion under near-ideal conditions. For the
wonderful support given to them, the editors should like to thank James
Brown, Miranda Lewis, Kim McLean-Fiander, Leigh Penman, Anna Marie
Roos, and Helen Watts. Howard Hotson has been a tower of strength in all
respects, and is to be especially thanked. Without James Brown’s steady
hand in coordinating and organizing matters and his ready willingness to
find solutions to problems at short notice, work on the volume would not
have moved so smoothly. The editors are extremely grateful to him for his
steadfast efforts.
One of the joys of working on a major correspondence edition is the
scholarly collaboration such work engenders. Such assistance can take many
forms, ranging from information on previously unknown manuscripts or
printed versions of letters to willingness to read edited material and sug-
gest ways in which improvements might be made. The editors are extremely
conscious of the help given to them in the course of their work and take
greatpleasureinacknowledgingthis.Specifically,theyshouldliketoexpress
their gratitude to Michael Hunter, Noel Malcolm, Per Landgren, Kate Ben-
nett, Robert Hatch, Kelsey Jackson Williams, Alexander H¨aussler, Kate-
vi
rina Oikonomopoulou, Jason Rampelt, Richard Sharpe, William Poole, and
Charles Webster.
Editorial assistance during 2008 was provided by Ellie Stedall. The
careful way in which she made transcriptions from manuscripts and the
energy she brought to the project were sorely missed after her departure for
Cambridge.
Invaluable advice on transcriptions has been generously provided by
Jutta Heinle. The patience with which she has followed the conclusion of
the volume is more deeply appreciated than she can know.
The Vogel Foundation kindly provided financial support for the edi-
tors in order for them to obtain digital images of Wallis material formerly
contained in the Macclesfield Collection and now housed in Cambridge Uni-
versity Library. The editors are extremely grateful to Menso Folkerts for his
help and advice in this regard.
The editors would like to express two special debts of heartfelt grat-
itude. They are indebted to Jackie Stedall, who has provided invaluable
support, advice, and encouragement throughout the course of work on the
volume. She has also kindly enabled work on the edition to be presented to
colleaguesinOxfordonanumberofoccasions.Theeditorsarealsoindebted
to Pietro Corsi, who has been a constant source of sound advice and moral
support since the edition arrived in Oxford. His tireless work as head of the
steering committee of the AHRC project has been particularly appreciated.
Initial transcriptions of a substantial number of letters were made by
Uwe Mayer. The editors are grateful to him for his lasting and conscientious
inputintotheedition.SiegmundProbsthascontinuedtosharegenerouslyin
his knowledge, and has been constantly willing to provide assistance wher-
ever he can.
The editors’ greatest debt is to Kim McLean-Fiander, who has taken
time off preparing the Calendar of the Correspondence of John Wallis in
order to proof-read and check a substantial part of the book manuscript.
Not a few of her suggestions have found their way into the commentaries
of the letters. At the same time her industry and care in preparing the
Calendar, for which they are immensely grateful, will ensure that future
work on the edition will be considerably facilitated.
Staff at numerous libraries and archives have provided often invaluable
help in preparing the present volume. The editors should like to express
theirparticulargratitudetoAdamPerkinsofCambridgeUniversityLibrary,
Rupert Baker and Keith Moore of the Library of the Royal Society, Frances
Harris of the British Library, and O¨stlund Krister of the Universitetsbib-
liotek, Uppsala. Once again, the editors are especially indebted to Simon
vii
Bailey, the Keeper of the Archives of the University of Oxford, not only for
pointing them in the direction of new material but also for ready support
on details of University history.
The editors are grateful to the following persons and institutions for
granting permission to publish copyright material held in their possession:
The Syndics of Cambridge University Library; the Librarian of the
Bibliotheek der Rijksuniversiteit, Leiden; the British Library Board; the
Librarian of the Bodleian Library, Oxford; the Keeper of the Archives, Uni-
versity of Oxford; the Director of the Biblioth`eque Nationale de France; the
Royal Society; the Director of the Biblioth`eque de l’Observatoire, Paris; the
NationalArchives,Kew;theLibrarianoftheUniversitetsbibliotek,Uppsala;
the Director of the Biblioteca Nazionale, Florence.
Finally,theeditorsshouldliketothankeditorialstaffatOxfordUniver-
sityPress,especiallyKeithMansfield,ElizabethHannon,and,morerecently,
Clare Charles, for their continued help in realizing the edition, their care in
proof reading, and their patience in the light of often considerable delays in
the submission of material.
Philip Beeley
Christoph J. Scriba
Oxford and Hamburg, September 2011
viii
CONTENTS
Introduction xvii
Correspondence and conflict with Hobbes . . . . . . . . . . . . . xviii
Wallis as mediator between Gregory and Huygens . . . . . . . . xix
Debate on the laws of motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xx
Debate on the theory of tides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xx
Correspondence with Dulaurens, Huygens, and Hevelius . . . . . xxi
Correspondence with Bertet and Sluse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxii
The heritage of Pierre de Fermat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxiv
Correspondence with Borelli . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxiv
Leibniz and the Royal Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxv
Publication of Wallis’s Mechanica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxv
Scientific papers of Horrox and Merry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxvii
The ceremonial opening of the Sheldonian Theatre . . . . . . . . xxviii
Foreign visitors to Oxford . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxviii
Cryptanalysis and the fate of Clarendon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxix
Editorial principles and abbreviations xxxi
Correspondence 1
1. Wallis to Oldenburg, 6/[16] October 1668 . . . . . . . . . . 1
2. Gott to Wallis, 19/[29] October 1668 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3. Wallis: A Conjecture on Mr Gott’s Proposal of an
Artificiall Spring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4. Wallis to Brouncker, 22 October/[1 November] 1668 . . . 6
5. Wallis to Gregory, 22 October/[1 November] 1668 . . . . . 6
6. Collins to Pell, 23 October/[2 November] 1668 . . . . . . . 7
7. Collins to Wallis, 26 October/[5 November] 1668 . . . . . . 10
8. Gregory to Wallis, 26 October/[5 November] 1668 . . . . . 10
9. Wallis to Hevelius, 26 October/[5 November] 1668 . . . . . 13
10. Pell to Collins, 28 October/[7 November] 1668 . . . . . . 15
11. Dulaurens to Oldenburg, October? 1668 . . . . . . . . . 18
ix