Table Of ContentTHE CORRESPONDENCE OF
JOHN FLAMSTEED,
THE FIRST ASTRONOMER ROYAL
Frontispiece 1. Portrait of John Flamsteed by Thomas Gibson, painted in November
1712. Reproduced by permission of the President and Council of the Royal Society.
Frontispiece 2. Flamsteed’s draft of Letter 1505,18 June 1719 (RGO 1/36, f. 991).
Because of the deterioration of his handwriting, this, like most other letters written
in the last few years of his life, was copied by an amanuensis before being sent. It
is reproduced here by permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library
and the Director of PPARC.
THE CORRESPONDENCE OF
JOHN FLAMSTEED,
THE FIRST ASTRONOMER ROYAL
VOLUME THREE
1703-1719
COMPILED AND EDITED BY ERIC G. FORBES,
AND (FOR MARIA FORBES)
BY
LESLEY MURDIŅ AND
FRANCES WILLMOTH
Boca Raton London New York
CRC Press is an imprint of the
Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Firstpublished2002byIOPPublishingLtd
Published2018byCRCPress
Taylor&FrancisGroup
6000BrokenSoundParkwayNW,Suite300
BocaRaton,FL33487-2742
©2002byTaylor&FrancisGroup,LLC
CRCPressisanimprintofTaylor&FrancisGroup,anInformabusiness
NoclaimtooriginalU.S.Governmentworks
ISBN-13:978-0-7503-0763-5(hbk)
Thisbookcontainsinformationobtainedfromauthenticandhighlyregardedsources.Reasonableeffortshavebeenmade
topublishreliabledataandinformation,buttheauthorandpublishercannotassumeresponsibilityforthevalidityofall
materialsortheconsequencesoftheiruse.Theauthorsandpublishershaveattemptedtotracethecopyrightholdersofall
materialreproducedinthispublicationandapologizetocopyrightholdersifpermissiontopublishinthisformhasnot
beenobtained.Ifanycopyrightmaterialhasnotbeenacknowledgedpleasewriteandletusknowsowemayrectifyin
anyfuturereprint.
ExceptaspermittedunderU.S.CopyrightLaw,nopartofthisbookmaybereprinted,reproduced,transmitted,orutilized
inanyformbyanyelectronic,mechanical,orothermeans,nowknownorhereafterinvented,includingphotocopying,
microfihning, and recording, orinany information storage orretrieval system, without writtenpermissionfrom the
publishers.
For permission to photocopy or use material electronically from this work, please access www. copyright.com
(http://www.copyright.com/)orcontacttheCopyrightClearanceCenter,Inc.(CCC),222RosewoodDrive,Danvers,MA
01923,978-750-8400.CCCisanot-for-profitorganizationthatprovideslicensesandregistrationforavarietyofusers.
Fororganizations thathave been granted aphotocopylicense bythe CCC, aseparate systemofpaymenthas been
arranged.
Trademark Notice: Productorcorporatenames maybetrademarks orregisteredtrademarks, andareusedonlyfor
identificationandexplanationwithoutintenttoinfringe.
VISit the Taylor & Francis Web site at
http://www.taylorandfrancis.com
and the CRC Press Web site at
http://www.crcpress.com
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Acataloguerecord for thisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data are available
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
List of Letters xi
Abbreviated References xxxix
Glossary of Astronomical and other Technical Terms xli
List of Symbols xlv
Introduction xlvii
Letters 901-1515 1
Appendix - Official Documents 927
Addenda to previous volumes 943
Biographical Notes 949
Index 975
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
For details of this project’s history and the many people who have assisted its progress, see the
Preface and Acknowledgments in volume one. Work on the present volume has been supported
by grants from the British Academy and the Isaac Newton Trust, and its publication has been
assisted by a grant from the Scouloudi Foundation in association with the Institute of Historical
Research. I am very grateful for this support, and to Professor Nick lardine of the Department
of History and Philosophy of Science, Cambridge, and the Departmental Administrator Tamara
Hug, for administering the money. The project has continued to be housed by Cambridge Uni
versity Library, despite increasing limitations on office space there; the Library management’s
forbearance has enabled this volume to be completed without too much disruption. I also thank
the Master and Fellows of Jesus College, Cambridge, both for their contribution towards the pro
ject’s running expenses and for their generous tolerance as employers.
On the intellectual side, I am indebted to many colleagues at Cambridge University Library for
their advice and help: to the staff of the Department of Manuscripts in general and especially to
Adam Perkins, RGO Archivist, for facilitating access to documents and discussing queries; to
Valerie Hall for French translation, John Hall for Greek, and Elisabeth Leedham-Green for un
ravelling palaeographical puzzles; and to the staff of the Darwin letters project for friendly en
couragement. The project has benefited over many years from the assistance of staff at other
institutions holding Flamsteed material (as listed in the next paragraph), especially those of the
Royal Society’s Library. I am also grateful to Irene Hughes for her accurate wordprocessing of
texts for the present volume, to Margaret Farrar for helping with the checking of transcriptions
and with some of the final editorial tasks, and above all to Rosemary Yallop for voluntarily
checking and proof-reading a formidable pile of printout. Janet Dudley has compiled the index,
and is preparing a cumulative index of all three volumes (incorporating a reindexing of volume
one), which will be available in electronic form through IOP’s website (at flamsteed.iop.org).
Finally, on behalf of everyone who has devoted time and effort to the project, I would like to
thank Jim Revill and his staff at IOP for their continuing commitment to its completion.
We are grateful for permission to reproduce documents in the possession of (in order of their
appearance): the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (in respect of the Royal
Greenwich Observatory Archives, at Cambridge University Library); the President and Council
of the Royal Society; the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford; Saltykov-Skchedrin State
Public Library, St Petersburg; the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth; a private owner; the
Royal Astronomical Society; the Syndics of Cambridge University Library; the Master and Fel
lows of St John’s College, Cambridge; the Public Record Office; the Öffentliche Bibliothek der
Universität Basel; the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge; the British Astronomi
cal Association; Columbia University Libraries, New York; the National Library of Scotland,
Edinburgh; and the Biblioteca Universaria, Pisa.
Finally, on a more personal note, I should like to thank Mr Derek Finnis of Salisbury District
Hospital, and Mr Robin Crawford and Dr Helena Earl, both of Addenbrookes Hospital, Cam
bridge, with their colleagues and staff, whose timely and skilful interventions have ensured my
survival to complete this final volume. I owe an even greater than usual debt of gratitude to my
family and friends for their support during this alarming episode.
