Re: [HM] Burning Mathematicians

Roger Cooke (cooke@emba.uvm.edu)
Thu, 05 Nov 1998 14:47:05 -0500

At 05:41 AM 11/5/98 -0500, you wrote:
> I am interested in tracking lines of thought that are _very very
>hard_ on mathematics and mathematicians. There is for example the
>well-known longish essay by the 19th Century Scottish philosopher
>William Hamilton arguing that mathematics should altogether be kept out
>of the University. I am aware of the late medieval "Humanist"
>literature inveighing against mathematics (Petrarch, etc.).
> Some years ago when I was studying up on John Dee, a came upon
>some studies of the burning of mathematics texts (and mathematicians?)
>in Cambridge in the 16th century, did not follow up on them at the time
>and cannot locate this material now. Does anyone know the when, why,
>and how of this?

In 1764 David-Louis Constant d'Hermenches wrote to Belle de Zuylen (the
future Isabelle de Charriere), "I beg you. Don't study mathematics. It
shrinks the imagination. It dessicates the mind. These proofs come at the
expense of feeling. One must believe, and taste, and feel, without proof."
>
>Ft.nt.: In looking up John Dee's preface to the first English
>"translation" of Euclid (the Billingsly edition, if memory serves?), I
>chanced upon a copy in the Beinecke Library at Yale. If HMers have not
>seen this work and have access to a copy, a strongly recommend looking
>at it. It is an amazingly beautiful work, and more an elaboration than
>a translation of the Euclid we know. What is especially wonmderful and
>surprising is that it contains "pop'out" (3-D) constructions!
>
>Sincerely,
>Robert Tragesser
>West(Running)Brook, Connecticut USA
>