{"id":839,"date":"2020-03-24T14:37:48","date_gmt":"2020-03-24T14:37:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/archiveblog.westminster.org.uk\/?p=839"},"modified":"2021-01-21T16:12:46","modified_gmt":"2021-01-21T16:12:46","slug":"robert-hookes-euclid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/archiveblog.westminster.org.uk\/?p=839","title":{"rendered":"Robert Hooke\u2019s Euclid?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018He went to Mr. Busby\u2019s, the schoolemaster of Westminster, at whose howse he was; and he made very much of him\u2026There he learnd to\u00a0play 20 lessons on the organ. He there in one weeke\u2019s time made himselfe master of the first\u00a0VI\u00a0bookes of\u00a0Euclid, to the admiration of Mr. Busby (now S.T.D.), who introduced him\u2019<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Biography of Robert Hooke, John Aubrey\u2019s\u00a0Brief Lives<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Dr Richard Busby (1606-1695)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dr Richard Busby (1606-1695), Head Master of Westminster School 1638-1695, and his pupil Robert Hooke (1635-1703) both deserve greater notoriety than they currently enjoy.\u00a0 Busby remained a household name until fading from the public consciousness in the 20th<\/sup> Century.\u00a0 His fame was due to his great stature as a pedagogue: other pupils of his include John Locke, Christopher Wren and John Dryden; and to the strict discipline he enforced \u2013 Busby once boasted of having birched sixteen of the bishops on the bench in the House of Lords. Hooke\u2019s reputation has been on the rise, thanks in part to Lisa Jardine\u2019s biography<\/a>, published to mark his tercentenary. However, his contemporary and friend, Wren, with whom he collaborated on so many projects following the fire of London, still eclipses him.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t help that there is no surviving picture of Hooke, although the popular story, that Isaac Newton destroyed the sole portrait as an act of revenge, is unlikely to be true<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The school is fortunate to hold a substantial number of rare books, the bulk of which were accumulated by Dr Busby during his Head Mastership.\u00a0 A library for the pupils had been established by donations from Mildred and William Cecil in the 16th Century.\u00a0 Busby, a keen bibliophile, developed the collection.\u00a0 In 1648, the year before Hooke started at Westminster, the school reacquired a space to the south of the main schoolroom to use as a library.[1]<\/a>\u00a0 It was a room which Busby let selected pupils use for private study, and it may well have been where Hooke learnt his Euclid, for a contemporary remarked that he \u2018seldome sawe him in the schoole<\/a>\u2019.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Title page to the Arabic edition of Euclid\u2019s Elements with a manuscript Latin translation below<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Today nineteen editions of Euclid\u2019s work remain in the school\u2019s collection, dating from 1533 until 1678.\u00a0 Could one of these have been the copy that Hooke pored over?\u00a0 We can discount those published after 1654, at which point Hooke had certainly left the school for Oxford, which takes us down to twelve contenders. A further five volumes which are listed in the manuscript library catalogue of the mathematician John Pell (1611-1685) can also be eliminated.\u00a0 These books were purchased by Dr Busby in 1687, following Pell\u2019s death, too late for Hooke to have made use of them.\u00a0 Pell\u2019s books are often easy to spot in the library; his preferred binding style in velum, now often adorned with a green spine label, is distinctive.\u00a0 He was also an attentive, pedantic, reader and regularly annotated and corrected his books.<\/p>\n

So what of the remaining seven works in the library? It is improbable that Hooke used the Arabic edition in Busby\u2019s Library which was printed in Rome in 1594.\u00a0 Dr Busby did teach pupils at the school Arabic during his time as Head Master \u00a0– John Evelyn records that he \u2018heard and saw such exercises at the election of scholars at Westminster School to be sent to the University in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic, in themes and extemporary verses, as wonderfully astonished me in such youths, with such readiness and wit, some of them not above twelve or thirteen years of age.\u2019\u00a0 However, Michael Hunter has suggested that it is unlikely that Hooke had much knowledge of the language, and there were certainly no examples of Arabic books amongst Hooke\u2019s own library when it was sold following his death.[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

Bound as one whole are the three tracts concerning Euclidean geometry edited by Conrad Dasypodius (Rauchfuss), printed in Strasburg in 1564.\u00a0 Dasypodius only included the first two books in full and the third tract contains the \u2018enuciations\u2019 of the Euclid\u2019s books III-XIII.\u00a0 In a later edition he explained that he added the enuciations as he did not wish to leave the book unfinished, but that including Euclid\u2019s full work would make the book unwieldy for students.\u00a0 Therefore, if we believe that Hooke fully mastered the first six books we must discount this particular translation.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Ornate foliage floats around the diagrams in this 1627 edition<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Our earliest Euclid dates from 1533: Simon Gryneaus\u2019 edition published in Basel.\u00a0 This was the first edition of the Greek text and was based on several rather poor manuscript copies. Hooke might have used this volume, but the binding is very ornate and I wonder if Dr Busby might have held this fine copy in reserve.<\/p>\n

A stronger contender is Henry Briggs\u2019 1620 edition.\u00a0 It is a pleasing folio volume with the first six books in Greek with Latin translation, based on Frederico Commandino\u2019s translation from the Greek.<\/p>\n

Dr Busby owned a 1627 copy of the German mathematician, Christopher Clavius\u2019, edition. Clavius did not produce an original translation, but compiled copious notes from previous editors and added his own comments.\u00a0 It was a popular version, first printed in 1574, but with new editions every decade until the mid 17th<\/sup> Century. This version has rather distracting flowers and leaves pointlessly ornamenting the diagrams. Another German edition, this time printed in Wittenberg in 1634, was produced by the mathematician Ambrosius Rhode. This may also have made an unappealing study, as it is a small book with dense type.<\/p>\n

Whilst Hooke might have already mastered Euclid after two years at the school, a tempting book to study would have been Thomas Rudd\u2019s edition, printed in London in 1651. This work, unlike the others listed, was an English translation and had the benefit of an additional mathematical preface by John Dee.<\/p>\n

Of course, Hooke may have studied any one of these five works, or indeed, a combination of the texts. Perhaps one of the most interesting point to take away from this exercise is the popularity of Euclid\u2019s work and the range of translations and editions available to pupils at the school.<\/p>\n

Hooke and Busby collaborated on a number of building projects in later life, including the \u2018beautyfieing of the School & College\u2019.\u00a0 Hooke appears to have acted as the architect and overseer for the redesign of the room Dr Busby called his \u2018Museum\u2019, which we now know as the Busby Library.[3]<\/a> The space was badly damaged by an incendiary bomb in 1940, but has been reconstructed as a faithful replica, based on drawings and photographs in the school\u2019s archive. The majority of Busby\u2019s library survived the blast as the bulk of his collection was evacuated to Christ Church, Oxford, his former college. It is pleasing to think of Hooke employing his Euclidean geometry to construct this beautiful space as a legacy for his former Head Master and a gift to generations of future pupils.<\/p>\n

Written by Elizabeth Wells, Archivist, for the Reading Euclid project and first printed in The Camden Magazine, 2018<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/a>[1]<\/a> Smith, Eddie, \u201cWestminster School Buildings, 1630\u20131730\u201d in Westminster: The Art, Architecture and Archaeology of the Royal Abbey and Palace <\/em>(British Archaeological Association: 2015) pp. 381-2<\/p>\n

<\/a>[2]<\/a> Hunter, Michael, Robert Hooke: Tercentennial Studies (Routledge: 2006) p. 14<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Smith, Eddie, \u201cWestminster School Buildings, 1630\u20131730\u201d in Westminster: The Art, Architecture and Archaeology of the Royal Abbey and Palace <\/em>(British Archaeological Association: 2015) p. 382<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Busby Library c. 1840<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018He went to Mr. Busby\u2019s, the schoolemaster of Westminster, at whose howse he was; and he made very much of him\u2026There he learnd to\u00a0play 20 lessons on the organ. He there in one weeke\u2019s time made himselfe master of the first\u00a0VI\u00a0bookes of\u00a0Euclid, to the admiration of Mr. Busby (now S.T.D.), who introduced him\u2019 Biography of Robert Hooke, John Aubrey\u2019s\u00a0Brief Lives. Dr Richard Busby (1606-1695), Head Master of Westminster School 1638-1695, and his pupil Robert Hooke (1635-1703) both deserve greater notoriety than they currently enjoy.\u00a0 Busby remained a household name until fading from the public consciousness in the 20th Century.\u00a0 His fame was due to his great stature as a pedagogue: other pupils of his include John Locke, Christopher Wren and John Dryden; and to the strict discipline he enforced \u2013 Busby once boasted of having birched sixteen of the bishops on the bench in the House of Lords. Hooke\u2019s reputation has been on the rise, thanks in part to Lisa Jardine\u2019s biography, published to mark his tercentenary. However, his contemporary and friend, Wren, with whom he collaborated on so many projects following the fire of London, still eclipses him.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t help that there is no surviving picture of Hooke, although the popular story, that Isaac Newton destroyed the sole portrait as an act of revenge, is unlikely to be true. The school is fortunate to hold a substantial number of rare books, the bulk of which were accumulated by Dr Busby during his Head Mastership.\u00a0 A library for the pupils had been established by donations from Mildred and William Cecil in the 16th Century.\u00a0 Busby, a keen bibliophile, developed the collection.\u00a0 In 1648, the year before Hooke started at Westminster, the school reacquired a space to the south of the main schoolroom to use as a library.[1]\u00a0 It was a room which Busby let selected pupils use for private study, and it may well have been where Hooke learnt his Euclid, for a contemporary remarked that he \u2018seldome sawe him in the schoole\u2019. Today nineteen editions of Euclid\u2019s work remain in the school\u2019s collection, dating from 1533 until 1678.\u00a0 Could one of these have been the copy that Hooke pored over?\u00a0 We can discount those published after 1654, at which point Hooke had certainly left the school for Oxford, which takes us down to twelve contenders. A further five volumes which are listed in the manuscript library catalogue of the mathematician John Pell (1611-1685) can also be eliminated.\u00a0 These books were purchased by Dr Busby in 1687, following Pell\u2019s death, too late for Hooke to have made use of them.\u00a0 Pell\u2019s books are often easy to spot in the library; his preferred binding style in velum, now often adorned with a green spine label, is distinctive.\u00a0 He was also an attentive, pedantic, reader and regularly annotated and corrected his books. So what of the remaining seven works in the library? It is improbable that Hooke used the Arabic edition in Busby\u2019s Library which was printed in Rome in 1594.\u00a0 Dr Busby did teach pupils at the school Arabic during his time as Head Master \u00a0– John Evelyn records that he \u2018heard and saw such exercises at the election of scholars at Westminster School to be sent to the University in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic, in themes and extemporary verses, as wonderfully astonished me in such youths, with such readiness and wit, some of them not above twelve or thirteen years of age.\u2019\u00a0 However, Michael Hunter has suggested that it is unlikely that Hooke had much knowledge of the language, and there were certainly no examples of Arabic books amongst Hooke\u2019s own library when it was sold following his death.[2] Bound as one whole are the three tracts concerning Euclidean geometry edited by Conrad Dasypodius (Rauchfuss), printed in Strasburg in 1564.\u00a0 Dasypodius only included the first two books in full and the third tract contains the \u2018enuciations\u2019 of the Euclid\u2019s books III-XIII.\u00a0 In a later edition he explained that he added the enuciations as he did not wish to leave the book unfinished, but that including Euclid\u2019s full work would make the book unwieldy for students.\u00a0 Therefore, if we believe that Hooke fully mastered the first six books we must discount this particular translation. Our earliest Euclid dates from 1533: Simon Gryneaus\u2019 edition published in Basel.\u00a0 This was the first edition of the Greek text and was based on several rather poor manuscript copies. Hooke might have used this volume, but the binding is very ornate and I wonder if Dr Busby might have held this fine copy in reserve. A stronger contender is Henry Briggs\u2019 1620 edition.\u00a0 It is a pleasing folio volume with the first six books in Greek with Latin translation, based on Frederico Commandino\u2019s translation from the Greek. Dr Busby owned a 1627 copy of the German mathematician, Christopher Clavius\u2019, edition. Clavius did not produce an original translation, but compiled copious notes from previous editors and added his own comments.\u00a0 It was a popular version, first printed in 1574, but with new editions every decade until the mid 17th Century. This version has rather distracting flowers and leaves pointlessly ornamenting the diagrams. Another German edition, this time printed in Wittenberg in 1634, was produced by the mathematician Ambrosius Rhode. This may also have made an unappealing study, as it is a small book with dense type. Whilst Hooke might have already mastered Euclid after two years at the school, a tempting book to study would have been Thomas Rudd\u2019s edition, printed in London in 1651. This work, unlike the others listed, was an English translation and had the benefit of an additional mathematical preface by John Dee. Of course, Hooke may have studied any one of these five works, or indeed, a combination of the texts. Perhaps one of the most interesting point to take away from this exercise is the popularity of Euclid\u2019s work and the range of translations and editions available to pupils at the school. Hooke and Busby collaborated on a number of building projects in later life, including the \u2018beautyfieing of the School & College\u2019.\u00a0 Hooke appears to have acted as the architect and overseer for the redesign of the room Dr Busby called his \u2018Museum\u2019, which we now know as the Busby Library.[3] The space was badly damaged by an incendiary bomb in 1940, but has been reconstructed as a faithful replica, based on drawings and photographs in the school\u2019s archive. The majority of Busby\u2019s library survived the blast as the bulk of his collection was evacuated to Christ Church, Oxford, his former college. It is pleasing to think of Hooke employing his Euclidean geometry to construct this beautiful space as a legacy for his former Head Master and a gift to generations of future pupils. Written by Elizabeth Wells, Archivist, for the Reading Euclid project and first printed in The Camden Magazine, 2018 [1] Smith, Eddie, \u201cWestminster School Buildings, 1630\u20131730\u201d in Westminster: The Art, Architecture and Archaeology of the Royal Abbey and Palace (British Archaeological Association: 2015) pp. 381-2 [2] Hunter, Michael, Robert Hooke: Tercentennial Studies (Routledge: 2006) p. 14 [3] Smith, Eddie, \u201cWestminster School Buildings, 1630\u20131730\u201d in Westminster: The Art, Architecture and Archaeology of the Royal Abbey and Palace (British Archaeological Association: 2015) p. 382    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":858,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[148,15,147,149,146],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/archiveblog.westminster.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/archiveblog.westminster.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/archiveblog.westminster.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archiveblog.westminster.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archiveblog.westminster.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=839"}],"version-history":[{"count":51,"href":"http:\/\/archiveblog.westminster.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":988,"href":"http:\/\/archiveblog.westminster.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839\/revisions\/988"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archiveblog.westminster.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/archiveblog.westminster.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archiveblog.westminster.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archiveblog.westminster.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}