Cosmological Teaching in the Seventeenth-Century Scottish Universities,Part 1

Edinburgh, from 1620 onwards, was entitled to nominate the senior regent as Professor of Mathematics but this seems primarily to have been a device to augment his rather meagre salary. Only two regents actually received the title before 1674: Young Andrew (1620–23) and Craufurd Thomas (1640–62). Both combined this post with their more arduous duties as regent so the amount of specifically mathematical teaching they did may not have been very large.

A bibliographical note on the surviving theses is given at the end of this paper.

The communal disputations were abandoned at Edinburgh in 1708 and at the other Scottish universities at about the same time or somewhat later. For further information see Johnstone J. F. Kellas , The lost Aberdeen theses (Aberdeen, 1916).

Estne igitur temeritatis unicum duntaxat, praeter Elementarem Regionem & Caelum Empyraeum, Caelum constituere, & levissimo argumento ductum omnibus Philosophis ac Theologis contradicere, & scientiarum fundamenta evertere ( Astron T. P. . 2). (For the method of referring to theses, see the bibliographical note in Part 2 of this article).

T.P. Phys. 5.

T.P. Astron. 7.

Nil aliud hic profiteri libet, aut licet, quam quod in arte medica Hippocrates, vitam brevem, artem longam, observationes incertas, conjecturam variam, iudicium difficile esse: Easque animi humani angustias agnoscere, ut in plurimis naturae arcanis halucinetur, in multis etiam plane caecutiat; adeo ut humanae sapientiae pars maxima sit, quaedam aequo animo nesciri velle (T.P. Phys. 14).

1617: T.P.; 1621: Theses Quaedam….

1621: Astron. 16, 17.

I hope to publish elsewhere an account of Young's observations.

Lunae a terra distantia maxima putatur esse diametrorum terrae 321/12: Minima vero, tantum 16½. 1. Distantia Lunae maxima ad ejusdem minimam dupla est. 2. Cum Luna non videatur duplo major in Perigaeo quam in Auge, argumentum Copernici paralogismum est, quo concludit duplo majorem videri magnitudinem, quae duplo propinquior est. 3. Distantiae Ptolemaei possunt esse verae, dum interim diametri in utroque intervallo plurimum non videantur differre. 4. Ac proinde Optica dictabit aequales magnitudines ab oculo inaequaliter distantes, habere minorem rationem angulorum sub quibus cernuntur, quam distantiarum: Nam anguli sensibiliter non differentes, distantiam valde sensibilem habere possunt (T.P. Astron. 10).

Scientia est cognitio rei per causam, propter quam res est, & quod nequeat se aliter habere propter talem causam … 1. Cum itaque ex tam variis principiis, ac hypothesibus Astronomi varii, ut Copernicus, Ptolomaeus, & alii, Phaenomenôn coelestium rationes reddant, sequitur nos rerum Astronomicarum, praesertim quae ex secundo motu dependent nullam scientiam habere (T. P. Astron. 8).

Astron T. P. . 4.

Craufurd T. , History of the University of Edinburgh from 1580 to 1646 (written c. 1655, published Edinburgh, 1808), 107–9. Appointments to the University were at that time in the hands of the Town Council. According to the records of the Council, Reid had in fact been dismissed before he tendered his resignation (Extracts from the Records of the Burgh of Edinburgh 1626–1641 (Edinburgh, 1936), 15, 30).

Forrester (1645) Phys. 6 & 7, Astron. 5; Wysman (1647) Phys. 6, Astron. 5; Craufurd (1646) Phys. 14; (1650) Phys. 8. From 1641 till the end of the century most of the Edinburgh lists (including all those mentioned above) were in the form of broadsheets with no definite title.

Adeoque [terra] necessario erit in medio [Mundi]: Contra Copernicum veteris delirii interpolatorem (T. P. Astron. 2).

Commentum Copernici accersat patrocinium serium, vertiginosi vel delirantis cerebri (B/S. Astron. 3).

Astra probabiliter motus conficiunt spirales in fluido coelo: Teste validissimo Martis telo (B/S. Astron. 1).

He explicitly rejected the principle of eccentrics and epicycles in 1659: B/S. Astron. 2.

1670: Progymnasmata Quaedam …, 1674: Epicheiremata Quaedam ….

B/S. 5.

The first Professor had been his uncle James Gregory who was appointed in 1674 but died shortly afterwards in 1675. The Chair then remained vacant until David was elected eight years later.

Gravitatis autem Phaenomenon nobis optime explicuisse videretur Perrault, ni iis quae de planetarum hujus vorticis ordine & motu observavit Keplerus & nuperrime demonstravit Neutonus, minime conveniret ejus hypothesis; demonstravit autem Neutonus, ut observavit Keplerus, tempora planetarum periodica invicem collata obtinere rationem distantiarum a sole mediarum sesquiplicatam, h.e. quadrata temporum periodicarum esse in eadem ratione, cum cubis distantiarum mediarum (B/S. 20).

1690: B/S. 21, 22; 1694: B/S. 1.

T.P. 8, 17, 18, 21ff.

T.P. 7–10, 14–19.

Ex mutua attractione supra exposita, unde tam coelestia quam terrestria pendent phoenomena, necessario sequitur existere Ens potentissimum, Supremam omnium Causam, rerumque habenas moderantem; ejusque potentiae & virtutis effectum esse hanc gravitationem; cum attractionis vis & efficacia materiae vires longissime superet. Materia enim propriis circumscripta est limitibus, neque ad distantiam operari potest: Praeterea sua natura est iners & mere passiva; neque igitur res alias attrahere, neque ex se ad eas tendere valet ( Corol T.P. . 1).

Annexa T.P. 4. It is quoted from the Latin edition of 1706 (q. 23). In a somewhat modified form this became q. 31 of the second English edition (London, 1717).