Christopher Wren: Astronomy,Architecture,and the Mathematical Sciences

Johnson F. R. , Astronomical thought in Renaissance England (Baltimore, 1937), 126–8. Wren's copy of Recorde's Castle is in the Bodleian Library, shelfmark Savile K.5(3).

Peter Langtoft's Chronicle, ed. Hearne T. (Oxford, 1725), i, cxlvii–cxlviii.

Parentalia: Or, memoirs of the family of the Wrens (London, 1750), 206.

Taylor E. G. R. , The mathematical practitioners of Tudor and Stuart England (Cambridge, 1954).

Johnson , op. cit. (ref. 1).

Waters D. W. , The art of navigation in England in Elizabethan and early Stuart times (London, 1958).

Recorde R. , The pathway to knowledg (London, 1551), Dedication.

Ibid. , Preface. Wren's copy of the Pathway is in the Bodleian Library, shelfmark Savile K.6(5).

Cunningham W. , The cosmographical glasse (London, 1559), ff. 4–5.

Digges L. and Digges T. , A geometrical practical treatize named Pantometria (London, 1591), Preface.

The elements of geometrie … of Euclide … translated into the English toung, by H. Billingsley (London, 1570), Preface by John Dee, sig. Aiii^v.

Ibid., sig. d.iii.

Digges , op. cit. (ref. 10), Preface.

See The works of Edmund Gunter (London, 1662), The general use of the canon, and tables of logarithmes, chap. 4.

Yates F. , Theatre of the world (London, 1969), chaps 1–3.

See, for example, Wilkins J. , Mathematicall magick (London, 1648).

Further details on all the subjects discussed in this article can be found in my Ph.D. dissertation, “Studies in the Life and Work of Sir Christopher Wren”, Cambridge University, 1974.

See Colie R. L. , “Dean Wren's Marginalia and Early Science at Oxford”, The Bodleian Library record, vi (1960), 541–51. Note that Wren refers to what his father had taught him in mechanics, Parentalia, 185.

See his annotations in a copy of Thomas Browne's Pseudodoxia epidemica in the Bodleian Library, shelfmark O.2.26 Art. Seld., pp. 18, 288, 291, 294, 373; 76, 226, 288, 318; 210; 226, 284; 226, 288 respectively.

Compare, for example, Wren's explanation of how Christ can be said to have spent three days and three nights in the tomb, in his inaugural address at Gresham (Parentalia, 202–3), with the Dean's argument at the back of his copy of Pseudodoxia epidemica.

Ibid., 373.

Ibid., 291.

Ibid. , 18. Note also ibid. , 292, 294, 366. In his copy of Bacon's Sylva sylvarum, also in the Bodleian Library (shelfmark T.11.20.Th) the Dean argues against Galileo's tidal “proof” of the Earth's motion, see his note opposite p. 235.

Parentalia, 184.

Aubrey J. , “Brief Lives”, chiefly of contemporaries, ed. Clark A. (Oxford, 1898), i, 403. Compare Parentalia, 181.

See Holder's account of the genesis of this book, in the preface, and compare some of Wren's early interests, Parentalia, 195, 241. Holder's emphasis is decidedly ‘Vitruvian’: “God made all things in Number, Weight, and Measure; and gave them to be considered by us according to these Properties, which are inherent in Created Beings. It cannot be expressed what universal and necessary Use there is of the Consideration of Number, Weight, and Measure, in Common Life. Not to speak of Order, and Beauty, which consists of Symmetry; nor of Building Houses, and Ships: All humane Society is upheld and managed by the use of these”, Holder W. , A discourse concerning time (London, 1694), 1. However, this passage may have been added when his original papers were “enlarged”.

Note Munk W. , The role of the Royal College of Physicians of London (London, 1878), i, 252–5; Keevil J. J. , “Sir Charles Scarburgh”, Annals of science, viii (1952), 113–21; Goodall C. , The Royal College of Physicians (London, 1684), “A Historical Account …”, The Epistle Dedicatory; Wallis J. , A treatise of algebra (London, 1685), 301; Oughtred W. , Clavis mathematicae (Oxford, 1652), Preface; Moore J. , A mathematical compendium (London, 1681), 119; Moore J. , A new systeme of the mathematicks (London, 1681), Preface.

Aubrey , “Brief Lives”, ii, 285; compare Pope W. , Life of Seth Ward (London, 1697), 18–19.

Parentalia, 185–6.

Pope , Life of Seth Ward, 18–19, 117–18.

Wren's words, Parentalia, 183; Christopher Wren Jnr dated this letter to 1652, see British Museum MS Add. 25,071, f. 36. Wren had attracted the attention of Wilkins and Wallis as early as 1650, see Turnbull G. H. , “Samuel Hartlib's Influence on the Early History of the Royal Society”, Notes and records of the Royal Society of London, x (1952–53), 101–30, pp. 108–11.

Wilkins J. , A discourse concerning a new planet (London, 1640).

Note Evelyn's impressions on visiting Wadham in 1654, The diary of John Evelyn, ed. de Beer E. S. (Oxford, 1955), iii, 110. Incidentally, ‘mathematical magic’, or the use of mechanics to produce spectacular effects or impressive feats of technology, had been recognized as part of the mathematical sciences, not only by Dee, but also much earlier by Recorde, op. cit. (ref. 7), Preface.

Oughtred , op. cit. (ref. 27), Preface; Oughtred to Ward, 19 April 1651, Aubrey, op. cit. (ref. 25), ii, 113–14. For the group of mathematicians in Oxford about 1652, see Wallis J. , Arithmetica infinitorum, Dedication (addressed to Oughtred), in Operum mathematicorum, pars altera (Oxford, 1656). Wallis describes how he presented problems concerned with the quadrature of the circle to Ward, Rooke, Rawlinson, Wood and Wren. Wallis, Ward, Wood and Wren were each associated in some way with this edition of the Clavis, and Rooke was another admirer of Oughtred, see Aubrey , op. cit. (ref. 25), ii, 204.

Parentalia, 185–6; Oughtred, op. cit. (ref. 27), Preface.

British Museum MS Add. 25,071, ff. 34^v, 86.

Wallis J. , Eclipsis Solaris Oxonii visae anno … 1654 (Oxford, 1655), 2.

Turnbull , op. cit. (ref. 31), 116. Wilkins at least managed to mount a telescope of some length, since Thomas Barlow wrote to Boyle in 1659: “Dr Wilkins is gone (cum pannis) to Cambridge, and left his great telescope to the library”, The life and works of the Honourable Robert Boyle, ed. Birch T. (London, 1772), vi, 301.

Robinson H. W. , “An Unpublished Letter of Dr Seth Ward relating to the Early Meetings of the Oxford Philosophical Society”, Notes and records of the Royal Society of London, vii (1949–50), 68–70, p. 70.

See Van Helden A. , “Christopher Wren's De Corpore Saturni”, Notes and records of the Royal Society of London, xxiii (1968), 213–29, p. 215.

Gardiner R. B. , The registers of Wadham College, Oxford, Part 1, 1613–1719 (London, 1889), 178. Even in 1666 Wren addressed a letter from Wadham, see Wren Society, xiii, 44.

See especially Van Helden , op. cit. (ref. 40); also Ronan C. A. and Hartley H. , “Paul Neile, F.R.S.”, Notes and records of the Royal Society of London, xv (1960), 159–65; and Armitage A. , “William Ball, F.R.S.”, ibid., 167–72.

See Ward S. , In Ishmaelis Bullialdi Astronomiae Philolaicae inquisitio brevis (Oxford, 1653) Preface; Ward S. , Astronomia geometrica (London, 1656), postscript to dedication.

Van Helden , op. cit. (ref. 40) 221.

In June 1652 Wren accompanied Wilkins on a visit to Elias Ashmole, Josten C. H. , Elias Ashmole (1617–1692) (Oxford, 1966), ii, 615. Note also Wren at Parentalia, 215, and that Dean Wren was in London in 1652, see his note at Bodleian Library, T.11.20.Th (see ref. 23), p. 162. Wren called on Hartlib in March 1653, and again in September 1655, see Turnbull , op. cit. (ref. 31), 110, 114.

Oeuvres complètes de Christiaan Huygens (The Hague, 1888–1950), i, 481.

Ibid., i, 401; ii, 306; xv, 169, 255; Parentalia, 242.

See Wren to Neile, 1 October 1661, Royal Society MS EL.W.3 no. 2, printed in Birch T. , A history of the Royal Society of London (London, 1756–57), i, 47–49; Huygens , Oeuvres, iii, 416–18; Ronan and Hartley , op. cit. (ref. 42), 162–4.

The letters and speeches of Oliver Cromwell, ed. Carlyle T. (London, 1904), ii, 493.

For Wilkins's links with Cromwell, see especially Shapiro B. J. , John Wilkins, 1614–1672: An intellectual biography (Berkeley, 1969).

Evelyn , Diary, iii, 172.

See Boyle to Bathurst, 14 April 1656, Warton T. , The life and literary remains of Ralph Bathurst (London, 1761), 162–3.

Turnbull , op. cit. (ref. 31), 111–12.

See Copeman W. S. C. , “Dr Jonathan Goddard, F.R.S.”, Notes and records of the Royal Society of London, xv (1960), 69–77, pp. 71–72; Hill A. , “Some Account of the Life of Dr. Isaac Barrow”, in The works of Isaac Barrow, ed. Tillotson J. (London, 1683), i; Stimson D. , “Dr. Wilkins and the Royal Society”, Journal of modern history, iii (1931), 539–63, p. 551. Wren was succeeded by Wilkins's half-brother, Pope Walter , who himself wrote that Wilkins and Goddard used their positions “to advance the interest of Learning”, Pope , op. cit. (ref. 28), 46. It is just possible also that Robert Wood was a useful friend to Wren.

Ward J. , Lives of the professors of Gresham College (London, 1740), 96.

Parentalia, 200.

Ibid., 204.

Ibid., 205–6.

Ibid., 206.

Van Helden , op. cit. (ref. 40) 221.

Vaughan R. , The Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell (London, 1838), ii, 478–9. It is interesting to compare this group with those who met Huygens in April 1661, to discuss the grinding of lenses and the theory of impact: Moray, Brouncker, Neile, Wallis, Rooke, Wren and Goddard ( Huygens , Oeuvres, xxii, 573). Note also those present at Wren's Gresham lecture on 28 November 1660, mentioned below.

de Monconys B. , Journal des voyages de Monsieur de Monconys (Lyon, 1665–66), ii, 74–75. For grinding lenses Wren and Neile employed Richard Reeves (see below), who had also worked for Pell, see Taylor , op. cit. (ref. 4), 223–4.

Ibid., 81, 220.

Wren to Neile, 1 October 1661, loc. cit. (ref. 48). Sprat refers to this telescope when, informing Wren of the condition of Gresham College in 1659, he writes: “… if you should now come to make Use of your Tube, it would be like Dives looking out of Hell into Heaven”, Parentalia, 254.

For the lectures on Keplerian astronomy, see ibid., 239; references to the other lectures are given below.

Ward , op. cit. (ref. 55), Preface, viii. It is not so well known that the Savilian Professor of Astronomy also had to lecture on navigation, see Allen P. , “Scientific Studies in the English Universities of the Seventeenth Century”, Journal for the history of ideas, x (1949), 219–53, p. 226; Ward S. , Vindiciae academiarum (Oxford, 1654), 30.

McKie D. , “The Origins and Foundations of the Royal Society of London”, Notes and records of the Royal Society of London, xv (1960), 1–37, p. 31.

The diary and correspondence of Dr. John Worthington, ed. Crossley J. , Chetham Society, xiii (1847), 215; note also ibid., 302, 305.

See ibid., 215; Huygens , Oeuvres, xv, 70–71; Monconys , op. cit. (ref. 62), ii, 77. For Charles's subsequent interest in Wren's astronomy, see the lunar globe mentioned below, and his relation of Wren's observations of a variable star, Sorbière S. , A voyage to England (London, 1709), 34–35.

For the date, see Ward , op. cit. (ref. 55), 97; The life and times of Anthony Wood, ed. Clark A. (Oxford, 1891–1900), i, 380.

Van Helden , op. cit. (ref. 40) 220.

Ibid., 215, 221.

See Wallis at Huygens, Oeuvres, ii, 358.

Van Helden , op. cit. (ref. 40), 221, 225; Parentalia, 240; Huygens , Oeuvres, ii, 305.

Wren to Neile, 1 October 1661, loc. cit. (ref. 48).

Ibid.

Huygens , Oeuvres, i, 401; ii, 306; xv, 169, 254, 255.

Van Helden , op. cit. (ref. 40) 224.

Bennett J. A. , “A Study of Parentalia, with two Unpublished Letters of Sir Christopher Wren”, Annals of science, xxx (1973), 129–47, p. 147.

Wren to Neile, 1 October 1661, loc. cit. (ref. 48). Earlier in 1657 Wren had written that “So large a Field of Philosophy is the very Contemplation of the Phases of the coelestial Bodies, that a true Description of the Body of Saturn only, were enough for the Life of one Astronomer”, Parentalia, 205.

Wren to Neile, 1 October 1661, Royal Society MS EL.W.3 no. 2. Wren probably describes his own model at Van Helden, op. cit. (ref. 40), 226, see Figure 1.

Ibid., 223, 224–5, and Wren to Neile, 1 October 1661, loc. cit. (ref. 48).

Van Helden , op. cit. (ref. 40) 222.

Ibid., 217.

Ibid. , 217; Wren to Neile, 1 October 1661, loc. cit. (ref. 48). One of Wren's copies of Systema Saturnium is in the Bodleian Library, shelfmark Savile K.18; note Huygens, Oeuvres, iii, 453.

Birch , History, i, 41; note also p. 47.

There is an account of this meeting in a letter Moray to Huygens, 9 October 1661, Oeuvres, iii, 368–9; note also p. 425.

Ibid., 368; Birch , History, i, 41.

Royal Society MS EL.W.3 no. 2. Moray wrote to Huygens of their attempts to persuade Wren to produce his treatise: “… nous eusmes tous de la peine à luy faire accorder”, Huygens , Oeuvres, iii, 425.

Ibid., 368, 404, 415–24, 425–6; Birch , History, i, 66.

Huygens , Oeuvres, iii, 368, 425.

For the subsequent discussion, see ibid., 386, 399, 404, 408, 413, 437; iv, 7, 24, 27, 34, 40–44, 62, 83, 145–6, 150–1, 155; Birch , History, i, 68.

Huygens , Oeuvres, iii, 368, 415–18, 425–6; iv, 83.

Ibid., iii, 437.

Ibid., iv, 24.

Royal Society MS EL.W.3 no. 2.

Johnson , op. cit. (ref. 1) 263.

Van Helden , op. cit. (ref. 40) 224.

Wren wrote to Neile: “… to see ingenious men, neglecting what was well determined before, to doe worse on the same subject because they would doe otherwise, was alwaies wont to make me passionate”, Royal Society MS EL.W.3 no. 2.

Huygens , Oeuvres, ii, 358; note also p. 305.

Bennett , op. cit. (ref. 79), 146–7.

Sprat T. , The history of the Royal Society of London (London, 1667), 314–15; note also Parentalia, 242.

There is no reference to Wren's theory in Birch's History. For the only direct reference to Wren's ideas, see The diary of Robert Hooke, 1672–1680, ed. Robinson H. W. and Adams W. (London, 1935), 206.

Worthington , op. cit. (ref. 68), 126–7; Boyle , Works, vi, 118; Birch , History, i, 505.

Parentalia, 241.

Ibid., 204.

Ibid.

Sprat , History, 314.

Royal Society MS EL.W.3 no. 3.

Sprat also treats this as part of Wren's contribution to astronomy.

Also “The like Eye made with one Humour only”, Parentalia, 198.

Royal Society MS EL.W.3 no. 3.

Power H. , Experimental philosophy (London, 1664), 80–81.

Birch , History, iv, 140. Wybard was a physician and mathematical practitioner, who was associated with both Scarburgh and Rooke, Taylor, op. cit. (ref. 4), 212, 226. Wren's copy of Scheiner's Refractiones coelestes, Bodley shelfmark Savile K.14, had previously belonged to him, see a note on the title-page.

Boyle , Works, vi, 424, 487, 498, 499.

Ibid.; The posthumous works of Robert Hooke, ed. Waller R. (London, 1705), 127–8.

Croone to Power, 1 March 1661/2, British Museum MS Add. 6193, f. 108.

Ibid. ; Power , op. cit. (ref. 113), 78–81. There was a model eye in the Royal Society's museum, Grew N. , Musaeum Regalis Societatis (London, 1681), 359.

Philosophical experiments and observations of Dr. Robert Hooke, ed. Derham W. (London, 1726), 390. The operator was Richard Reeves, see Taylor , op. cit. (ref. 4), 223–4.

Hooke , Philosophical experiments, 260: “Sir Paul Neile made some [lenses] of 36 Foot pretty good, and one of 50, as I have been informed, but not answerable”.

For reports on Neile's telescopes, see Huygens , Oeuvres, xv, 70–71; Monconys, op. cit. (ref. 62), ii, 77. Monconys's account is not very clear, but seems to be the only surviving record of “la fa&çon du Cheualier Neil”.

See Wren at Van Helden , op. cit. (ref. 40), 221; Hooke above (ref. 120). Wren wrote in 1657 that the ancients would have been envious had they been told “that a Time would come, when Men should be able to stretch out their Eyes, as Snails do, and extend them to fifty Feet in length”, Parentalia, 205.

Ibid., 240.

Huygens , Oeuvres, iv, 444–5; note also p. 433.

For Neile in 1657, note Turnbull, op. cit. (ref. 31) 120.

Sprat , History, 314.

Hooke , Philosophical experiments, 260.

Sprat , History, 314.

Parentalia , 198; Birch , History , i, 20; Huygens , Oeuvres, xxii, 573.

The correspondence of Henry Oldenburg, ed. Hall A. R. and Hall M. B. (Madison, 1965–), vi, 237–9.

There is reason to believe that it is correct, since Wren objected to aspects of Wallis's account that implied Wallis's priority for the demonstration, but apparently not to the story of its genesis, ibid., 280–1.

Ibid., v, 390–1. The earliest direct reference to Wren's demonstration and application is in a letter from John Collins to James Gregory, 2 February 1668/9, James Gregory Tercentenary memorial volume, ed. Turnbull H. W. (London, 1939), 65–66.

Birch , History, ii, 377. The term ‘model’ could refer to a design on paper, but it seems that this was an actual model, see ibid., 399.

Ibid., 379. The demonstration and corollary were registered the same day, Royal Society MS RB.iv, 71–72.

Philosophical transactions, iv, no. 48 (21 June 1669), 961–2; no. 53 (15 November 1669), 1059–60. For Wren's demonstration, see Whiteside D. T. , “Wren the Mathematician”, Notes and records of the Royal Society of London, xv (1960), 107–11, pp. 109–10; Huxley G. L. , “The Geometrical Work of Christopher Wren”, Scripta mathematica, xxv (1960), 201–8, pp. 205–6.

Oldenburg correspondence, vi, 163, 306; Birch , History, ii, 399.

Oldenburg correspondence, vi, 222, 306.

For some contemporary reactions, see ibid., 396, 425–6, 448.

Birch , History, ii, 379: “… any irregularity, made by the encountering of one another being immediately rectified”.

Oldenburg correspondence, vi, 306.

Philosophical transactions, iv, no. 53 (15 November 1669), 1060.

Birch , History, ii, 377, 379; Oldenburg correspondence, vi, 425–6.

Birch , History, ii, 379, 382, 388, 399, 416; for Hooke's engine, see ibid., 463.

Oldenburg correspondence, vi, 127, 448, 460.

The mathematical and philosophical works of John Wilkins (London, 1802), ii, 90. It is interesting that Dean Wren was familiar with the Mathematicall magick, see a note on p. 98 of his copy of Bacon's Sylva sylvarum, op. cit. (ref. 23).

Hooke R. , Micrographia (London, 1665), Preface.

Van Helden , op. cit. (ref. 40), 219–20.

Turnbull , op. cit. (ref. 31), 116, 114.

Parentalia , 198; Wren to Petty , 1656, Bennett , op. cit. (ref. 79), 147 (“… we … discover exactly her [the Moon's] various Inclinations, and herein Hevelius's Errors”); Sprat, History, 315. One of Wren's copies of Hevelius's Epistolae II. Prior de motu lunae libratorio … (Danzig, 1654) is in the Bodleian Library, shelfmark Savile B.15(2). Another is listed in the sale catalogue of his library, Bodleian Library, Mus. Bibl. III.8.53, lot 239.

For Wren's copies, see Bodleian Library, Savile B.15(1), and Catalogue Sale , op. cit. (ref. 149), lot 240.

Wilkins , op. cit. (ref. 145), i, 63–74.

Parentalia , 205. Compare ibid. , 200, 205, with Wilkins , op. cit. (ref. 145), i, 26, 47–49.

Turnbull , op. cit. (ref. 31) 114.

Bennett , op. cit. (ref. 79), 147. Sprat also said that Wren “has essay'd to make a true Selenography by measure; the world having nothing yet but pictures, rather than Surveighs or Maps of the Moon”, History, 315.

Birch , History, ii, 139; note Oldenburg correspondence, iii, 297.

Birch , History , ii, 139; note also ibid., 140; Philosophical transactions, ii, no. 25 (6 May 1667), 459; no. 29 (11 November 1667), 541–4.

King H. C. , The history of the telescope (London, 1955), 98–99.

Hooke , Posthumous works, 497.

Hooke , Philosophical experiments, 272; quoted from a summary of Hooke's lecture, written by Waller and printed by Derham.

Sprat , History, 314; note also ibid., 250.

King , op. cit. (ref. 157), 94–97.

Ibid. , 94–96. Christopher Towneley was a patron of Horrox and Crabtree and preserved their correspondence with Gascoigne, Taylor , op. cit. (ref. 4), 81, 83, 216–17; the micrometer was developed by his nephew Richard Towneley.

Ibid., 85, 229, 234, 357; Turnbull , op. cit. (ref. 31), 114–15. It is interesting that Hooke included Ward along with Rooke and Wren as the foremost representatives of English observational astronomy, Hooke , op. cit. (ref. 146), Preface.

Turnbull , op. cit. (ref. 31), 112; Wren M. , Monarchy asserted (Oxford, 1659), Preface.

Birch , History, i, 21.

Huygens , Oeuvres, iii, 286; Neile and Moray to Wren, 17 May 1661, Parentalia, 210–11. Perhaps Wren had already made a globe in connection with his “Hypothesis of the Moon's Libration, in Solid”, ibid., 198.

Birch , History, i, 33; Parentalia, 210.

Huygens , Oeuvres, iii, 312; Moray to Wren , 13 August 1661, Parentalia, 211.

Monconys , op. cit. (ref. 62), ii, 82.

Sprat , History, 315.

Huygens , Oeuvres, iii, 317.

Ibid. ; Oldenburg correspondence, i, 420. For the inscription, see Parentalia, 211; here Christopher Wren Jnr can be relied on, since the globe was in his possession, see Ward , op. cit. (ref. 55), 100; British Museum MS Add. 25,071, f. 97.

Parentalia, 212.

Huygens , Oeuvres, iv, 369.

Sorbière op. cit. (ref. 69), 34; note also Sprat T. , Observations on Monsieur de Sorbier's Voyage into England (London, 1668), 151; Monconys, op. cit. (ref. 62), ii, 82.

Huygens , Oeuvres, iii, 317, 320, 355; Oldenburg correspondence, i, 420.

Huygens , Oeuvres, vii, 555; Oldenburg correspondence, ii, 221, 307; Birch , History, i, 468–9.

Ibid., ii, 140.

Ibid., 143, 154.

Ibid. , 156, 160. There is no further record in the minutes or in Grew's Musaeum, though Boyle was in possession of a lunar globe in 1669, Maddison R. E. W. , “Studies in the Life of Robert Boyle, F.R.S. Part 1, Robert Boyle and some of his Foreign Visitors”, Notes and records of the Royal Society of London, ix (1951–52), 1–35, p. 28. A lunar globe is included in a portrait of Wren by Verrio, Kneller and Thornhill, in the possession of Oxford University. Some of Wren's later remarks on the lunar surface are recorded by Hooke in 1676 ( Hooke , Diary , 206), and by David Gregory in 1702 (Royal Society MS Gregory Volume, 63^v). Gregory mentions that Wren “has made a solid Moon, raising the selenographical maps to a spherical surface again from which they were by projection at first form'd”. It is interesting that Gregory also records that Wren would account for Saturn's ring as the appearance of a number of fast-moving moons. I owe the Gregory references to M. A. Hoskin.

Bennett , op. cit. (ref. 79), 147; Parentalia, 240.

Ibid. , 198; Sprat , History , 315. It is interesting that, when Sir Thomas Browne says in his Pseudodoxia epidemica that Galileo claims that there are not seven but forty stars in the Pleiades, Dean Wren adds: “discernable, by a good Telescope”, op. cit. (ref. 19), 210. Note Hooke on the applications of the micrometer, Posthumous works, 497.

Parentalia, 198.

Sprat , History, 315.

Huygens , Oeuvres, iv, 433.

Ibid., 444–5.

Hooke R. , An attempt to prove the motion of the Earth from observations (London, 1674), included in his Lectiones Cutlerianae (London, 1679), which was reprinted in Gunther R. T. , Early science in Oxford, viii (Oxford, 1931), 1–28, p. 10.

Hooke , Posthumous works, 506–7; Birch , History, ii, 313, 315.

Ibid., 434, 447; Hooke , op. cit. (ref. 187).

Birch , History, ii, 139.

Hooke , op. cit. (ref. 187) 25.

Ibid., Preface; Wallis at E. Halley, Miscellanea curiosa (London, 1705), ii, 293; Whiston W. , Astronomical lectures (London, 1715), 29–30.

Hooke , op. cit. (ref. 187), 22–23.

Ward , op. cit. (ref. 55), 104. Hodgson also told Ward of Wren's idea of setting up a similar telescope at St Paul's, and we have independent evidence for both these schemes. Hodgson and Wren were on good terms, see An account of the Rev. John Flamsteed, ed. Baily F. (London, 1966), 223, 238. In 1691 David Gregory referred to “The Monument designed by M^r Hook for making the experiment about the parallax of the Magnus Orbis”, Royal Society MS Gregory Volume, f. 71.

Royal Society MS Council Minutes, ii (copy) 169.

Pound J. , “A Rectification of the Motions of the Five Satellites of Saturn”, Philosophical transactions, xxx, no. 355 (January-April 1718), 768–74, pp. 768–9; King , op. cit. (ref. 157), 63–64.

Ward , op. cit. (ref. 55), 105; Baily , op. cit. (ref. 194), 64; Flamsteed MS between pp. 244, 245 of a copy of Parentalia, National Maritime Museum, 158a; Hodgson J. , The theory of navigation demonstrated (London, 1706), Preface. As part of a dispute with Cassini, Flamsteed addressed a letter on stellar parallax to Wren in November 1702 (Parentalia, 247–53).

Ward , op. cit. (ref. 55), 105; Pound , op. cit. (ref. 196) 769.

See an annotation to his own copy of Lives of the professors of Gresham College, British Museum, 611 m 16, p. 106. Sprat , History, 314, says that Wren “has fitted and hung Quadrants, Sextants, and Radii, more commodiously than formerly”, and note that in October 1663 “It was ordered, that the astronomical quadrant, contrived by Dr. Wren, be produced at the time of his Majesty's reception”, Birch , History , ii, 313. Note also ibid., iii, 159; Hooke , Diary, 137, 425. This latter discussion was probably related to the instruments at Greenwich, Baily , op. cit. (ref. 194), 45; Birch , History, iii, 331, 455, 504.

Caröe W. D. , “Tom Tower” Christ Church, Oxford (Oxford, 1923), 31.

Hooke R. , Animadversions on the first part of the Machina Coelestis of … Johannes Hevelius (London, 1674), Gunther , op. cit. (ref. 187), viii, 77.

Ibid. , 54; see also ibid., 32.

Sprat , History, 314; Monconys , op. cit. (ref. 62), ii, 73.

Hooke , Posthumous works, 498–503 and Tab. XI. This is part of some papers that were inserted by Waller into lectures written in 1683. They are undated, but Waller guesses that they were written some years before 1683. Pp. 495–509 seem to form a continuous unit and contain a reference to stellar parallax, pp. 506–7, which must have been written before 1670. Hooke was appointed Gresham Professor of Geometry in 1665 and the lectures probably were not written before this. Also, it was in 1665 that he was using Wren's double-telescope. The reference to “Sir Christ. Wren” at p. 502 would have to be explained as an editorial change. Note that Hooke himself built a similar instrument in 1665, Birch , History, ii, 58.

Hooke , Posthumous works, 503. Hooke referred again to Wren's double-telescope in 1693, Philosophical experiments, 272.

Birch , History, i, 219.

Ibid., 220, 223.

Ibid. , 296; Hooke , op. cit. (ref. 146), 241–2. Hooke thought these observations were very exact; he attributed the discrepancy between his diagram and those of Cassini and of de la Hire to changes in the heavens, Philosophical experiments, 272–3.

Monconys , op. cit. (ref. 62), ii, 73; there is no reference in Birch.

It is interesting that on 12 May 1673 Hooke records: “Received from Sir R. Moray double telescope &c”, Hooke , Diary, 43.

Hooke , Posthumous works, 498.

Ibid., 500.

Parentalia, 240.

See Flamsteed J. , The doctrine of the sphere (London, 1680), Preface, in Moore J. , A new systeme of the mathematicks (London, 1681). Other contemporary references to Wren's method seem to derive from Flamsteed.

Ibid. For Wren on the use of solar eclipses for finding longitude on land, see Parentalia, 205. On Wren's possible interest in the lunar position method, see Birch , History, i, 69, 106, 108, 216, with British Museum MS Add. 25,071, f. 43^v.

Hooke , Diary, 250.

Parentalia, 206.

Bennett , op. cit. (ref. 79), 147; Turnbull , op. cit. (ref. 31), 112; Parentalia , 206, 240; note also Sprat , History, 315–16; Grew , op. cit. (ref. 118), 364; Dean Wren at Bodleian Library, O.2.26 Art. Seld., 312.

Parentalia, 206.

British Museum MS Add. 25,071, f. 89.

Wren at Parentalia, 205; note the observations he mentions in 1656, Bennett , op. cit. (ref. 79) 147.

Sprat , History, 183–9; Whiston W. , The longitude discovered (London, 1738), 19–20.

Pope , op. cit. (ref. 28), 116; cf. Sprat , History, 189–90.

Birch , History, i, 88.

Ibid., 109, 194.

Sorbière , op. cit. (ref. 69), 34; Huygens , Oeuvres, iv, 458–9. Huygens is replying to a letter from Moray, which is not preserved.

Birch , History, i, 194, 216, 220, 328.

Pope , op. cit. (ref. 28), 117; Birch , History, i, 216.

Ibid., ii, 116.

Pope , op. cit. (ref. 28) 117.

Whiston , op. cit. (ref. 192), 182; Whiston , op. cit. (ref. 222), “An Historical Preface”, iii; Hooke , Posthumous works, 512, 514–17.

David Gregory, Isaac Newton and their circle , ed. Hiscock W. G. (Oxford, 1937), 23. For Hooke's work on using plane mirrors to shorten telescopes, see King , op. cit. (ref. 157) 61.

British Museum MS Add. 25,071, f. 115.

Brewster D. , Memoirs of the life, writings, and discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton (Edinburgh, 1855), ii, 263.

Brewster D. , “On Sir Christopher Wren's Cypher Containing Three Methods of Finding the Longitude”, Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1859), Notes and Abstracts, 34.

For details, see Bennett , op. cit. (ref. 17), chap. 4.

British Museum MS Add. 25,071, f. 115.

Ibid., f. 89.

Ward , op. cit. (ref. 55), 109. For Ward's contacts with Wren's son, see Bennett , op. cit. (ref. 79), 135–8.

British Museum MS Add. 6209, f. 205.

I have not dealt here with Wren's ideas on planetary and cometary motion; for these see Bennett J. A. , “Hooke and Wren and the System of the World: Some Points Towards an Historical Account”, The British journal for the history of science, viii (1975), 32–61.

For details on what follows, see Bennett , op. cit. (ref. 17), chaps 4, 5, 6.

Parentalia, 198–9.

Birch , History, ii, 132, 133, 154, 157; Royal Society MS CP. ii, no. 1; Gunther , op. cit. (ref. 187), viii, 101.

Parentalia , 198; Turnbull , op. cit. (ref. 31) 115.

Monconys , op. cit. (ref. 62), ii, 62–67, 74–75; Sorbière , op. cit. (ref. 69), 27–29; Oldenburg correspondence, ii, 285–91; Birch , History, i, 329.

Philosophical transactions, iv, no. 45 (25 March 1669), 898–9.

Parentalia, 198–9.

Fuerst V. , The architecture of Sir Christopher Wren (London, 1956), 119.

Royal Society MS EL.W.3 no. 3.

Wren Society, xix, 140.

Sprat , History, 149.

Birch , History , i, 230; Oldenburg correspondence, ii, 44–45; Familiar letters of Abraham Hill, ed. Astel F. (London, 1767), 110.

Birch , History, ii, 115; Oldenburg correspondence, iii, 230–1; iv, 203–4.

See, for example, Birch , History , ii, 117, 118; iv, 142, 146–9, 152; Sprat , History, 191; Philosophical transactions, viii, no. 93 (21 April 1673), 6010–15; Boyle , Works, vi, 495.

Birch , History, ii, 461, 464, 465.

Ibid., 435; Royal Society MS RB. iv, 99; Oldenburg correspondence, vii, 89, 103, 137.

Philosophical transactions, vi, no. 69 (25 March 1671), 2087; note also ibid., no. 72 (19 June 1671), 2190.

Birch , History, ii, 156.

Vignola: Or the compleat architect … Translated into English by Joseph Moxon (London, 1655).

Johnson , op. cit. (ref. 1) 179.

Wren Society, xiii, 46–49.

Smith T. , Vita … Edwardi Bernardi, 14, in D. Roberti Huntingtoni … epistolae (London, 1704); Wood A. à. , Athenae Oxonienses (London, 1813–20), iv, 704; Correspondence of scientific men of the seventeenth century , ed. Rigaud S. J. (Oxford, 1841), ii, 217; Boyle , Works, vi, 586.

Oldenburg correspondence, vi, 52–54, 447–8, 458–60; vii, 395–7.

Wren Society, xiii, 45.

Oldenburg correspondence, iii, 204.

Birch , History, ii, 66, 74.

Wren Society, xiii, 17.

Ibid., xviii, 180.

Parentalia, 262; in the same letter Wren says “… my Business now is to pry into Trades and Arts …”.

Oldenburg correspondence, ii, 428–9, 480–2, 517–19; iii, 11–12, 36–38, 48, 81–85; Parentalia, 261.

Oldenburg correspondence, iii, 11–12.

Pascal B. , Lettres de Dettonville (Paris, 1659), “Traitte General de la Roulette”, 6.

Huygens , Oeuvres, v, 212, 228, 235, 249, 262, 266.

Oldenburg correspondence, ii, 428.

Ibid., ii, 480, 519; iii, 38, 83–85.

Lister M. , A journey to Paris in the year 1698 (London, 1699), 30, 102.

Oldenburg correspondence, iii, 113.

Ibid., 48.

Bennett J. A. , “Christopher Wren: The Natural Causes of Beauty”, Architectural history, xv (1972), 5–22.

Digges , op. cit. (ref. 10) 97.

Parentalia, 353.