An Arithmetical Warlike Treatise Named Stratioticos: Compendiously Teaching the Science of Nombers ... as ... Requisite for the Profession of a Soldiour

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by Leonard and Thomas Digges

Arithmetical Warlike Treatise Named Stratioticos
Title not held by The Wolf Law Library
at the College of William & Mary.
  
Author Leonard Digges
Editor
Translator
Published London: Imprinted by Richard Field
Date 1590
Edition
Language
Volumes volume set
Pages
Desc.

Leonard and Thomas Digges were a father and son pair, both of whom were significant mathematicians in English society. This work was initially written by Leonard, but was finished and published by his son, Thomas.

The Digges family name was a significant one. The family "was substantial and long established, with a record of holding county office [...]."[1] However, Leonard Digges's involvement in the Wyatt uprising of 1554 led to a seizure of his lands, and a death sentence.[2] Leonard was pardoned, and eventually had his lands returned to him, but his sons, including Thomas, lost their inheritance rights to the property.[3]

The contributions of both Leonard and Thomas contributed to reshaping the field mathematics into a professional field. Leonard is recognized as "a key figure in the establishment of the role of the mathematical practitioner."[4] But Thomas in particular was committed to "the tradition of mathematical practice in England."[5] He pushed back against the popular belief that math was a secondary subject to philosophy or theology, and believed that the study of math did not need to be justified through philosophical means.[6] Instead, he believed that "in contrast to the demonstrative certainty of mathematics, philosophy could offer only plausible or probable arguments."[7] Thomas was also the first English author to publicly back Copernicanism.[8]

The first book of "An Arithmetical Warlike Treatise named Stratioticos" was based on a manuscript written by Leonard.[9] The other two books were written by Thomas.[10] This volume is an accounting of the various types of mathematical proofs which could be useful to a soldier in the field. [11] It contained a Pythagorean explanation of the interactions of the celestial bodies. The book also contained instruction in fractions, algebra and the science of numbers, as basic arithmetic was called. Interestingly the book also contained a breakdown of several military campaigns and a hypothetical plan for the repulsion of any force which might try to invade England.[12]

Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library

Listed in the Jefferson Inventory of Wythe's Library as "Digges's Stratioticos. 8vo." This was one of the titles kept by Thomas Jefferson and later sold to the Library of Congress in 1815. Both George Wythe's Library[13] on LibraryThing and the Brown Bibliography[14] list the 1590 edition published in London. This is also the edition Millicent Sowerby's included in Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson,[15] but, Jefferson's copy no longer exists.

As yet, the Wolf Law Library has been unable to obtain a copy of Arithmetical Warlike Treatise Named Stratioticos.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Digges, Leonard," Stephen Johnston, last modified September 23, 2004. https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/7637
  2. ↑ "Digges, Thomas," Stephen Johnston, last modified September 23, 2004. https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/7639
  3. ↑ Ibid.
  4. ↑ Johnston,"Digges, Leonard."
  5. ↑ Stephen Johnston, "Like Father, Like Son? John Dee, Thomas Digges and the Identity of the Mathematician." In John Dee: Interdisciplinary Studies in English Renaissance Thought, ed. Stephen Clucas (Springer, 2006), 67.
  6. ↑ Ibid, 76.
  7. ↑ Ibid.
  8. ↑ Johnston, "Digges, Thomas."
  9. ↑ Ibid.
  10. ↑ Ibid.
  11. ↑ Charles Hutton, A Philosophical and Mathematical Dictionary Containing... Memoirs of the Lives and Writings of the Most Eminent Authors, vol. 1 (London: Printed for the author, 1815), 417-418.
  12. ↑ Charles Hutton, A Philosophical and Mathematical Dictionary.
  13. ↑ LibraryThing, s.v. "Member: George Wythe," accessed on February 2, 2015.
  14. ↑ Bennie Brown, "The Library of George Wythe of Williamsburg and Richmond," (unpublished manuscript, May, 2012) Microsoft Word file. Earlier edition available at: https://digitalarchive.wm.edu/handle/10288/13433.
  15. ↑ E. Millicent Sowerby, Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson, (Washington, D.C.: The Library of Congress, 1952-1959), 1:518 [no.1145].
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