Vlll PREFACE. 



of so early a date still preserved. Thanks to the 

 venerable Lord Burghley, a few fragments are still 

 preserved, which, though often individually of no 

 great importance, are very curious illustrations of 

 the state of English science at that period. For 

 instance, the letter of Emery Molineux to Lord 

 Burghley, printed at p. 37, is in itself of little in- 

 terest or value ; but when joined with the fact that 

 it is the only known memorial respecting one who 

 was distinguished as the first mathematical instru- 

 ment-maker* of his day, it becomes a document at 

 once curious and valuable, and well worthy of pre- 

 servation in an available form. 



Before the publication of a very able and interest- 

 ing paper on the early English mathematical and 

 astronomical writers in the Companion to the British 

 Almanac for 1837, written by Professor De Morgan, 

 nothing had been attempted towards even a connected 

 sketch of the scientific labours of our countrymen 

 during the latter half of the sixteenth century. " Far 

 from having," says Professor De Morgan, " such a 

 work as those of Montucla or Delambre in our lan- 

 guage, we have not even a chronological compendium 

 like that of Weidler, Heilbronner, or Gerard Vossius." 

 But necessarily imperfect in its details as Prof, de Mor- 

 gan's sketch is, yet it may fairly rank with its conti- 

 nental companions, and gives, we may safely say, a 



* Davis, in the Seaman's Secrets, 4to. Lond. 1594, bestows the 

 like praise upon him. According to Maunsel's Catalogue he was 

 the author of a treatise on the use of the globes, but I have never 

 been fortunate enough to meet with a copy. 



