Tables } and their Calculators. 381 



desire was to have those Chiliades that are wantinge betwixt 20 

 and 90 calculated and printed, and I had done them all almost 

 by my selfe, and by some frendes whom my rules had sufficiently 

 informed, and by agreement the busines was conveniently parted 

 amongst us ; but I am eased of that charge and care by one 

 Adrian Vlacque, an Hollander, who hathe done all the whole 

 hundred chiliades and printed them in Latin, Dutche, and 

 Frenche, 1000 bookes in these 3 languages, and hathe sould 

 them almost all. But he hathe cutt of 4 of my figures through- 

 out; and hathe left out my Dedication, and to the reader, and 

 two chapters the 12 and 13, in the rest he hathe not varied from 

 me at all." (The whole letter is printed in the f Letters on 

 Scientific Subjects ' published by the Historical Society of 

 Science in 1841, under the editorship of Mr. Halliwell.) 



I wrote and asked Prof, de Haan if he knew of, or could find, 

 any Dutch copy in the Libraries at Ley den; and he has in- 

 formed me he has not been able to meet with any trace of any 

 such having appeared. I think it likely that the copies origi- 

 nally intended for the Dutch edition were, when it appeared that 

 there was little demand for them in Holland, sent to London to 

 be appended to an English introduction, and sold over here. 

 Whether George Miller bought the copies, or merely printed 

 the Introduction for Vlacq is uncertain ; but the latter supposi- 

 tion is in accord with Vlacq's having come to London in 1632 

 (the year of publication) as a bookseller. 



No one can fail to notice the total absence of any feeling of 

 irritation on Briggs's part against Vlacq for having anticipated 

 him in the performance of a work he had so much at heart, and 

 which he had nearly performed himself. This is in perfect 

 agreement with every thing else that is known of Briggs ; and 

 there is no reason to doubt that he stated the simple truth when 

 he closed his preface to Wright's translation of the Canon Miri- 

 ficus with the words, " I ever rest a lover of all them that love 

 the Mathematickes." Who Briggs's friends were who were 

 helping him with the calculation can only be conjectured. Very 

 likely Gunter may have been one ; and there is reason to think 

 that J. Welles, of Deptford, the author of the Sciographia, was 

 another ; for in a letter from the latter to Briggs, dated January 

 9, 1621, and printed in the c Correspondence of Scientific Men 

 of the Seventeenth Century, in the Collection of the Earl of 

 Macclesfield/ 1841-1862, he speaks about the calculation of 

 logarithms in a manner which implies that he was assisting 

 Briggs in the computations needed for the Arithmetica, 1624. In 

 reference to this work it is worth while to quote a sentence that 

 occurs in a letter from Collins to Wallis under date Feb. 2, 166| 

 (in the same collection) : — " Mr. Briggs' s Arithmetica Logarithm 



