BER 
BER 
Oriental manuscripts left to that university 
by Joseph Scaliger and Levin Warner, and 
especially the 5th, 6th, and 7th books of 
Apollonius’s Conics, the Greek text of 
which is lost, and this Arabic version having 
been brought from the east by the cele- 
brated Golius, a transcript of which was 
thence taken by Bernard, and brought with 
him to Oxford, with intent to publish it 
there with a Latin translation ; but he was 
obliged to drop that design for want of en- 
couragement. This however was after- 
wards carried into effect by Dr. Hailey in 
1710, with the addition of the 8tli book, 
which he supplied by his own ingenuity and 
industry. 
At his return to Oxford, Bernard ex- 
amined and collated the most valuable ma- 
nuscripts in the Bodleian library. In 1669, 
the celebrated Christopher Wren, Savilian 
professor of astronomy at Oxford, having 
been appointed Surveyor-General of his 
Majesty’s works, and being much detained 
at London by this employment, obtained 
leave to name a deputy at Oxford, and 
pitched upon Mr. Bernard, which engaged 
the latter in a more particular application 
to the study of astronomy. But in 1673 he 
was appointed to the professorship himself, 
which Wren was obliged to resign, as, by 
the statutes of the founder, Sir Henry Sa- 
ville, the professors are not allowed to hold 
any other office either ecclesiastical or civil. 
About this time a scheme was set on foot 
at Oxford, of collecting and publishing the 
ancient mathematicians. Mr. Bernard, who 
had first formed the project, collected all 
the old books published on that subject 
since the invention of printing, and all the 
manuscripts he could discover in the Bod- 
leian and Savilian libraries, which he ar- 
ranged in order of time, and according to 
the matter they contained ; of this he drew 
up a synopsis or view ; and as a specimen 
he published a few sheets of Euclid, con- 
taining the Greek text, and a Latin version, 
with Proclus’s commentary in Greek and 
Latin, and learned scholia and corollaries. 
The synopsis itself was published by Dr. 
Smith, at the end of his life of our author, 
under the title of “ Veteram Mathemati- 
corum Graecorum, Latinorum, et Arabum, 
Synopsis.” And at the end of it there is a 
catalogue of some Greek writers, whose 
works are supposed to be lost in their own 
language, but are preserved in the Syriac or 
Arabic translations of them. 
Toward the latter end of his life he was 
much afflicted with the stone ; yet notwith- 
standing this, and other infirmities, he un- 
dertook a voyage to Holland, to attend the 
sale of Golius’s manuscripts, as he had once 
before done at the sale of Heinsius’s library. 
On his return to England, he fell into a lan- 
guishing consumption, which put an end to 
his life the 12th of January 1696, in the .58th 
year of his age. He was the author of many 
valuable works. 
BERNOULLI (James), a celebrated 
mathematician, born at Basil the 27tii of 
December;, 1654. Having taken his degrees 
in that university, he applied himself to di- 
vinity at the entreaties of his father, but. 
against his own inclination, which led him 
to astronomy and matSiematics. He gave 
very early proofs of his genius for these 
sciences, and soon became a geometrician, 
without a preceptor, and almost without 
books ; for if one by chance fell into his 
hands, he was obliged to conceal it, to 
avoid the displeasure of his father, who de- 
signed him for other studies. This situa- 
tion induced him to choose for his device, 
Phaelon driving the chariot of the sun, with 
these words, Invito patre sidera verso, “ I 
traverse the stars against my father’s will 
alluding particularly to astronomy, to which 
he then chiefly applied himself. 
In 1676 he began his travels. When he 
was at Geneva, he fell upon a method to 
teach a young girl to write who had been 
blind from two months old. At Bourdeaux 
he composed universal gnomonic tables; 
but they were never published. He re- 
turned from France to his own country in 
1680. About this time there appeared a 
comet, the return of which he foretold ; and 
wrote a small treatise upon it. Soon after 
this he went into Holland, where he applied 
himself to the study of the new philosophy. 
Having visited Flanders and Brabant, he 
passed over to England ; where he formed 
an acquaintance with the most eminent 
men in the sciences, and was frequent at 
their philosophical meetings. He returned 
to his native country in 168| ; and exhibited 
at Basil a cours6 of experiments in natural 
philosophy and mechanics, which consisted 
of a variety of new discoveries. The same 
year he published his “ Essay on a new Sys- 
tem of Comets and'the year following, his 
“ Dissertation on the Weight of the Air.” 
About this time Leibnitz having published, in 
the Acta Eruditorum at Leipsic, some essays 
on his new “ Calculus Differentialis/ but 
concealing the art and method of it, Mr. Ber- 
noulli and his brother John discovered, by 
the little which they saw, the beauty andex- 
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