Editorial

This special issue of BJHM presents five papers based on those given at the workshop on ‘Mathematical and Astronomical Practices in pre-Enlightenment Scotland and her European Networks’, held at the University of St Andrews on 23–24 November 2018. Abstracts of the other workshop presentations are included in ‘Meeting News’ at the end of this issue.

‘Why would anyone even think of establishing an astronomical observatory in St Andrews?’ asked one bemused Italian participant. The sky was never visible as two days of solid rain coincided with the workshop; nevertheless, it was a great success. The workshop had originally been inspired by a question. What did St Andrews, a small, isolated, and relatively backward university on the east coast of Scotland, think it was doing in 1673 when it decided to commission an astronomical observatory, six years after the founding of the Paris observatory, and two years ahead of Greenwich? Unlike these better-known examples, St Andrews apparently lacked the backing of scientific societies, government, or royalty. What was going on?

We realized that we could not answer the question at present, nor others like it. We do not know enough about how mathematical and astronomical knowledge and practices circulated into, around, and from, Scotland in the early modern period. Nor do we understand how these practices interacted with, and flourished within, the religious, political, and cultural divisions rife in Scotland at the time and around which most current historiography of the period revolves.

The purpose of the workshop was to bring together what is known, and to explore the issues, as a basis for building a better understanding in future. Thirteen speakers from six countries, half of them postgraduate students or post-docs, covered topics ranging from the influence of the Portuguese cosmographer Pedro Nunes on British nautical science in the sixteenth-century, to the local situatedness of Colin Maclaurin and his French contemporaries in the eighteenth discussed in Jane Wess’s paper in this issue. The influence of Scottish networks outside Scotland is evident in Philip Beeley’s analysis of the contribution of Colin Campbell, John Craig, and David Gregory to the promotion of Newton’s ideas in the 1680s, and in Davide Crippa’s detailed investigation of the circulation of James Gregory’s Vera Circuli et hyperbolae quadratura in Italy. Conversely, Olivier Bruneau discusses the impact of Newtonianism within Scotland in his case study of Colin Maclaurin.

The remaining author in this issue, Alex Craik, was a key participant throughout the workshop, contributing many thought-provoking questions and stimulating discussion points. His paper on George Sinclair established the value of looking at lesser-known figures and those who influenced or commented on them. His paper helps to display the breadth and depth of Scottish networks in the late seventeenth century, as well as many of the social, religious and political – and mathematical – dimensions of those networks. BSHM members who knew Alex and his outstanding contributions to the history of mathematics will be sad to hear of his death on 17 November 2019.

A number of fruitful topics for further research emerged from these discussions: an investigation of the circulation of texts through Scotland, and of mathematics publication in Scotland; a closer look at the regents in Scottish Universities, who they were and what they were teaching; mathematics instruction outside the universities and its connection to trade and commerce; possible influences on St Andrews of the Leiden Observatory; bringing together historians of religion and of science to unpick the interplay in Scotland’s complex and ever-changing religious landscape; and where does Freemasonry, which originated in Scotland in the mid-seventeenth century, fit into the picture? We look forward to future meetings addressing these questions.

We are grateful to the meeting sponsors, the Royal Astronomical Society, the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications, the British Society for the History of Science, and the British Society for the History of Mathematics, who supported many of the speakers. For those of you who missed the meeting, the full programme of abstracts is available on the workshop website http://www.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/MathsHistory/mathprac2018.shtml.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.