Napier revisited or A new look at the computation of his logarithms

Abstract

After 400 years it seems improbable that something new can be said about the way Napier computed his logarithms. Time has passed over these logarithms and made them as well as the ways of their computation obsolete almost immediately after their publication. In particular we had to wait exactly 270 years until a translation of the Latin original of the Constructio into English came into being, and this shows clearly that the interest in Napier’s work is confined to the realm of history. But even there we find nothing but the facts which are well known for almost two centuries. In contrast, we propose to follow the path opened by one of us and to have a new and fresh look at the rules and methods which had to be formulated from scratch by John Napier, as well as their possible applications.