- Add. MS. 6789, ff. 448r, 448v, 449, 450. A small selection is given without indication of source by Lohne J.A. Thomas Harriot als Mathematiker Centaurus 1965 11 19 45 see p. 43.
- He was initially concerned with the astronomical papers for his defence of Oxford against the charge of neglecting to publish them. This defence was set forth in a ‘Letter to the Editors’ of the Journal of the Royal Institution 1831 2 267 267 the letter was entitled ‘On Harriot's Papers’ and dated, Oxford, Sept. 1, 1831. The defence was reported to the Ashmolean Society at Oxford, being read on 16 March 1832 (Ref. 1 supra, ff. 256–285), and to the Royal Society on 17 and 24 May 1832 (summarized in Proc. Roy. Soc., 1832, 3, 125), and to the British Association in the same year (B.A. Report, 1832, 1st edn., p.602, 2nd edn., p. 613). The whole was finalized in a more general account in The Miscellaneous Works of James Bradley, Oxford, 1832, pp. 511–522, and in the Supplement, 1833, pp. 17–70, plus plates. Detailed lists and descriptions relevant to these are in the Bodleian Library, MSS. Rigaud 56, ff. 49–69. Rigaud then combed the British Museum collections for further evidence (Letter from Rigaud, dated Richmond, Surrey, July 23, 1831, to the Rev. Thos. Sockett. The letter is with the Harriot manuscripts at Petworth, Leconfield MSS. 241, x. His findings confirmed for him that ‘Harriot's astronomical papers are not indeed of that high character which mark his analytical labours, but they are not unworthy of him’. (Rigaud, loc. cit. f. 285.)
- Rigaud's sources and comments are discussed in my paper The Study of Thomas Harriot's Manuscripts History of Science 1967 6 8 8 Part 1 1–16
- Pepper , Jon V. 1967 . A Letter from Nathaniel Torporley to Thomas Harriot . Brit. J. Hist. Sci. , 3 : 285 – 290 .
- Torporley , N. 1602 . Diclides Coelometricae London Preface
- John Prothero (1582?–1624), the same ‘mysterious Mr. Prothero’ about whom G. Webster enquires in his review of Keynes Geoffrey The Life of William Harvey Oxford 1966 (Brit. J. Hist. Sci., 1967, 3, 406). This Prothero, in the priority claim for the discovery of the circulation of the blood, which John Pell (1611–1685) mooted on behalf of Walter Warner (1560?–1643), figures, not as ‘one of the claimants’, but as the source of the leakage. See Aubrey's Brief Lives, ed. by O. L. Dick, 3rd edn, London, 1958; article ‘Walter Warner’, pp. 315–316, where the story is discounted.
- Harriott , Thomas . 1631 . Artis Analyticae Praxis London (posthumous)
- Sion College MS. L40. 2/E10 Corrector Analyticus A closer study of this document is being made by Dr. J. G. Landels.
- Halliwell , J.O. 1841 . A Collection of Letters illustrative of the Progress of Science from the Reign of Queen Elizabeth to that of Charles II 109 – 116 . London
- Lohne , J.A. 1966 . Dokumente zur Revalidierung von Thomas Harriot als Algebraiker . Arch. Hist. Exact Sci. , 3 : 185 – 205 . p. 204. The passage was quoted and correctly attributed to Torporley by J. O. Halliwell, Life of Sir Samuel Morland, Cambridge, 1838, p. 28, with the comment ‘He quarrelled with Warner soon afterwards … calls Harriot “homo evanidus” meaning probably that his fame as a mathematician would not last …’, which, pending further authentication, remains pure romantic conjecture.
- In Thomas Harriot and his Associates (posth.) London 1900 201 201 Henry Stevens (1819–1886) even lists Aylesbury and a third executor as co-editors with Walter Warner, whose ultimate responsibility, declared by Anthony à Wood (1632–1695) in Athenae Oxonienses, Oxford, 1691 (edited by P. Bliss, 1815, vol. ii, p. 460) and by John Wallis (1616–1703) in Algebra, London, 1685, without indication of authority, has never been called in question, and is confirmed by implication in the letter from Aylesbury reproduced by Stevens on pp. 189–190.
- Harriot . 1631 . Artis Analyticae Praxis 180 – 180 . London
- Lohne's article Dokumente zur Revalidierung von Thomas Harriot als Algebraiker Arch. Hist. Exact Sci. 1966 3 185 205 p. 204. shows neither feature.
Annals of Science
Volume 25, 1969 - Issue 4