Robert Recorde : The Life and Times of a Tudor Mathematician

The inventor of the equals sign (=), Robert Recorde (1510?-1558) was the first English-writing mathematics educator: this book celebrates his work. Recent research has revealed new information about the Welsh Tudor mathematician, Robert Recorde who invented the equals sign (=) – what inspired his work and what was its influence on the development of mathematics education in the English-speaking world. The findings of that research, presented at a commemorative conference in 2008, form the core of this publication. The book begins with an account of Recorde’s life and an overview of his work in mathematics, medicine and cosmography. Individual chapters concentrate on each of his books in turn, taken chronologically, and are supplemented by chapters that present historical perspectives of Recorde’s work and its wider European links and one that sets Recorde’s work within the general knowledge economy. "Recent research has revealed new information about the Welsh Tudor mathematician Robert Recorde, who invented the equals sign (=) -- what inspired his work, and what its influence was on the development of mathematics education in the English-speaking world. The findings of that research, presented at a commemorative conference in 2008, from the core of this publication. The book begins with an account of Recorde's life and an overview of his work in mathematics, medicine and cosmography. Individual chapters concentrate on each of his books in turn, taken chronologically, and are supplemented by chapters that present historical perspectives of Recorde's work and its wider European links, setting it within the general knowledge economy."--Page 4 of cover 1 The lives and works of Robert Recorde Jack Williams 2 Robert Recorde and his remarkable Arithmetic John Denniss and Fenny Smith 3 Recorde and The Vrinal of Physick: context, uroscopy and the practice of medicine Margaret Pelling 4 The Pathway to Knowledg and the English Euclidean tradition Jacqueline Stedall 5 The Castle of Knowledge: astronomy and the sphere Stephen Johnston 6 The Whetstone of Witte: content and sources Ulrich Reich 7 The Welsh context of Robert Recorde Nia M. W. Powell 8 Commonwealth and Empire: Robert Recorde in Tudor England Howell A. Lloyd 9 Data, computation and the Tudor knowledge economy John V. Tucker Robert Recorde was the first person to write an original book on arithmetic in English, rather than in the then-standard Latin or Greekand thus the first to write about math in a way that ordinary people could understand. He was, in effect, the first mathematics teacher in the English-speaking world. This biography, which provides a comprehensive overview of Recordes life and work, traces the major influences on his study and his writing and charts his contribution to the development of mathematical and scientific thinking in Europe.