Robert Recorde was a sixteenth-century polymath. He obtained qualifications in mathematics and medicine from Oxford and Cambridge Universities, was a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, a physician to Edward VI and Queen Mary, and a surveyor of mines and money for the Crown. This is his mathematical manual, written for the non-specialist. On the right-hand page, tiring of repeatedly writing ‘is equal to’, he invents the equals sign (=), so designed ‘bicause noe 2 thynges can be moare equalle’ than two parallel lines of the same length.
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What makes this a treasure?
The quote ‘bicause noe 2 thynges can be moare equalle’ is on the left-hand page of the double spread, not the right-hand page.
Posted by Adrian James
On 16/02/2012