OUGHTRED AND HARRIOT
Oughtred’s Clavis mathematicae was the most influential mathematical publication in Great Britain which appeared in the interval between John Napier’s Mirifici logarithmorum canonis descriptio, Edinburgh, 1614, and the time, forty years later, when John Wallis began to publish his important researches at Oxford. The year 1631 is of interest as the date of publication, not only of Oughtred’s Clavis, but also of Thomas Harriot’s Artis analyticae praxis. We have no evidence that these two mathematicians ever met. Through their writings they did not influence each other. Harriot died ten years before the appearance of his magnum opus, or ten years before the publication of Oughtred’s Clavis. Strangely, Oughtred, who survived Harriot thirty-nine years, never mentions him. There is no doubt that, of the two, Harriot was the more original mind, more capable of penetrating into new fields of research. But he had the misfortune of having a strong competitor in René Descartes in the development of algebra, so that no single algebraic achievement stands out strongly and conspicuously as Harriot’s own contribution to algebraic science. As a text to serve as an introduction to algebra, Harriot’s Artis analyticae praxis was inferior to Oughtred’s Clavis. The former was a much larger book, not as conveniently portable, compiled after the author’s death by others, and not prepared with the care in the development of the details, nor with the coherence and unity and the profound pedagogic insight which distinguish the work of Oughtred. Nor was Harriot’s position in life such as to be surrounded by so wide a circle of pupils as was Oughtred. To be sure, Harriot had such followers as Torporley, William Lower, and Protheroe in Wales, but this group is small as compared with Oughtred’s.