Lot 37
Simson, Robert (1687-1768)
Autograph letter signed to James Stirling
The Library of James Stirling, Mathematician
Auction: 23 October 2025 from 13:00 GMT
Description
dated Glasgow, 22nd July 1740, addressed to Stirling at Leadhills, 2 pp., commencing ‘I had the favour of yours yesterday with the theorem concerning the Ellipse, the demonstration I found of it is as follows, which I hope will not be disagreeable to you’, with two diagrams by Simson, and annotated apparently by James Stirling with various mathematical equations to head of the first page and to recto of conjugate blank, chips and tears to edges, 18.5 x 23cm
Footnote
Robert Simson held the chair in mathematics at the University of Glasgow for 50 years, from 1711 to 1761, making a lasting impact on mathematical education in Scotland. He was an important figure in the restoration and translation of classical mathematical texts, and his standing as a geometer is reflected in the enduring legacy of the ‘Simson Line’. Together with James Stirling and Colin Maclaurin he was one of three pre-eminent Scottish mathematicians in the first half of the 18th century. Stirling and Simson engaged with Newton's legacy in different ways: Stirling (and Maclaurin) were ‘part of the research programme in Britain spawned by Newton’s formulation of the fluxional calculus, while the work of Robert Simson and Matthew Stewart was inspired by Newton's preference for geometrical as opposed to algebraic analysis' (Broadie, ed., The Cambridge Companion to the Scottish Enlightenment, 2003, p. 105).