(Mathhombre) Miscellanea

There is (gentle reader) nothing (the works of God only set apart) which so much beautifies and adorns the soul and mind of man as does knowledge of the good arts and sciences. ... Many ... arts there are which beautify the mind of man; but of all none do more garnish and beautify it than those arts which are called mathematical, unto the knowledge of which no man can attain, without perfect knowledge and instruction of the principles, grounds, and Elements of Geometry.

~John Dee, The Mathematical Preface

Seen at On This Day in Math

"1527 John Dee born in London, England (13 July 1527–1608 or 1609). In 1570 he wrote a “fruitfull Praeface” to the Billingsley translation of Euclid, which he edited. This was the first English Euclid.*VFR

Dee was a noted English mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, occultist, navigator, imperialist and consultant to Queen Elizabeth I. He devoted much of his life to the study of alchemy, divination and Hermetic philosophy.

Dee straddled the worlds of science and magic just as they were becoming distinguishable. One of the most learned men of his age, he had been invited to lecture on advanced algebra at the University of Paris while still in his early twenties. Dee was an ardent promoter of mathematics and a respected astronomer, as well as a leading expert in navigation, having trained many of those who would conduct England's voyages of discovery.*Wik

Aubrey's Brief Lives gives Dee credit for inventing the phrase, "The British Empire."

Leon Polk Smith, New York, 1945

Oil and pencil on linen

"The universe is written in the language of mathematics, and its characters are triangles, circles, and other geometric figures"

Rhythms