Bijdrage tot de bio-bibliografie van Johannes Hudde

Abstract

Investigation of the work of the Dutch mathematician Johannes Hudde (1628-1704) has always been marred by a lack of sources. Hudde published little (in fact, all his works known in the literature were published by others) and most of his manuscripts got lost after his death. In this article, attention is drawn to some informations which has up till now remained without notice: 1. In 1656, Hudde published anonymously a short treatise on dioptrics, more especially on spherical aberration: Specilla circularia. Printed copies have not been recovered, but the text is preserved by two manuscripts, in London and Hannover, and will be published shortly. 2. Equally in 1656, Hudde appears to have published two anonymous pamphlets in defence of Copernicanism. These pamphlets were part of a wider pamphlet-war on the issue. They were directed in particular against the Leiden minister Jacob du Bois. 3. The Amsterdam municipal archives keep a collection of notes by Hudde on the regulation of the water circulation in the Amsterdam canals. 4. In an appendix, the text of an (earlier noticed) memorandum by David Gregory on a visit to Hudde on 27 May 1693, is transcribed and translated with a few annotations. Among other things it appears that Hudde had undertaken an enumeration of curves of the third degree independently of Newton.