As I have mentioned in a few previous posts, the efforts of mathematical practitioners in England during the last third of the sixteenth century and into the seventeenth century concerning navigation were a crucial component of the deep-sea expeditions carried out by sailors during what is often called the Age of Discovery. Nevertheless, I prefer to refer to it as the Age of Exploitation. To quote myself:
Discovering new lands, which were previously unknown to Europeans, served as a secondary objective of these voyages; their foremost aim was trade. The expeditions were in pursuit of goods that could generate wealth for both themselves and their investors, including metal ores—gold, silver, copper—luxurious materials like silk, and particularly spices. Vasco da Gama’s (c. 1460s–1524), Christopher Columbus’s (1541–1506), and Magellan’s (1480–1521) voyages aimed at undermining the Arabic control over the overland spice trade between Asia and Europe. Subsequent quests for a North-East or North-West passage were intended to identify a shorter, more direct trade route between Europe and Asia.
England, arriving late to the rivalry, also sought a piece of the riches, and mathematical practitioners were anticipated to simplify and secure maritime ventures. Navigators and instrument makers did not operate in isolation but were part of a larger social endeavor to enable England to catch up with Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch sailors. This initiative encompassed publications on new theories, such as “Certaine Errors in Navigation” (1599) by Edward Wright (1561–1615) and the earlier “The Cosmographical Glasse” (1559) by William Cuningham (1531–c.1586). There were also efforts to establish public lectures on new mathematics to assist mariners, like those led by Thomas Hood (1556–1620), who was appointed the Mathematical Lecturer to the City of London in 1588. This was succeeded by the founding of Gresham College, established by a bequest from the merchant Thomas Gresham (c. 1519–1579) in his will, which was inaugurated in 1597 with Henry Briggs (1561–1630), a close associate and collaborator of Edward Wright, as the inaugural Gresham Professor for Geometry.
At the political level, significant figures advocated and backed the formation of a British Empire to compete with those of Spain and Portugal. The earliest was John Dee (1527–c. 1608), who in his 1570 manuscript “Brytannicae reipublicae synopsis” promoted English colonies, particularly in North America, in his “General and Rare Memorials pertayning to the Perfect Arte of Navigation” (1576). Despite often facing ridicule for his deep fascination with the occult, Dee was, in fact, a leading and highly impactful mathematical practitioner and navigational adviser to several early ventures aimed at discovering both the North-East Passage and the North-West passage. An even more prominent promoter of empire was Richard Hakluyt (1552?–1616), with his “Divers Voyages Touching the Discoverie of America and the Ilands Adjacent unto the Same, Made First of all by our Englishmen and Afterwards by the Frenchmen and Britons,” published in London by Thomas Woodcocke in 1562. This was followed by his unpublished manuscript “A Particuler Discourse Concerninge the Greate Necessitie and Manifolde Commodyties That Are Like to Growe to This Realme of Englande by the Westerne Discoueries Lately Attempted, Written in the Yere 1584,” which was dedicated to Queen Elizabeth. Hakluyt continued to gather accounts of voyages, frequently interviewing mariners personally, leading to the 1589 publication of his monumental “The Principall Navigations, Voiages, and Discoveries of the English Nations.” This work, which expanded into three folio volumes by 1600, is now regarded as a classic of English literature.
After Hakluyt’s passing in 1616, Anglican cleric Samuel Purchas took on the role of compiling new narratives. Purchas, born in 1577 and educated at St John’s College Cambridge, became vicar of St. Laurence and All Saints in Eastwood in South-East Essex in 1604, where he began amassing accounts of voyages, travels, and discoveries. In 1613, Purchas released his initial book, “Purchas His Pilgrimage,” a folio volume cataloging the world’s religions and geographies from biblical creation to contemporary discoveries. It became a popular work, with expanded editions continuing until 1626. Purchas subsequently published “Purchas his Pilgrim or Microcosmus” in 1619 and his most ambitious endeavor, “Purchas his Pilgrimes,” in 1625. “Purchas his Pil