Background
Isaac Barrow was born in 1630 in London, England, United Kingdom. He was the son of Thomas Barrow, a linen-draper in London, belonging to an old Suffolk and Cambridgeshire family. His mother, Anne, died when Isaac was an infant.
This is the title page to the English version of Isaac Barrow's Geometrical Lectures, which were originally given in his position as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University. These lectures contain one of the earliest statements and proofs of what is today known as the fundamental theorem of calculus.
Trinity College, Cambridge, England, United Kingdom
In 1643 Barrow entered Trinity College, Cambridge, as pensioner. There he survived increasingly antiroyalist pressure for twelve years, graduating Bachelor of Arts in 1648.
Isaac Barrow (October 1630 – 4 May 1677) was an English Christian theologian and mathematician.
An engraving of Isaac Barrow, English Christian theologian and mathematician who is generally given credit for his early role in the development of infinitesimal calculus.
Isaac Barrow.Line engraving.
Isaac Barrow.Line engraving by Bernigeroth after D.Loggan.
Trinity College, Cambridge, England, United Kingdom
Statue of Dr. Isaac Barrow, Inaugurated at Trinity College, Cambridge.
Isaac Barrow, mathematician, South transcept. Bust only.
This is the title page to the English version of Isaac Barrow's Geometrical Lectures, which were originally given in his position as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University. These lectures contain one of the earliest statements and proofs of what is today known as the fundamental theorem of calculus.
Isaac Barrow (1630–1677), Master (1673–1677), Mathematician and Theologian. Portrait by Valentine Ritz (c.1695–1745), Trinity College, University of Cambridge.
Sir Isaac Newton (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/27[a]) was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, theologian, and author (described in his own day as a "natural philosopher") who is widely recognised as one of the most influential scientists of all time, and a key figure in the scientific revolution. His book Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica ("Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy"), first published in 1687, laid the foundations of classical mechanics. Newton also made seminal contributions to optics, and shares credit with Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz for developing the infinitesimal calculus.
(Containing significant contributions to the field, the wo...)
Containing significant contributions to the field, the work consists chiefly of the lectures on mathematics, optics and geometry that Barrow gave in his position as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics between 1663 and 1669. It includes the first general statement of the fundamental theorem of calculus as well as Barrow's 'differential triangle'. Not only did he precede Isaac Newton in the Lucasian chair, but his works were also to be found in the library of Gottfried Leibniz.
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1683
mathematician scientist theologian scholars
Isaac Barrow was born in 1630 in London, England, United Kingdom. He was the son of Thomas Barrow, a linen-draper in London, belonging to an old Suffolk and Cambridgeshire family. His mother, Anne, died when Isaac was an infant.
In 1643 Barrow entered Trinity College, Cambridge, as pensioner. There he survived increasingly antiroyalist pressure for twelve years, graduating Bachelor of Arts in 1648, being elected a college fellow (1649), and receiving his Master of Arts (1652), the academic passport to his final position as college lecturer and university examiner.
In 1655 Barrow set out on travels which took him through Europe and Asia Minor, and on his return in 1659 he was ordained. A year later he was appointed a professor of Greek at Cambridge University, a position which he held until 1662 when he was appointed a professor of geometry at Gresham College at the insistence of Dr. John Wilkins.
In 1663, at the first election following the granting of the royal charter, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, to whose Philosophical Transactions he was a frequent contributor. When the Lucasian professorships of mathematics were founded at Cambridge in 1663, Barrow was appointed as the first professor, retaining the position until 1669, when he resigned in favor of his most distinguished pupil, Isaac Newton.
By royal mandate in 1670, he was created doctor of divinity, and two years later Barrow was appointed master of Trinity College, Cambridge, in succession to Dr. John Pearson. He was chosen vice-chancellor of the University of Cambridge in 1675. With the notable exception of Newton, he has been considered the greatest mathematician of his time, particularly in the sphere of geometry. His writings in Latin include Euclidi elementa (1655), Euclidi data (1657), Lectiones opticae (1669), Lectiones geometricae (1676), and Mathematicae lectiones (1683). His collected works, including his sermons, were published by Dr. John Tillotson in 1683-1689.
(Containing significant contributions to the field, the wo...)
1683
Quotations:
"Nothing of worth or weight can be achieved with half a mind, with a faint heart, and with a lame endeavor."
"The reading of books, what is it but conversing with the wisest men of all ages and all countries."
"Mathematics - the unshaken Foundation of Sciences, and the plentiful Fountain of Advantage to human affairs."
"He who loveth a book will never want a faithful friend, a wholesome counsellor, a cheerful companion, or an effectual comforter."
"It is a fair adornment of a man and a great convenience both to himself and to all those with whom he converses and deals, to act uprightly, uniformly, and consistently. The practice of piety frees a man from interior distraction and from irresolution in his mind, from duplicity or inconstancy in his character, and from confusion in his proceedings, and consequently securing for others freedom from deception and disappointment in their transactions with him."
"Upright simplicity is the deepest wisdom, and perverse craft the merest shallowness."
"The fruits of the earth do not more obviously require labor and cultivation to prepare them for our use and subsistence, than our faculties demand instruction and regulation in order to qualify us to become upright and valuable members of society, useful to others, or happy ourselves."
"Virtue is not a mushroom, that springeth up of itself in one night when we are asleep, or regard it not; but a delicate plant, that groweth slowly and tenderly, needing much pains to cultivate it, much care to guard it, much time to mature it, in our untoward soil, in this world's unkindly weather."
"Smiling always with a never fading serenity of countenance, and flourishing in an immortal youth."
"Even private persons in due season, with discretion and temper, may reprove others, whom they observe to commit sin, or follow bad courses, out of charitable design, and with hope to reclaim them."
"It consisteth in one knows not what, and springeth up one can hardly tell how. Its ways are unaccountable and inexplicable, being answerable to the numberless rovings of fancy and windings of language."
"Every ear is tickled with the sweet music of applause."
"It is safe to make a choice of your thoughts, scarcely ever safe to express them all."
"Wherefore for the public interest and benefit of human society it is requisite that the highest obligations possible should be laid upon the consciences of men."
"If we desire to live securely, comfortably, and quietly, that by all honest means we should endeavor to purchase the good will of all men, and provoke no man's enmity needlessly; since any man's love may be useful, and every man's hatred is dangerous."
"An accomplished mathematician, i.e. a most wretched orator."
"That in affairs of very considerable importance men should deal with one another with satisfaction of mind, and mutual confidence, they must receive competent assurances concerning the integrity, fidelity, and constancy each of other."
"If men are wont to play with swearing anywhere, can we expect they should be serious and strict therein at the bar or in the church."
Although Barrow was one of the first fellows of the Royal Society after its incorporation in 1662, he never took an active part in its meetings.
Barrow's personality was in all respects worthy of his great talents, though he had a strong vein of eccentricity.
Quotes from others about the person
His friend Abraham Hill recalled:
"He was afraid, as a clergyman, of spending too much time upon Mathematics; for … he had vowed in his ordination to serve God in the Gospel of his Son, and he could not make a bible out of his Euclid, or a pulpit out of his mathematical chair."
Isaac Barrow was never married.