Description
Autograph Note Signed ‘Rob:Simson Gl:Univ’, providing details of payments to Dr.William’s Exhibitioners, and attesting that the three named exhibitioners “have behaved regularly and as became students during the Sessions that commences in October last”. 9 x 7½ inches, tipped on to an album page, with tears in folds and other minor defects. Glasgow, 20 May 1760. Robert Simson (1687–1768), mathematician, Professor of Mathematics at Glasgow University from 1712 to 1761. His most influential work was probably his definitive edition of Euclid’s Elements, which he published in 1756. Both his Euclid and his Conic Sections ran through many editions and were translated into several languages. In spite of his obsession with Greek geometry Simson was familiar with contemporary mathematics and included the elements of fluxionary calculus in his courses. [DNB]