Walter Warner
Walter Warner (* around 1557 in Leicestershire ; † 1643 ) was a British mathematician , alchemist and natural scientist .
Life
Warner studied at Oxford University ( Merton College ) with a bachelor's degree (MA) in 1578. This gives his approximate age (four years of study and beginning of studies around the age of 17). Possibly he belonged to Richard Hakluyt's circle in Oxford in the early 1580s . Since 1590 at the latest he belonged to the circle of Henry Percy , the Count of Northumberland, whom he also advised scientifically when he was locked in the Tower . With Robert Hues (who graduated from Oxford in the same year as he) and Thomas Harriot , he was one of the three Magi who met him in the Tower. The earl was known as the Wizard Earl and Warner used him to conduct alchemical experiments. He was also its secretary and librarian . He remained in the service of Percy until 1617 and received a pension from him until 1631. He also moved in circles around Walter Raleigh , who was also a friend of Percy, and was possibly a member of his circle later called the School of Night . He may also have been associated with William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle , and his Welbeck Academy , which also included his brother Charles Cavendish and Thomas Hobbes.
After Henry Percy he was patronized by his son Algernon Percy and later by Thomas Aylesbury .
In the 1630s he worked with John Pell to calculate a table of potencies ( antilogarithms ) that have not been preserved, published the Artis Analyticae Praxis of Thomas Harriot in 1631 (Harriot commissioned Nathaniel Torporley , who was supposed to consult Hues and Warner, who ultimately fell but Warner's work too) and dealt with optics , which he discussed with Thomas Hobbes , among others . During his lifetime, he published nothing, but his work was as input into the discussion of optics in Cogitata physico-mathematica by Marin Mersenne (1644). John Aubrey wrote in his biography (whose source of information was again Pell, who admired Warner) that Warner was for the first time William Harvey in the discovery of the circulatory system , and that Harvey also knew of Warner's work and even published it under his own name (1628).
His estate reveals a variety of interests, e.g. B. in nautical science , and shows him as a supporter of atomism . According to Prins ( dissertation 1992) an influence on the materialistic philosophy of Hobbes is unlikely, for that his remarks in this regard in the estate are insufficiently thought out. He was influenced by Giordano Bruno , but also by many other philosophical currents, but he showed no interest in occultism and mysticism .
literature
- Stephen Clucas: Walter Warner (c. 1558-1643). In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . 2004
- J. Jacquot: Harriot, Hill, Warner and the New Philosophy. In: J. Shirley: Thomas Harriot Renaissance scientist. Oxford 1974
- Jan Prins: Walter Warner (approx. 1557-1643) and his notes on Animal Organisms. Dissertation, Utrecht University, 1992
The main sources on Warner are John Aubrey ( Brief Lives ) and Anthony Wood ( Athenae Oxonienses and Fasti ). Released manuscripts are in the British Library .
Individual evidence
- ↑ This year he is listed as a member of the household in the books.
- ↑ John Aubrey: Brief Lives
- ↑ He is not mentioned in Percy's draft will.
- ↑ It has been suggested that the mathematician James Dodson used them for his tables published in 1742.
- ↑ Muriel Seltman, Robert Goulding: translated new edition of the Artis Analyticae Praxis by Harriot, Springer Verlag 2007, p. 4
- ↑ As well as Izaak Walton and Seth Ward
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Warner, Walter |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British mathematician and alchemist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | around 1557 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Leicestershire |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1643 |