LIMY.
Literature Sources
18
The first logarithmic tables for sexagesimal sines and tangents were computed
by Gunter and - with higher precision - by Vlacq. For a very long time, all
published logarithm tables have been based on the Briggs-De Decker-Vlacq and
the Gunter-Vlacq computations. From a pure mathematician's perspective, Vlacq
and De Decker have not contributed fundamentally to science with the "Great
Table" (it has even been called "raiding Briggs' Arithmetica Logarithmica/'}.
But we should realise that the fame of Vlacq was more due to the
commercial publishing of the "Great Table", and after that a large number of the
"small" tables bearing his name, even though most were published after his
death, and even though those contained only 10,000 numbers in stead of the
100,000 in the "Great Table".
Vlacq's great accomplishment is that - after the "Great Table" - he
perceived the public need for a more practical, smaller table, and he produced it.
In the Netherlands, many Vlacq tables have been preserved in university and
museum libraries, especially in Leiden and Amsterdam (about a hundred copies
of more than 40 different editions). Antiquarian bookshops often have Vlacq
tables for sale, which also can shed more light on specific editions. End 19th
century, much research on the history of these logarithmic tables has been
carried out, mainly by Glaisher in England, see [10] - [12], and by Bierens de
Haan in the Netherlands, see [13] - [16], In the first half of the 20th century the
discussion on this history has continued, certainly after the discovery in 1920 of
the one and only copy of the Nieuwe Te/konst, Part II. Some erroneous or
conflicting information exists and has trickled down to derived publications or
internet texts, like the overestimation of Vlacq's scientific capabilities, the role
division between Vlacq and De Decker, or the misconception that Vlacq owned
Rammaseyn's printshop in Gouda. Bierens de Haan has mentioned many
published tables in [14] and in his - often disputed - list [16], some of which
cannot be confirmed by library catalogues or other sources. Therefore these
have been left out in this paper, like an isolated reference to a Dutch table in
1636, which - if proven to exist - would have been the real first "small" Vlacq
table, in stead of the known 1651 edition. I have tried to use as much as
possible the original references while compiling this history of the early Briggian
tables. But even a published statement by an author - like Vlacq about himself -
does not really prove its contents.
G O U T S E
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