men holding rules

Shakespeare puts words in Cleopatra's mouth that tell more about class attitudes in his time than in hers:

                                      Mechanic slaves
With greasy aprons, rules, and hammers shall
Uplift us to the view. In their thick breaths,
Rank of gross diet, shall we be enclouded.
And forc'd to drink their vapor.
              (AC. V. ii. 209-13)

She's telling an attendant how she feels about the prospect of being acclaimed by plebeian Romans. Though less pungently, Coriolanus said much the same. So did Puck, quoted in my last post.[1]

It's not easy to generalize with any confidence about the attitudes of any class toward another. The attempt to locate the boundaries that separate the "us" of one class from the "them" of another can likewise be a daunting one. To Cleopatra the odiferous mass were all one. To themselves, they were many distinct groups.[2]

I'm interested in the mechanic who's holding a rule. One can imagine him as a carpenter or builder, maybe a shipwright or gunner, or he might have been a surveyor, navigator, or excise officer. Or he might have been a man who made rules — a person who made tools for a living. Or, still, he might have been one who taught others how to make and use the instruments of the trade.

In Shakespeare's time, to many of those who were gently born, these mechanic slaves holding rules would have been men who were presumed not to amount to much simply because they worked with their hands. But although many surely did, as apprentices and journeymen whose daily drudge was limited to performing tasks the master assigned, approximate this description, other men — the masters themselves — also held rules in their hands. They were builders, architects, land surveyors, gunnery officers, and others who used mathematical tools — rules — in their work. This, for example, shows a gentlemanly-looking surveyor (at right) and equally-well-decked-out helper (left) with an early version of the theodolite (described as a "Semy Circle set upon a perfeck square"), some levels (one of them using water boxes), and a target stick.

{Illustration of surveyors with their equipment from The English Improver Improved or the Survey of Husbandry Surveyed by Walter Blith (London, 1652); source: MSU.edu hst425}

This illustration shows a Portuguese navigator using a similar device (a forerunner of the sextant called a cosmolabe) to help draw a nautical chart. His instrument could not be used at sea, but more portable versions might be found on the distant ships, to be used with his charts when landmarks ashore were out of sight.

{A navigator and his instruments from the late sixteenth century; source: Os oitavos na História blog}

Another set of men holding rules were the men who made them. They were self-employed craftsmen or masters of small shops who possessed skill akin to goldsmiths or clock-makers or even, in those times, many plebeian artists, composers, and literary authors.

You can tell something of the skill possessed by one of these craftsmen, Henry Sutton, from this account by John Collins. Notice that Sutton needed no more than a verbal description in order to make a complex mathematical instrument. A mathematician "intimated his desires" and the craftsman, an engraver, "speedily found out the drawing" without further instruction. [3]

{From: The sector on a quadrant, or, a treatise containing the description and use of three several quadrants Accommodated for dyalling, for the resolving of all proportions instrumentally, and for the ready finding the hour and azimuth; with large cuts of each quadrant, printed from the original plates graved by Henry Sutton, by John Collins (printed by J.Macock, to be sold by George Hurlock, William Fisher and Henry Sutton mathematical instrument maker, 1658)}

This is Sutton's quadrant, made from a plate he engraved for Collins' book.

{source: Royal Museums, Greenwich}

Sutton was acclaimed one of the best, but others like him were skillful instrument makers, the technicians of their time. Here's one (quite late) description of their trade.[4]

{This reads: "Of the Mathematical and Optical Instrument, and Spectacle-Maker.

"THE Mathematical-Instrument-Maker makes all kind of Instruments constructed upon Mathematical Principles, and used in Philosophical Experiments: He makes Globes, Orrerys, Scales, Quadrants, Sectors, Sun-Dials of all Sorts and Dimensions, Air-Pumps, and the whole Apparatus belonging to Experimental Philosophy. He ought to have a Mathematically turned Head, and be acquainted with the Theory and Principles Upon which his several Instruments are constructed, as well as with the practical Use of them. He employs several different Hands, who are mere Mechanics, and know no more of the Use or Design of the Work they make, than the Engines with which the greatest Part of them are executed; therefore the Master must be a thorough Judge of Work in general.

"The Optical-Instrument-Maker is employed in making the various sorts of Telescopes, Microscopes of different Structures, Spectacles, and all other Instruments invented for the Help or Preservation of the Sight, and in which Glasses are used. He himself executes very little of the Work, except the grinding the Glasses: He grinds his Convex-Glasses in a Brass Concave Sphere, of a Diameter large in proportion to the Glass intended, and his Concave-Glasses upon a Convex Sphere of the same Metal: His Plane-Glasses he grinds upon a just Plane, in the same Manner as the common Glass-Grinder, mentioned Chap. XXXII. Sect. 4. He grinds them all with Sand and polishes them with Emery and Putty. The Cases and Machinery of his Instruments are made by different Workmen, according to their Nature, and he adjusts the Glasses to them.

"It is a very ingenious and profitable Business, and employs but a few Hands as Masters; The Journeymen earn, a Guinea a Week, and some more, according as they are accurate in their Trade. Such a Tradesman designed for a Master ought to have a pretty good Education, and a penetrating Judgment, to apprehend the Theory of the several Instruments he is obliged to make, and must be a thorough Judge of such Work as he employs others to execute. A Youth may be bound to either of these Trades any time between thirteen and fifteen Years of Age, and does not require, much Strength."}

Yet one more set of men with rules were teachers and authors of instructional texts who demonstrated the use of mathematical instruments.

John Collins himself was one of these. As an example, here is a list of his books on the use of mathematical instruments. It shows up in an "astronomical appendix" to a translation of The Sphere of Marcus Manilius by Sir Edward Sherburne, ca. 1675.

{an Account of John Collins's Mathematical Works Reprinted from the Appendix to Sir E. Sherburne's Translation of Bk. 1 of the Astronomicon of Manilius. Edited by N. Brook (Nathanael Brook: London, 1675?)}

------

Some sources:

Navigation: The Mariner's Quadrant

Navigation, Smith Center for Cartographic Education, University of Southern Maine

The identity of the mathematical practitioner in 16th-century England by Stephen Johnston in the proceedings of a 1995 conference in Duisburg: Irmgarde Hantsche (ed.), Der “mathematicus”: Zur Entwicklung und Bedeutung einer neuen Berufsgruppe in der Zeit Gerhard Mercators, Duisburger Mercator-Studien, vol. 4 (Bochum: Brockmeyer, 1996), 93-120. It is closely based on material in the introduction to my thesis, and appears here by permission of Universitätsverlag Dr. N. Brockmeyer.

De republica anglorum, a discourse on the Commonwealth of England by Thomas Smith, ed. by L. Alston with a preface by F.W. Maitland (Cambridge, the University Press, 1906)

"Christs Teares over Ierusalem" by Thomas Nashe (1593) in Life in Shakespeare's England a book of Elizabethan prose comp. by John Dover Wilson (Cambridge University press, 1913) Extract: "In London, the rich disdain the poor. The courtier the citizen. The citizen the country man. One occupation disdaineth another. The merchant the retailer. The retailer the craftsman. The better sort of craftsmen the baser. The shoemaker the cobbler. The cobbler the carman. One nice dame disdains her next neighbour should have that furniture to her house, or dainty dish or device, which she wants. She will not go to church, because she disdains to mix herself with base company, and cannot have her close pew by herself. She disdains to wear that everyone wears, or hear that preacher which everyone hears. So did Jerusalem disdain God's prophets, because they came in the likeness of poor men. She disdained Amos, because he was a keeper of oxen, as also the rest, for they were of the dregs of the people. But their disdain prospered not with them. Their house, for their disdain, was left desolate unto them."

"Itinerary" by Fynes Moryson (1617) in Life in Shakespeare's England a book of Elizabethan prose comp. by John Dover Wilson (Cambridge University press, 1913)

The London tradesman; Being a compendious view of all the trades, professions, arts, both liberal and mechanic, now practised in the cities of London and Westminster. Calculated for the information of parents, and instruction of youth in their choice of business by R. Campbell, esq (London, printed by T. Gardner, 1747)

The making of the English middle class; business, society, and family life in London, 1660-1730 by Peter Earle (University of California Press, 1989)

Diary of Samuel Pepys, Tuesday 29 May 1660

The sphere of Marcus Manilius made an English poem with annotations and an astronomical appendix by Marcus Manilius, translated by Sir Edward Sherburne (London, printed for Nathanael Brooke, 1675)

"A Catalogue of Astronomers" in the work cited just above.

"The Institution of Residential Investment in Seventeenth-Century London" by William C. Baer, The Business History Review, Vol. 76, No. 3 (Autumn, 2002), pp. 515-551 (Harvard) Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4127797

Biographies in John Aubrey's Brief Lives

The Mathematical Practitioners of Tudor and Stuart England by E.G.R. Taylor (Cambridge, 1954)

Shakespeare from the margins by Patricia A. Parker (University of Chicago Press, 1996)

Earthly Necessities: Economic Lives in Early Modern Britain by Keith Wrightson (Yale University Press, 2002)

Manilius and his intellectual background by Katharina Volk (Oxford University Press, 2009)

The English Improver Improved or the Survey of Husbandry Surveyed by Walter Blith (London, 1652)

Marcus Manilius on wikipedia

"The Search for the 'Middle Sort of People' in England, 1600-1800" by H. R. French, The Historical Journal, Vol. 43, No. 1 (Mar., 2000), pp. 277-293 (Cambridge University Press) Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3021022

Stereographic projection in wikipedia

Hour angle in wikipedia

Azimuth in wikipedia

Solar azimuth angle in wikipedia

-------

Notes:

[1] Patricia Parker writes well about the disdain of gentles for their lesser bretheren. See Shakespeare from the margins by Patricia A. Parker (University of Chicago Press, 1996).

[2] The making of the English middle class; business, society, and family life in London, 1660-1730 by Peter Earle (University of California Press, 1989)

[3] Here is the relevant description: A limb is the outer edge of a sphere, in this case the earth.

Being in conference with my loving friend M. Thomas Harvie, he told me, that he had often drawn a Quadrant upon Paper pasteboard, &c. derived by himself, and never done by any man before, as to his knowledge, from the Stereographick Projection, which for a particular Latitude, would give the Hour in the equal Limb, and would also perform the Azimuth very well; and but that it was so particular, was very desirous to have one made in Brass for his own use by an Instrument Maker: whereto replying, that with the access of some other Lines to be used with Compasses, it might be rendered general for finding both the Hour and the Azimuth in the equal Limb: He thereupon intimated his desires to M. Sutton, promising within a fortnight after their conference, to draw up full directions for the making thereof. But M. Sutton having very good practise and experience in drawing Projections, speedily found out the drawing of that Projection, either in a Quadrant or a Semicircle, without the assistance of the promised directions, and accordingly, hath drawn the shape of it.
-- The sector on a quadrant, or, a treatise containing the description and use of three several quadrants by John Collins (printed by J.Macock, to be sold by George Hurlock, William Fisher and Henry Sutton mathematical instrument maker, 1658)

[4] This description comes from a book published a century after the period of which I'm writing. I couldn't find anything more closely contemporaneous. Although it does not contradict writers who published in the middle of the seventeenth century and seems to jibe with sources from the period, I can't really say it's as good a description of the one time as of the other. In the preceding chapter the author also describes the watch- and clock-making trades. My source is Chapter 55 in The London tradesman; Being a compendious view of all the trades, professions, arts, both liberal and mechanic, now practised in the cities of London and Westminster. Calculated for the information of parents, and instruction of youth in their choice of business by R. Campbell, esq (London, printed by T. Gardner, 1747)

Note on reproductions: Where not in the public domain, reproductions made in the blog post appear in accordance with fair use provisions of US copyright law. If you believe I have abused the privilege of fair use, please let me know.

the problem of evil

This might not be the best time of year to consider this topic, but when is? Maybe I can be forgiven for addressing it on this, the year's moment of greatest darkness, at the commencement of our festivals of light and, as days begin to lengthen again, of annual recommencement of hope. The topic matters because on any day of the year we find news of events that force us to see in the world what can only be called evil. That, and because we know how much of it has been committed in the past, leading to the extinction or near extinction of entire populations. I'm not going into the why of it, but only one important aspect: ordinary people can be manipulated, with relative ease, so that they are willing to commit it. And because this is so, the willingness to manipulate needs to be addressed as a moral issue, a political issue, a religious issue. It's not so much commission as incitement to commit that should concern us.

Here's what has brought this thought to mind:

The Milgram Experiment gave me the creeps when I first read about it. I've wished it could be replicated, its procedures shown to be faulty, and its results invalidated, as so often seems to happen with psychological experiments. However, this can't be: understandably, a code of ethics was put into effect directly after, insuring that academic researchers would never exactly duplicate what Migram did.

I was saddened on reading today that a new version of the old experiment sustains its findings. From Science Daily: Replicating Milgram: Most People Will Administer Shocks When Prodded By 'Authority Figure', ScienceDaily (Dec. 19, 2008). Go there and read. It says the experimenter did not permit subjects to give what they believed to be electrical shocks so intense as to cause fainting or death. He also made sure the subjects neither knew of Milgram nor were unduly susceptible to the procedure. These changes in the procedure make it impossible to compare results directly. Nonetheless, as the headline says, the participants were no less willing to inflict what amounts to torture than were their predecessors in the 60s.

excerpts:

In Burger's study, participants were told at least three times that they could withdraw from the study at any time and still receive the $50 payment. Also, these participants were given a lower-voltage sample shock to show the generator was real – 15 volts, as compared to 45 volts administered by Milgram.

"People learning about Milgram's work often wonder whether results would be any different today," said [the experimenter, Jerry] Burger, a professor at Santa Clara University. "Many point to the lessons of the Holocaust and argue that there is greater societal awareness of the dangers of blind obedience. But what I found is the same situational factors that affected obedience in Milgram's experiments still operate today."

The BBC News article on Burger's experiment adds to the story:

Dr Abigail San, a chartered clinical psychologist, has recently replicated the experiment for a soon-to-be-aired BBC documentary - all the way up to the 450-volt mark, again finding a similar outcome to Professor Milgram.

"It's not that these people are simply not good people any more - there is a massive social influence going on."

She said that the volunteers were being asked to carry out a complex task in aid of scientific research, and became entirely focused on it, with "little room" left for considering the plight of the person receiving the shock.

"They tend to identify massively with the 'experimenter', and become very engaged and distracted by the research.

"There's no opportunity for them to say 'What's my moral stand on this?'"

Do a search on "Milgram" and you'll find there are some Youtube videos of the experiment, along with more articles and books on the subject.


Gustav Doré's illustration from Milton's Paradise Lost:

...Toward the coast of earth beneath,
Down from the ecliptick, sped with hoped success,
Throws his steep flight in many an aery wheel;
Nor staid, till on Niphates’ top he lights.
•Book III, 739–742

dumb cits - followup

This a brief update to a post I wrote not long ago complaining about reporters' handling of press releases that give survey data (dumb cits?). Today's online Washington Post contains a similar critique -- Making Sense of Science Reporting. It's by a Post columnist, Deborah Howell, who tells how data should be reported and how, as readers, we should exercise skepticism when reading science-sensational news items. The Post's OpEd page also contains an article that's critical of a recent work of data-regurgitating, axe-grinding polemicism. The article is The Kids Are Alright. But Their Parents ..., by Neil Howe, who's identified as co-author of Millennials Rising and other books on generational issues. The book that Howe criticizes is Mark Bauerlein's The Dumbest Generation. In gist, that book tells us "the technology that was supposed to make young adults more astute, diversify their tastes, and improve their minds had the opposite effect." Howe handles Bauerlein's claims not by criticizing methodology, handling of data, or interpretation of results, but simply by pointing to another generation as the dumbest (and quoting an array of sources to convince us he's right). This is clearly a bit self-promotional on his part. His own book has been slammed for its outrageous generalizations and abuse of evidence. This puts us in the position of viewers of the public tv news shows in which talking heads confront an issue from opposite sides without engaging each others' positions but simply using sound-bite argumentation.

Alas.

I'm sure not to read either author's books.

A brief internet search shows that Blauerlein has not attracted much press attention. The LA Times reviewer described and gave modest praise, nothing more. A more interesting reaction came from Mike Gruss, a columnist on the Virginian-Pilot, who wrote the following pair of short items:

'The Dumbest Generation'? Hold on there, Mr. Einstein!
extracts: Bauerlein will speak Thursday at Old Dominion University as part of American Education Week. I asked why anyone on a college campus, most of whom are under 30, would want to show up and listen to the degradation of their peers. After all, most of The Dumbest Generation doesn't like to read books (or newspapers), he says. Most don't even like to read online. According to his book, a quarter of 18- to 24-year-olds couldn't identify Vice President Dick Cheney. Bauerlein tried reverse psychology by saying that those young people who attend his lectures help prove him wrong. He likes provoking students.

The idea that this generation is stupid is, um, what's another word for stupid?

More than a decade ago, half as many high school students in Virginia passed Algebra I as today. The National Assessment of Educational Progress shows scores for young students in math and reading have improved significantly since 1973.

When it comes to news, The Dumbest Generation watches MSNBC as regularly as the 65 and older group, listens to radio news at nearly an identical rate and reads more news online than any age group 50 and over.

And then there was that whole election thing earlier this month, when, according to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, turnout for voters under 30 increased 11 percent over that of the 2000 contest.

I saw the best minds of my generation judged prematurely.

I'm 31. You can trust me.

So if students don't show up for Bauerlein's lecture Thursday, it won't be because they were fooled by the hyperbole (or as the author says, humor) in his book's title or because they're indifferent to the label.

---

Not so dumb afterall So Wednesday I wrote about Mark Bauerlein. He's the author of the provocatively titled book "The Dumbest Generation." I argue, not so fast. But more evidence came out this week to counter his claim:

From the New York Times:

“It may look as though kids are wasting a lot of time hanging out with new media, whether it’s on MySpace or sending instant messages,” said Mizuko Ito, lead researcher on the study, “Living and Learning With New Media.” “But their participation is giving them the technological skills and literacy they need to succeed in the contemporary world. They’re learning how to get along with others, how to manage a public identity, how to create a home page.”

Altogether and in sum, I'm happy to have the Howell piece and think Gruss' attempt at humorous put-down, tho' weak, was the most appropriate response.

dumb cits?

The newspapers are giving coverage to a civics survey that purports to show, as one commentator says, that most Americans are too ignorant to vote. The research is by a group called the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, which (surprise!) has an agenda. The organization celebrates free markets, civil society, the American Experience, and the achievement of national security. It aims to "further in successive generations of college youth a better understanding of the values and institutions that sustain a free and humane society." And in "educating for liberty" it hopes

to identify the best and the brightest college students and to nurture in these future leaders the American ideal of ordered liberty. To accomplish this goal, ISI seeks to enhance the rising generation's knowledge of our nation's founding principles — limited government, individual liberty, personal responsibility, the rule of law, market economy, and moral norms.

It's also no surprise that news coverage focuses on the ISI's press release (pdf) and gives little or no context. I didn't find any articles that gave useful background info on ISI or its aims. This is discouraging. Biased research is unavoidable, of course, but (I believe) reporters should help readers understand how it might have entered into survey summary that comes their way via eye-catching press release. Unlike (admittedly harassed and dead-line besieged) reporters, Bloggers do often give background about and criticize what they consider to be biased surveys, and (often-enough) their own argument-skewing biases are both obvious and discountable. (A recent example: New EDF poll statistically invalid due to biased questions, posted on Scholars and Rogues, November 14, 2008, by Brian Angliss.)

Given the time constraints on reporters, wouldn't it be nice to have an online database of research reports like the consumer databases of organizations such as Consumers Checkbook or the myth-busting of the Urban Legends Reference Pages? I searched, but couldn't locate anything of that nature. (Again, I'm not trying to maintain that such organizations are themselves free of bias, but accounting for bias in them is not difficult and, since they are numerous, comparisons are possible.)

At the very least, it would be nice if some reporters, anyway, would give urls for the organizations that carry out studies they report, for the survey methodologies, and for the survey questionnaires themselves.

It's not too hard to find the ISI home page. Go there and you'll find the release of course (pdf, as I said) and a full page on the survey itself, along with the questionnaire, which you can take on the spot.

You'll see the bias without difficulty. The questions focus on the organization's agenda and carry a strong flavor of Adam Smith and the US Founding Fathers. There's nothing wrong with that, of course, so long as it's obvious (as it is). Although it needs to be taken into account, I wouldn't say the bias invalidates conclusions that are being drawn from the published results, although it's a bit excessive to say that Americans are too ignorant to vote.

You probably realize there's nothing new in complaints about the low level of civic knowledge in democracies. Still, the results of this survey seem to suggest things are worse than they were. The student reporters for a collegiate paper give some reasons: academic curricula have broadened. There's much less emphasis on what used to be core subjects, like American History, Political Economy, and civics in general. And, you have to ask yourself, (a) is this wrong, (b) is the survey respondents' ignorance a real danger to the US, and (c) are things truly worse than they used to be? In giving my answers to these questions I acknowledge that as a student of history and enthusiast of the Enlightenment & 18th c. history, I'm myself biased.

If you put your quiz score in the comments and I'll tell you mine. OK? (If you're not in the target audience for the survey -- US cits -- you're off the hook of course, but responses welcome all the same.)

Addendum:

I've been particularly concerned about the shortcomings of news reports on survey results since the first appearance of the NEA wolf-crying on the decline in recreational reading in America.

Here are some links on this topic.

Literary Reading in Dramatic Decline, According to National Endowment for the Arts Survey

A brilliant critique of the NEA Reading report

More Responses to NEA Reading Report

a small mystery of research

I'm reading the Diary of Robert Hooke. He was one of the prime movers of the scientific revolution during the latter part of the seventeenth century and a man of strong likes and dislikes. The Diary is not a literary exercise, like Samuel Pepys', but a terse, compressed, aid to memory.

Hooke was extremely active, making daily visits to places of work, to the homes of acquaintances and business contacts, to booksellers, to merchants, and to coffee houses. This busy-ness is well-summarized by Lotte Mulligan{fn1}. As example of it, I've copied a week's worth of entries at the bottom of this post.

These days I'm doing research on one of his acquaintances, a man who, like himself, was a Fellow of the Royal Society. On Feb 25, 1673, Hooke wrote of this man that he "reviled the Royal Society scandalously for not subscribing his proposals about Barnardinus Caldus."{fn2} This was an uncharacteristic outburst. I've seen no other like it in my research and I immediately began to seek out information about the incident. It took most of a morning to gather enough for some preliminary findings.{fn3}

First, it seems the person rendered by Hooke as Barnardinus Caldus was referred to by my man as Bernardinus Baldus (in a letter to John Beale, Aug 20, 1672; Rigaud, vol. 1, p.200).

More searching revealed that Bernardinus Baldus was more commonly called Bernardino Baldi (or Bernadino Baldi), an all-around Renaissance fellow (1553-1617) There's much to learn about him - see the Galileo Project entry for a summary.

In his letter to Beale, my man says "As to the Manilius, the ingenious Ed. Sherburne, Esq. Clerk of his Majesty's Ordnance, hath made an excellent English poem of it, with modern additions; and it is now printing. He was willing to have disbursed £20 for a copy of Bernardinus Baldus his three voll. of the lives of mathematicians, who died but in 1617; the heirs are covetous, and demand 900 pistoles, to the destruction of a design like Stanley's."{fn4} There's much to say about this statement. The gist is that my man wanted to achieve the publication, in English, of a manuscript of Baldi's, a multi-volume work on the lives of mathematicians. The phrase 'design like Stanley's' links Baldi's project to Thomas Stanley's The history of philosophy, a set of biographies of the famous philosophers of antiquity (1655).

The reference to Manilius is to a draft of Edward Sherburne's book The sphere of Marcus Manilius which would be published a couple of years later. In it, Sherburne gives a biographical listing of astronomers and their works. He also issues a warning about the loss of manuscripts from ancient times to his day and warns specifically about the possible loss of the Baldi manuscripts, referred to as "... those of the learned Bernardinus Baldus, Abbot of Guastalla, mentioned at the End of his Comment on Aristotle's Mechanicks, amongst which are two Volums of the Lives of Mathematicians, whereof Bartholinus in his Preface to the Edition of the Optick Fragments of Heliodorus Larissaeus, Printed at Paris 1657. gives an honourable Elogium." (p.117)

I conclude from all this that my man asked the Royal Society to fund the acquisition and publication of the Baldi work and the RS refused. His scandalous revilement of the Royal Society reveals his passion for advancing mathematics in particular and science in general through "intelligence" (the acquisition and sharing of information about the work being done by mathematicians) and encouragement (a parallel effort to get published as much of this work as possible). Sherburne, who knew my man well, tells us more:

We should be injurious to him, if we did not farther inlarge, by telling the World how much it is obliged for his Pains in exciting the Learned to publish their Works, and in acting the Part of an Ingenious Obstetrix at the Press, in correcting and in drawing of Schemes; So that he hath been Instrumental in furnishing the World with the many learned Mathematical Books here lately published (for which, his chief Reward hitherto hath been to obtain from the Learned the Title of Mersennus Anglicanus) and many more may be expected, if moderate Encouragements towards Printing such Works, and Leisure for such an Affair be not impeded through the necessary Avocations for a livelyhood, and though it be besides my Design, yet I cannot but digress in giving him and others like minded (which are very rare to be found) their due commendations, in promoting the laudable Design of getting Learned Men to impart their Labours to be Printed; and exciting others to encourage the same, as being of singular Use and advantage to the Republick of Learning; through the want whereof many Learned Mens Works of much worth have been lost, suppressed or long delayed.{fn5}

====================

Here is a sheet from the original diary of Robert Hooke:

Source:

Here are two transcribed pages for the middle of June in 1675; click to enlarge to full size.

{source: Diary of Robert Hooke, ed. Henry W Robinson and Walter Adams (London, 1935) - fair-use reproduction.}

The text reads:

DIARY OF ROBERT HOOKE

- Wednesday, June 9th.--Agreed with Hayward for floor and frame of scales. Saw Scarborough's Draught. At Bedlam, agreed about the sewer, tile window under gallery, oak door cases, etc. At Garaways. The news of the parliaments prorogation to the 13th of October. Message from Mr. Dubois. Mr. Piercehouses view in Love Lane.
- Thursday, June 10th. -- At View in Nicholas Lane 0G. from Dr. Bradford. At Bankes. At Guildhall, Oldfields and Dr. Chamberlane and Dutch. Spoke to Sir Th. Player he promised my money next week and appoiuted me to come to him. DH. A little meethlg. I reproved Oldenburg for not Registring Experiments. Brouncker took his part. At the Taverne. With Sir J. More at Coffee. He told me of Lingars Experiments. Signior a Drunken huff with Chace and Coyne. Sir J. More had tryd his watch and approved it.
- Friday, June llth. With Mr. Fitch to Mr. Mountacues. Alt agreed. To Sir Chr. Wrens. To Tompions. DH. Met Buckworth, Rider and Curler at 3 in Winchester Street. To Garaways. Davis and Hayward brought news from Curler of his huff and Oliver.
- Saturday, June l2th. -- Fitting Helioscope and watch at Physicians College. Left Deans watch with Tompion who mended balance. At Bloomsbury met Mallet. Left Cane at Coxes for ferrule. Saw his new house. At Sir Ch. Wrens. He promised me a chamber by the Park Stairs. DH. Slept. Haak. With Sir J. Cutler. Davis indeavoured to overreach me by measur &e 1/2. Sir J. Cutler at Blagrove, took Haywards papers for floor and seats. Drunk. promised to pay whatever I signed to be paid. -- At Garaways, Leak, Tompion. Tompion here all night. Much rain. Heard of Lingars Experiment without Morefields. At the Dean of Canterbury. Mrs. Cox spoke about will. Books a guift. I want one.
- Sunday, June 13th. -- Cloudy morn noe Eclipse to be seen. I took 1/2 3 of Gua. Guag. Wrought little. Boyld 2 pipkins of Hagiox. Went not out all day. Tompion here. Wrote this Account. One day this last week I revived my old contrivance for Pocket watch by cutting the Ballance in two and inserting the halfs joynd by two side pieces. See the figure. ~ Not alterable by any, they fitted the Deanes watch well. Much afeard of nose. Tompion. Resolved to proceed.
- Monday, June 14th, and Tuesday, June 15th.--[No entries.]
- Wednesday, June 16th. -- The morning overcast and blustering afternoon fair and mild. ~ 170. wind North. Received as a present from Coll. Richards 12 bottles of Port oport. Lent Tompion, Fosters Miscellanys and Streets Astronomy. Bought of Scot, Mons. Arcoud Nouvelles Elemens de Geometric. Sir J. Cutler signd and seald Haywards papers.
- Thursday, June 17th. -- At Mr. Montacues and at the ground with Mr. Russell and Montacue. Noe councell. Society Read Dr. Grew. Outlandish physitian. Oldenburg a Rascall. I propounded my theory about the digestion of liquors, about Putrefaction, about the parts of Liquors working one upon another, &c. Received from Brounker order for receiving from Chest. Received it from Collonel Richards. Received also Hay Grains his bowle of silver from him. Gave J. Clay 5 shill.
- Friday, June 18th. -- [No entry.]
- Saturday, June 19th. -- Sent Scarborough with Leake to measure Bloomsbery. Sir Th. Player promised money -- 3 days hence. Began to drink strong water and brandy.
- Sunday, June 20th. -- Grace and I drank Senna. It wrought well with me not with Grace. DH. Tompion here. At Garaways. Finished Montacue Draughts.
- Monday, June 21st. -- To the King met Mr. Montacue in the Park. Brouncker had Zulichems watch. To Leicester house, Scarborough and Chivers plot Of Ground. Mullet fals. Sir Chr. Wren faild. DH. At Dean Tillotsons Delivered Watch. (Noe Will.) Met Mr. Axe he promised Wednesday.
- Tuesday, June 22nd. -- All the morn at Mr. Montacue, Chace and T. Fitch. Lane and Fitch disappointed. J. Fitch cavilld. DH. At Sir Ch. Wren order to view spittlefields for Title, and to direct Observatory in Greenwick park for Sir J. More. He promisd money. Chess with Haak. Saw books at Faithornes of Webb about fortifications and Engines. Met Scowen and Shaw at Divill taverne. Thence to Kingsland till 11 at night. Dr. Tillotson out of Towne.
- Wednesday, June 23rd. -- At Sir J. Mores. Walkd with Aldworth. With Sir J. More to Faithornes. With Mr. Hoskins and Dr. }{all at Tompions. Borrowd of Dr. Ball Voyage al'Athens. DH. Disappointed Hoskins. Dancing Masters view 10sh. at Scots. At the Colledge.

Here is the citation for the manuscript in the Guildhall Library, London:

Author or Name Hooke, Robert, 1635-1703.
Title Diary kept from 10 March 1671/2 to 16 May 1683.
Notes The folio commencing 6 January 1672/3, and bound up after fo. 20 in this volume, should follow fo.8. At the back of the volume are miscellaneous notes including lists of books and papers (some belonging to the Royal Society) borrowed and lent by Hooke, 1666-81.
Most of the diary was published in 1935 as "The Diary of Robert Hooke 1672-1680" edited by Henry W Robinson and Walter Adams (a copy is held in the Printed Books Section at B/H 782). The publication includes entries from 1 August 1672 and the full manuscript is printed from 1 January 1673 to 31 December 1680.
Ms number Ms 01758
Bib Id 407692

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fn1: Mulligan's description is on the sample first page; you don't need a Jstor subscription to view it.
fn2: 1673: Since it would be many years before Britain adopted the reformed, Gregorian, calendar, it was -- from January through March -- 1673 there and 1674 on the Continent. Explanation here.
fn3: My main search tools: Google Book Search, Dogpile metasearch, Early English Books Online, and the catalogs of the Library of Congress, Folger Library, and British Library.
fn4: Pistoles: Wikipedia says "Pistole is the French name given to a Spanish gold coin in use in 1537; it was a double escudo, the gold unit. The name was also given to the Louis d'Or of Louis XIII of France, and to other European gold coins of about the value of the Spanish coin. One pistole was worth approximately ten livres." Of livres, it says, "The livre was established by Charlemagne as a unit of account equal to one pound of silver. It was subdivided into 20 sous (also sols), each of 12 deniers. The word livre came from the Latin word libra, a Roman unit of weight. This division is also seen in the old English pound sterling, which was divided into 20 shillings, each divided into 12 pence."
fn5: We know that Sherburne knew my man well through internal evidence, their mutual association with the Royal Observatory, and a diary entry of Hooke that links them. Mersennus Anglicanus is a reference to Marin Mersenne, 1588-1648, a famous French mathematician who used meetings and correspondence to inform other mathematicians of each others' advances.