Henry Billingsley

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Sir Henry Billingsley (d. November 22, 1606) was Lord Mayor of London and the first translator of Euclid into English. He entered St. John's College, Cambridge and also studied at Oxford, where, under the tutelage of a former Augustinian friar named Whytehead, he developed an interest in mathematics. He did not take a degree but apprenticed to a London merchant.

In 1570, Billingsley published his translation of Euclid, The elements of geometrie of the most ancient philosopher Euclide of Megara. (Actually, it should have been Euclid of Alexandria; the two Euclids were frequently confused in the Renaissance.) The work included a lengthy preface by John Dee, which surveyed all the existing branches of pure and applied mathematics. Dee also provided copious notes and other supplementary material. The work was printed in folio by John Day, and included several three-dimensional fold-up diagrams illustrating solid geometry. Though not the very first, it was one of the first books to include such a feature.

The translation, renowned for its clarity and accuracy, was made from the Greek rather than the well-known Latin translation of Campanus. Augustus De Morgan has suggested that the translation was solely the work of Dee, but in his correspondence Dee states specifically that only the introduction and the supplementary material were his. Anthony Wood asserted that the translation was largely the work of Whytehead, who spent his final years at Billingsley's house. Whytehead did apparently provide some assistance, but there is no evidence that the work is all his; Wood frequently reported gossip as fact. Billingsley's copy of Euclid found its way to Princeton College and Halsted described it, putting to rest the claims that the translation had been made from the Latin and that it was not Billingsley's own work.

Billingsley prospered as a merchant. He married in 1572, was made sheriff in 1584 and alderman of Tower Ward in 1585. He became one of Elizabeth's four customs collectors in 1589. In 1596, he succeeded Sir Thomas Skinner as Lord Mayor of London. He was knighted the following year. In 1603, he sat in Parliament for London. He founded three scholarships for poor students at St. John's College and served as President of St. Thomas's Hospital. Though in the introduction of his Euclid he proposed to undertake other translations, he never did so.

[edit] Bibliography

Anita McConnell, ‘Billingsley, Sir Henry (d. 1606)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004.
Diana M. Simpkins Early editions of Euclid in England, Annals of Science, Volume 22, Number 4, December 1966.
George Bruce Halsted Note on the First English Euclid, American Journal of Mathematics, Vol. 2, No. 1. (Mar., 1879), pp. 46-48.