James Hume ( fl. 1639) was a Scottish mathematician. He is given credit for introducing the modern exponential notation, along with

René Descartes René Descartes ( or ; ; Latinized: Renatus Cartesius; 31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650) was a French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician, widely considered a seminal figure in the emergence of modern philosophy and science. Mathem ...

Life

The son of

David Hume of Godscroft David Hume or Home of Godscroft (1558–1629) was a Scottish historian and political theorist, poet and controversialist, a major intellectual figure in Jacobean Scotland. It has been said that "Hume marks the culmination of the Scottish humani ...

, sometimes therefore called described as "Scotus Theagrius", James Hume lived in France. Theagrius was a pen-name used by his father, and has been thought a

macaronic Macaronic language uses a mixture of languages, particularly bilingual puns or situations in which the languages are otherwise used in the same context (rather than simply discrete segments of a text being in different languages). Hybrid words ...

form of "Godscroft".

Works

Hume published a Hebrew grammar in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

, in 1624. On the title-page of his ''Pantaleonis Vaticinia Satyra'', dated

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine in northern France. It is the prefecture of the Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one of ...

, 1633, Hume is called "Med. Doctor". The ''Satyra'' is a Latin romance, imitating John Barclay's ''Argenis''. It is an "elegant neo-classic satire" influenced by

Petronius Gaius Petronius Arbiter"Gaius Petronius Arbiter"
Robert Kerr, 1st Earl of Ancram Robert Kerr, 1st Earl of Ancram (c. 1578–1654), was a Scottish nobleman, politician and writer.Chambers, Robert (1840)A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen Volume 3, Blackie and Son, pp 315-6. Biography He descended from a third son ...

, and has an historical appendix on contemporary affairs, mostly German. In 1634 Hume printed in Latin ''Prœlium ad Lipsiam'', ''Gustavus Magnus'', ''De Reditu Ducis Aureliensis ex Flandria'', as an appendix to his father's ''

De Unione Insulæ Britanniæ This is a list of Jacobean union tracts, published or manuscript treatises bearing on the Jacobean debate on the Union The Jacobean debate on the Union took place in the early years of the reign of James I of England, who came to the English ...

'' (Paris). Some Latin verses in the same book accuse Morinus of plagiarism for having used some proofs of theorems given by Hume to

John Napier John Napier of Merchiston (; 1 February 1550 – 4 April 1617), nicknamed Marvellous Merchiston, was a Scottish landowner known as a mathematician, physicist, and astronomer. He was the 8th Laird of Merchiston. His Latinized name was Ioann ...

. In 1636 Hume published at Paris ''Algèbre de Viète d'une Méthode nouuelle, claire et facile'', and ''Traité de la Trigonométric pour resoudre tous Triangles rectilignes et sphériques''. At the end of the latter appears a list of nine mathematical works which Hume had written in Latin.''Algebra Vietæ'', ''Algebra secundum Euclidem'', ''Arithmetica'', ''De Arte muniendi more Gallico'', the same ''more Hollandico'', ''Trigonometria'', ''Theoria Planetarum'', ''Sphæra Copernici'', and ''Ptolemaica Geometriæ Practica''. There are also two non-mathematical works, ''De Horologiis'' and ''Grammatica Hebræa''. A translation of one of his works into French, apparently his ''De Arte muniendi more Gallico'', appeared under the title ''Fortifications Françaises d'une Méthode facile''.

Notes

Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Hume, James Scottish mathematicians Scottish satirists 17th-century Scottish people 17th-century Scottish writers 17th-century Scottish mathematicians