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This edited volume traces the varied history of Oxford's Sedleian Professorship of Natural Philosophy through the first four centuries of its existence, combining contributions from historians of medicine, science, mathematics, and universities with personal reminiscences of some of the more recent holders of the post.
List of contents
- Foreword
- 1: Christopher D. Hollings: Four Centuries of Sedleian Professors
- 2: Alastair Compston: Thomas Willis
- 3: Nigel Aston: The Sedleian Professors of Eighteenth Century: a Theological Turn?
- 4: Jim Bennett: Thomas Hornsby
- 5: Christopher D. Hollings: George Leigh Cooke
- 6: Christopher D. Hollings: Bartholomew Price
- 7: June Barrow-Green: Augustus Love
- 8: Peter Cargill: Sydney Chapman
- 9: Mark McCartney: George Temple and Albert Green
- 10: Tom Mullin and John Toland: Brooke Benjamin
- 11: Mark McCartney: An Interview with John Ball
About the author
Christopher D. Hollings is a Lecturer in Mathematics and its History at the University of Oxford.
Mark McCartney is a senior lecturer in mathematics at Ulster University and a former President of the British Society for the History of Mathematics.
Summary
Established in the early seventeenth century following a bequest to the university by Sir William Sedley, Oxford's Sedleian Professorship of Natural Philosophy is one of the university's oldest professorships. In common with other such positions established around this time, such as the Savilian Professorships of Geometry and Astronomy, for example, its purpose was to provide centrally organised lectures on a specific subject.
While the Professorship is now a high-profile research post in applied mathematics, it has previously been held by physicians, an astronomer, and several people in the eighteenth century whose credentials in natural philosophy are much less clear.
This edited volume traces the varied history of the chair through the first four centuries of its existence, combining specialised contributions from historians of medicine, of science, of mathematics, and of universities, together with personal reminiscences of some of the more recent holders of the post.
