Professor Eric Forbes left behind at his death an important collection of the letters of John Flamsteed (1646-1719), First Astronomer Royal. A leading figure in the final phases of the seventeenth-century scientific revolution, his extensive correspondence with 129 British and foreign scholars all over the world touches on many of the scientific discussions of the day.
A detailed, scholarly work of reference, The Correspondence of John Flamsteed, The First Astronomer Royal: Volume 1 is an essential guide to the exciting developments in scientific thinking that occurred during the...

John Flamsteed played a leading role in English astronomy for nearly half a century, from his appointment as astronomical observator' to Charles II and first director of the new Royal Observatory at Greenwich, in 1675, through five successive reigns until his death on the last day of 1719. The Observatory's innovative instruments enabled him to plot the movements of the heavenly bodies with unprecedented accuracy, but he was also in correspondence with other astronomers, participating in the controversies of the day and caught up in a lengthy rivalry with Isaac Newton and Edmond Halley --...

Sir Jonas Moore (1617-79) -- practical mathematician, teacher, author, surveyor, cartographer, Ordnance Officer, courtier and patron of astronomy --had a remarkable career, and was one of the first to make a substantial fortune from mathematical practice. Dr Willmoth follows his progress to a knighthood, membership of the Royal Society, and favour at the court of Charles II; she assesses his contribution to the draining of the Great Level (under Cornelius Vermuyden) and the building of the Mole at Tangier, and records how, as Surveyor-General of the Ordnance, he became a patron of the new...