This book considers Wren's 'other' career as an astronomer, and shows how science informed his architectural philosophy.

This is the story of the intellectual and social life of a community, and of its interactions with the wider world. For 800 years mathematics has been researched and studied at Oxford, and the subject and its teaching have undergone profound changes during that time. This highly readable and beautifully illustrated book reveals the richness and influence of Oxford's mathematical tradition and the fascinating characters who helped to shape it. The story begins with the founding of the university of Oxford and the establishing of the medieval curriculum, in which mathematics had an important role. The Black Death, the advent of printing, the founding of the university of Cambridge, and the Newtonian revolution all had a great influence on the later development of mathematics at Oxford. So too did many well-known figures: Robert Boyle, Christopher Wren, Edmond Halley, Benjamin Jowett, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, G. H. Hardy, to name but a few. Later chapters bring us to the twentieth century, and the book ends with some entertaining reminiscences by Sir Michael Atiyah of the thirty years he spent as an Oxford mathematician.

Definitive, concise, and very interesting... From William Shakespeare to Winston Churchill, the Very Interesting People series provides authoritative bite-sized biographies of Britain's most fascinating historical figures - people whose influence and importance have stood the test of time. Each book in the series is based upon the biographical entry from the world-famous Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. -

Every age and every culture has relied on the incorporation of mathematics in their works of architecture to imbue the built environment with meaning and order. Mathematics is also central to the production of architecture, to its methods of measurement, fabrication and analysis. This two-volume edited collection presents a detailed portrait of the ways in which two seemingly different disciplines are interconnected. Over almost 100 chapters it illustrates and examines the relationship between architecture and mathematics. Contributors of these chapters come from a wide range of disciplines and backgrounds: architects, mathematicians, historians, theoreticians, scientists and educators. Through this work, architecture may be seen and understood in a new light, by professionals as well as non-professionals. Volume II covers architecture from the Late Renaissance era, through Baroque, Ottoman, Enlightenment, Modern and contemporary styles and approaches. Key figures covered in this volume include Palladio, Michelangelo, Borromini, Sinan, Wren, Wright, Le Corbusier, Breuer, Niemeyer and Kahn. Mathematical themes which are considered include linear algebra, tiling and fractals and the geographic span of the volume’s content includes works in the United States of America and Australia, in addition to those in Europe and Asia.

This is the story of the intellectual and social life of a community, and of its interactions with the wider world. For eight centuries mathematics has been researched and studied at Oxford, and the subject and its teaching have undergone profound changes during that time. This highly readable and beautifully illustrated book reveals the richness and influence of Oxford's mathematical tradition and the fascinating characters that helped to shape it. The story begins with the founding of the University of Oxford and the establishing of the medieval curriculum, in which mathematics had an important role. The Black Death, the advent of printing, the Civil War, and the Newtonian revolution all had a great influence on the development of mathematics at Oxford. So too did many well-known figures: Roger Bacon, Henry Savile, Robert Hooke, Christopher Wren, Edmond Halley, Florence Nightingale, Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll), and G. H. Hardy, to name but a few. Later chapters bring us to the 20th century, with some entertaining reminiscences by Sir Michael Atiyah of the thirty years he spent as an Oxford mathematician. In this second edition the story is brought right up to the opening of the new Mathematical Institute in 2013 with a foreword from Marcus du Sautoy and recent developments from Peter M. Neumann.

Shapiro reviews the formulation and reception of Newton's theories on the structure of matter and on fits.