• DOI:10.1098/rsnr.1991.0027
• Corpus ID: 165043307

Book reviews - Before Newton: the life and times of Isaac Barrow

@article{Hollingdale1991BookR,
  title={Book reviews - Before Newton: the life and times of Isaac Barrow},
  author={Stuart Hollingdale},
  journal={Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London},
  year={1991},
  volume={45},
  pages={277 - 279}
}

• S. Hollingdale
• Published 1 July 1991
• Physics
• Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London

Before Newton: the life and times of Isaac Barrow. Edited by Mordechai Feingold. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. Pp. xi + 380, £35.00. ISBN 0-521-30694-9 The subject of this new study was a distinguished and influential cultural figure of the mid-17th century. He was highly respected as a classical scholar, natural philosopher, mathematician and theologian. That culture has now become Virtually obsolete’, and time has certainly not been kind to Isaac Barrow. Indeed, he is remembered by most people today only as the mentor and patron of the other Isaac. In fact, however, recent investigations have demolished many Barrow legends. He did not send Newton away to learn Euclid properly; he did not resign from his Chair to make room for his young protégé; he was never Newton’s tutor.