Astronomy and mathematics: Samuel Vince reading in his rooms at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, by the light of a shaded lamp. Aquatint by F. Jukes with engraving by J. K. Baldrey after R. C. Chilton, c.1784.

  • Chilton, Robert Courbold, 1762-1816.
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46350i
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view Astronomy and mathematics: Samuel Vince reading in his rooms at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, by the light of a shaded lamp. Aquatint by F. Jukes with engraving by J. K. Baldrey after R. C. Chilton, c.1784.

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Astronomy and mathematics: Samuel Vince reading in his rooms at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, by the light of a shaded lamp. Aquatint by F. Jukes with engraving by J. K. Baldrey after R. C. Chilton, c.1784. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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Description

"Helluones" means "bookworms" in Latin. Vince is studying a mathematical section of a book with running title similar to Principia naturalia. Other academic publications scattered about the study include Meditationes algebraicae, Vince on the infinite series, and Problemata. On the back wall are a diagram of "Halley's scheme: transit of Venus" and a chart of "An analysis of Mr Locke's politics [?] ideas". A pendulum clock gives the time as 9.15 (presumably pm, as it is dark). On the floor, his emaciated cat attempts to solve mathematical conundrums in the Ladies' Diary: "in 1768, Vince's early competence in mathematics allowed him to propose one, and answer ten, of the serious mathematical problems regularly set in the Ladies' Diary" (Oxford dictionary of national biography). Vince was subsequently Plumian professor of astronomy and experimental philosophy at Cambridge (1796-1821)

Publication/Creation

[Cambridge]

Physical description

1 print : aquatint, with engraving

Lettering

Helluones librorum. Chilton, Sid Col: Cambridge, delint. Engraved by J. K. Baldrey F. Jukes aquatint fet.

Reference

Wellcome Collection 46350i

Creator/production credits

Chilton was a student at Sidney Sussex College 1782-1784. He later went into holy orders. On 2 June 1791 Vince's paper 'A new method of investigating the sums of infinite series' was read before the Royal Society: it was published in the Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond., 1791, 81: 295-316. Either the paper shown in this print ("Vince on the infinite series") was an earlier draft or the portrait must show Vince not earlier than 1791

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