r, _elegant
woodcut title-page_, VERY RARE, _folio. Parisiis, per Thomam Anguelast
(pro Olivier Senant), s. a. circa 1510_.[508]

"This book, by Thomas Bradwardine, Archbishop of Canterbury must be
exceedingly scarce as it has escaped the notice of Professor De Morgan,
who, in his _Arithmetical Books_, speaks of a treatise of the same author
on proportions,[509] printed at Vienna in 1515, but does not mention the
present work.

{229}

"Bradwardine (Archbp. T.). Brauardini (Thomae) Geometria speculativa,
com Tractato de Quadratura Circuli bene revisa a Petro Sanchez Ciruelo,
SCARCE, _folio. Parisiis, J. Petit_, 1511.[510]

"In this work we find the _polygones etoiles_,[511] see Chasles (_Apercu_,
pp. 480, 487, 521, 523, &c.) on the merit of the discoveries of this
English mathematician, who was Archbishop of Canterbury in the XIVth
Century (_tempore_ Edward III. A.D. 1349); and who applied geometry to
theology. M. Chasles says that the present work of Bradwardine contains
'Une theorie nouvelle qui doit faire honneur au XIVe Siecle.'"[512]

The titles do not make it quite sure that Bradwardine is the quadrator; it
may be Peter Sanchez after all.[513]

THE QUESTION OF PARALLELS.

Nouvelle theorie des paralleles. Par Adolphe Kircher[514] [so signed at
the end of the appendix]. Paris, 1803, 8vo.

An alleged emendation of Legendre.[515] The author refers {230} to attempts
by Hoffman,[516] 1801, by Hauff,[517] 1799, and to a work of Karsten,[518]
or at least a theory of Karsten, contained in "Tentamen novae parallelarum
theoriae notione situs fundatae; auctore G. C. Schwal,[519] Stuttgardae, 1801,
en 8 volumes." Surely this is a misprint; _eight_ volumes on the theory of
parallels? If there be such a work, I trust I and it may never meet, though
ever so far produced.

{231}

Soluzione ... della quadratura del Circolo. By Gaetano Rossi.[520]
London, 1804, 8vo.

The three remarkable points of this book are, that the household of the
Prince of Wales took ten copies, Signora Grassini[521] sixteen, and that
the circumference is 3-1/5 diameters. That is, the appetite of Grassini for
quadrature exceeded that of the whole household (_loggia_) of the Prince of
Wales in the ratio in which the semi-circumference exceeds the diameter.
And these are the first two in the list of subscribers. Did the author see
this theorem?

A PATRIOTIC PARADOX.

Britain independent of com