Digges, Thomas

1. Dates

Born: Kent (probably Wotton, near Canterbury), 1545 or 46

Died: London, 24 Aug. 1595

Dateinfo: Birth Uncertain

Lifespan: 50

2. Father

Occupation: Gentry, Scientist

Leonard Digges, who is also in this catalogue, was from an old, established family of Kent.

Clearly wealthy. However, when Thomas Digges was less than ten his father was attainted for treason in the Wyatt rebellion against Mary and his estate confiscated. After the accession of Elizabeth, Digges was able to reclaim the estate of his now dead father. It is simply not clear what one can say about the economic circumstances in which he was reared.

3. Nationality

Birth: English

Career: English

Death: English

4. Education

Schooling: No University

The DNB statement about Digges at Cambridge confuses him with another, earlier Digges. Wood asserts that Digges studied at Oxford. There is no proof that he was ever at either university.

By Digges's own statement he received his mathematical education first from his father and then from Dee.

5. Religion

Affiliation: Anglican

6. Scientific Disciplines

Primary: Mathematics, Astronomy

Subordinate: Cartography, Engineering, Optics

Pantometria, 1571; it is impossible to separate Thomas Digges' part of this work on surveying and mapping from that of his father. The work includes a treatise on the geometric solids that is certainly by Thomas Digges.

Alae seu scalae mathematicae, 1573, with observations of the new star, and trigonometric theorems useful for determining parallax. Digges' observations of the new star established him as one of the ablest observers of his time.

Digges became the leader of the early English Copernicans. He attached "A Perfit Description of the Caelestial Orbes," a Copernican statement, to his republication of his father's Prognotication, 1576. In 1579 (Stratioticos) Digges said that he was working on a commentary on Copernicus.

Stratioticos, 1579, on military organization, including enough mathematics for a soldier and a discussion of ballistics that was based on his father's earlier work. This was the first serious study of ballistics in England.

Like his father Digges was skilled in so-called "perspective glasses."

7. Means of Support

Primary: Personal Means

Secondary: Military

Digges inherited wealth. He succeeded in reclaiming his father's estate. It is significant that he was a Member of Parliament in 1572 and 1584.

Muster-master-general of English force in Netherlands, 1586-94.

8. Patronage

Types: Government Official, Aristrocrat

Digges dedicated Pantometria, 1571, to Nicholas Bacon.

He dedicated Alae seu scalae mathematicae, 1573, to Lord Burghley.

He was made muster-master-general through the influence of the Earl of Leicester, to whom he dedicated Stratioticos, 1579. Digges later wrote a defense of Leicester's relief of Sluse in the Netherland's campaign.

9. Technological Involvement

Types: Military Engineering, Cartography, Navigation

He was involved in the plans for the repair of Dover Harbor, in charge of fortification, in 1582. He wrote extensively on surveying, and published a plan of Dover Castle, town, and harbor in 1581.

Digges was interested in the application of mathematics in military as his publications suggest. In the Preface to Stratioticos he mentioned a Treatise of the Arte of Navigation, a Briefe Treatise of Architecture Nauticall, a Treatise of Great Artillerie, and a Treatise of Fortification, all in preparation and intended for publication but delayed by the law suits in which Digges was tied up.

10. Scientific Societies

Memberships: None

Informal Connections: He got his mathematical training from his father and John Dee. He was a intimate friend and co-worker of Dee. Dee designed a huge radius astronomicus for him to observe the new star of 1572.

Sources

1. Dictionary of National Biography (repr., London: Oxford University Press, 1949-1950), 5, 976-8. Biographia Britannica, 2nd ed. (London, 1778-93), 5, 239.
2. Anthony à Wood, Athenae oxonienses (Fasti oxonienses is attached, with separate pagination, to the Athenae), 4 vols. (London, 1813-20), 1, 414-15, 636-9.
3. Louise Diehl Patterson, "Leonard and Thomas Digges. Biographical Notes," Isis, 42 (1951), 120-1.
4. _____, "The Date of Birth of Thomas Digges," Isis, 43 (1952), 124-5.
5. Francis R. Johnson, "Thomas Digges," Times Literary Supplement, 5 April 1934, p. 244.
6. Francis R. Johnson and S.V. Larkey, "Thomas Digges, the Copernican System, and the Idea of the Infinity of the Universe in 1576," Huntington Library Bulletin, No. 5 (April 1934), 69-117.
7. E.G.R. Taylor, Mathematical practioners of Tudor and Stuart England, (Cambridge, 1954), p. 175. QA27. G7T28

Not Available and Not Consulted

1. Francis R. Johnson, Astronomical Thought in Renaissance England, (Baltimore, 1937).
2. _____, "The Influence of Thomas Digges on the Progress of Modern Astronomy in 16th Century Englsnd," Osiris, 1 (1936), 390-410.

Compiled by:

Richard S. Westfall

Department of History and Philosophy of Science

Indiana University

Note: the creators of the Galileo Project and this catalogue cannot answer email on geneological questions.