Editing Alexander Anderson (mathematician)

{{short description|Scottish mathematician}}
{{other people|Alexander Anderson}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}}
{{Use British English|date=October 2017}}
[[File:Anderson, Alexander – Supplementum Apollonii redivivi, 1612 – BEIC 17635.jpg|thumb|''Supplementum Apollonii redivivi'', 1612]]

'''Alexander Anderson''' ({{circa|1582}} in [[Aberdeen]] – {{circa|1620}} in Paris) was a [[Scottish people|Scottish]] [[mathematician]].

==Life==
He was born in [[Aberdeen]], possibly in 1582, according to a print which suggests he was aged 35 in 1617.<ref name=ws>{{cite DNB|wstitle= Anderson, Alexander (1582-1619?) |volume= 01 |last= Clerke |first= Agnes Mary |author-link= Agnes Mary Clerke |pages= 371–372 |short=1}}</ref> It is unknown where he was educated, but it is likely that he initially studied writing and philosophy (the "belles lettres") in his home city of Aberdeen.<ref name=gbd>{{cite book |title=The General Biographical Dictionary: Containing an Historical and Critical Account of the Lives and Writings of the Most Eminent Persons in Every Nation: Particularly the British and Irish; from the Earliest Accounts to the Present Time |last=Chalmers |first=A. |year=1812 |publisher=J. Nichols |url=https://archive.org/details/generalbiograph54chalgoog |pages=[https://archive.org/details/generalbiograph54chalgoog/page/n187 175]–176}}</ref>

He then went to the [[Mainland Europe|continent]], and was a professor of mathematics in Paris by the start of the seventeenth century.<ref name=gbd/> There he published or edited, between the years 1612 and 1619, various [[geometric]] and [[algebra]]ic tracts.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} He described himself as having "more wisdom than riches" in the dedication of ''Vindiciae Archimedis'' (1616).<ref name=ws/>

He was first cousin of David Anderson of Finshaugh, a celebrated mathematician, and David Anderson's daughter was the mother of mathematician [[James Gregory (mathematician)|James Gregory]].<ref name=ee>{{cite book |title=The Edinburgh encyclopædia conducted by David Brewster, with the assistance of gentlemen eminent in science and literature |last=Brewster |first=D. |year=1832 |publisher=J. and E. Parker |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FKxGAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA41 |page=41}}</ref>

==Work==
He was selected by the executors of [[François Viète]] to revise and edit Viète's manuscript works. Viète died in 1603, and it is unclear if Anderson knew him, but his eminence was sufficient to attract the attention of the dead man's executors.<ref name=los>{{cite book |title=Lives of illustrious and distinguished Scotsman, forming a complete Scottish biographic dictionary |last=Chambers  |first=R. |year=1841 |publisher=Blackie and Son |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DMM5AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA37 |page=37}}</ref> Anderson corrected and expanded upon Viète's manuscripts, which extended known geometry to the [[new algebra]], which used general symbols to represent quantities.<ref name=los/>

===Publications===
The known works of Anderson amount to six thin quarto volumes, and as the last of them was published in 1619, it is probable that the author died soon after that year, but the precise date is unknown.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} He wrote other works that have since been lost.<ref name=bdes/> From his last work it appears he wrote another piece, "A Treatise on the Mensuration of Solids,"<ref name=bdes>{{cite book|title=A Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen, in Four Vols|author1=Chambers, R.|author2=Thomson, T.|date=1856|issue=v. 1|publisher=Blackie|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=McQZAAAAYAAJ|page=53|access-date=3 October 2014}}</ref> and copies of two other works, ''Ex. Math.'' and ''Stereometria Triangulorum Sphæricorum'', were in the possession of Sir Alexander Hume until the after the middle of the seventeenth century.<ref name=ws/>

*1612: ''Supplementum Apollonii Redivivi''<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.europeana.eu/resolve/record/03486/BibliographicResource_1000128579977 |title=Supplementum Apollonii redivivi |access-date=15 September 2014 |publisher=Europeana}}</ref>
*1615: ''Ad Angularum Sectionem Analytica Theoremata F. Vieta''
*1615: ''Pro Zetetico Apolloniani''<ref name="worldcat">{{cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/310942761|title=Alexandri Andersoni Aitiologia Pro zetetico Apolloniani problematisa se jam pridem edito in supplemento Apollonii redivivi. (Book, 1615) &#91;WorldCat.org&#93;|year=1615|publisher=worldcat.org|oclc=310942761|access-date=3 October 2014}}</ref>
*1615: ''Francisci Vietae Fontenaeensis''
*1616: ''Vindiciae Archimedis''<ref name="worldcat2">{{cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/181880939|title=Vindiciae Archimedes. Sive elenchus Cyclometriae novae a Philippo Lansbergio nuper editae. (Book, 1616) &#91;WorldCat.org&#93;|year=1616|publisher=worldcat.org|oclc=181880939|access-date=3 October 2014}}</ref>
*1619: ''Alexandri Andersoni Exercitationum Mathematicarum Decas Prima''<ref name="worldcat3">{{cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/491535931|title=Alexandri Andersoni,... Exercitationum mathematicarum decas prima.... (Book, 1619) &#91;WorldCat.org&#93;|year=1853|publisher=worldcat.org|oclc=491535931|access-date=3 October 2014}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Marin Getaldić]]
* [[Denis Henrion]]
* [[Frans van Schooten]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

'''Attribution:'''
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Anderson, Alexander|volume=1|page=959}}

==Further reading==
* {{Eminent Scotsmen|Anderson, Alexander|1|53}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, Alexander}}
[[Category:1580s births]]
[[Category:1620 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Aberdeen]]
[[Category:Algebraists]]
[[Category:Geometers]]

[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Paris]]
[[Category:17th-century Scottish mathematicians]]