PRELIMINARY.
Contents and Arrangement.
The works of John Napier of Merchiston were published in the following order:—
A Plaine Discovery of the Whole Revelation of St John, published in English in 1593.
Mirifici Logarithmorum Canonis Descriptio, published in Latin in 1614, together with the Canon or Table of Logarithms.
Rabdologiæ, published in Latin in 1617, the year of the Author’s death.
Mirifici Logarithmorum Canonis Constructio, published in Latin in 1619, two years after the Author’s death, by his son, Robert Napier.
Ars Logistica, ‘The Baron of Merchiston his booke of Arithmeticke and Algebra,’ in Latin, edited by Mark Napier, and published in 1839.
These works naturally fall into three groups: the first contains the result of his early studies in Revelation by which he became famous among the Reformed Churches of Europe, as one of the most learned Theologians of the day; another contains his works on Logarithms, by which his fame as a Mathematician was established in the scientific world; between these two groups may be placed his other works, which were more or less preparatory to or suggested during the elaboration of his Logarithms. Accordingly, in the Catalogue we have arranged his works in the following order: I. A Plaine Discovery; II. Ars Logistica; III. Rabdologæ; IV. The Descriptio and Constructio, As a supple-
