Student manuscript copy of Colin MacLaurin's Treatise of Algebra

Scope and Content

These are manuscript lecture notes on algebra... notes of 'A Treatise of Algebra' by Colin MacLaurin. Although the writer is unknown (a student?), the ms volume bears a label... an armorial Melville bookplate... possibly that of Robert Saunders Dundas, 2nd Viscount Melville.

The volume is noted...: 'A Treatise of Algebra by Mr McLaurin Professor of Mathematics in the University of Edinburgh. part 1. 1735'.

The last five pages are 'Concerning the Art of Measuring Land'. MacLaurin's teaching on surveying wasn't without significant results, for example, through his instruction of Murdoch Mackenzie (1712–1797) the Scottish hydrographer and cartographer known for his survey of the Orkney Islands.

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