NAPIER, JOHN

born 1550, Merchiston Castle, near Edinburgh, Scot. died April 4, 1617, Merchiston Castle Napier also spelled Neper Scottish mathematician and theological writer who originated the concept of logarithms as a mathematical device to aid in calculations. Additional reading The most exhaustive account of the life and work of John Napier is the Napier Tercentenary Memorial Volume (1915), ed. by C.G. Knott, which consists of articles on different aspects of Napier's work by a number of writers, each expert in his particular field. There is an English translation of the Mirifici Logarithmorum Canonis Constructio by William Rae Macdonald (1889). It contains a catalog of all Napier's works and is compiled with great care and thoroughness. See also the article Logarithms, by J.W.L. Glaisher, in Encyclopdia Britannica, 11th ed., vol. 16.