1552-1632

German Mathematician

In his work as a clockmaker and astronomer, Joost Bürgi needed accurate mathematical information, and for this reason developed the concept of logarithms into a practical method of computation. He did this as much as a decade before John Napier (1550-1617), the Scottish mathematician generally credited with the foundational work in logarithms; but because Bürgi did not consider himself a mathematician, he waited to publish his findings in 1620, long after Napier. Thus Bürgi was destined to become much less famous than either Napier or his young assistant, Johannes Kepler (1571-1630).

Bürgi has the distinction of being one of the few people in world history from Liechtenstein, a principality smaller in area than Washington, D.C. At the time of his birth in 1552, however, the region was still part of the German-controlled Holy Roman Empire. He...