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De Moivre's knowledge community: an analysis of the subscription list to the Miscellanea Analytica

2009; Royal Society; Volume: 63; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1098/rsnr.2008.0017

1743-0178

David R. Bellhouse, Elizabeth Renouf, Rakesh D. Raut, M. Bauer,

Historical Philosophy and Science

In 1730 Abraham De Moivre published Miscellanea Analytica , a book containing research results in several areas of mathematics, but especially in probability theory. Subscribers to the book have been identified from the subscription list and personal information about these individuals has been collected and stored in a database. Once data collection was completed, the data were retrieved, graphed and analysed to look for connections between the subscribers. On the basis of the connecting links that we found, De Moivre's career as a tutor has been partly reconstructed and some of his relationships within the Royal Society have been established. It was found that the heart of De Moivre's knowledge community and support was based on Whig political connections combined with aristocratic family connections. A reconstruction is suggested for how De Moivre was able to develop this knowledge community beginning in about 1689.