John Napier

Timeline

1. 1563–1571St Andrews · St AndrewsIn 1563, at thirteen, he entered St Salvator's College at the University of St Andrews, placed under the care of principal John Rutherford by his mother. He later recalled developing his passion for theology there, but left for the continent to continue his studies without taking a degree. His advanced mathematics and classical learning largely came from this travel. By 1571 he had returned to Scotland, beginning to arrange his marriage and estates.
2. 1574–1592Gartnes · StirlingshireIn 1572 most of the family estates passed into his name, and in 1574, after Gartnes Castle was completed, he and his wife moved in. He farmed experimentally, trying salt to improve and enrich fields in hopes of cheaper and greater yields than traditional manuring. Local records say he often did long calculations near Gartnes mill, where the intermittent noise of the waterwheel would interrupt his train of thought. This period provided stable country conditions for his later theological writing and logarithmic research.
3. 1593Edinburgh · EdinburghIn 1593 he published A Plain Discovery of the Whole Revelation of St John, which he considered a more important work than his mathematics. The preface stated its aim was to curb 'the evident danger of the revival of Catholic power in this island,' against rumors of a possible Spanish invasion of Scotland. The book was quickly translated into Dutch, French, and German, earning him a reputation as a theologian at home and abroad, and consuming much time he might have devoted to calculation.
4. c. 1594–1600Merchiston Castle · EdinburghWhile managing his estates and engaged in theological controversy, Napier worked long in the late sixteenth century on logarithms defined by analogy with motion, intending to reduce multiplication, division, and root extraction of large numbers to addition and subtraction. He said mathematics was only his leisure pursuit, often interrupted by theological writing. Though the table of logarithms was not published until 1614 as Mirifici Logarithmorum Canonis Descriptio, its core ideas and much of the table-making labor belong to Scottish country scholarly activity within this period.