Person: Vlacq, Adriaan
Adriaan Vlacq was a Dutch bookseller and publisher who devised and published tables of logarithms.
Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):
- Vlacq worked with de Decker and translated Latin books written by Napier and Briggs into Dutch for him.
- In 1626 Het eerste deel van de Nieuwe telkonst Ⓣ(The first part of the new thesis) was published under de Decker's name with acknowledgement to Vlacq for considerable help.
- This contained Briggs's logarithms from 1 to 10,000 but promised to publish, with Vlacq's assistance, a further work giving the logarithms from 1 to 100,000.
- The full table of logarithms of 1 to 100,000 appeared in 1627 as Het tweede deel van de Nieuwe telkonst Ⓣ(The second part of the new thesis) under de Decker's name with again acknowledgement to Vlacq.
- In 1628 Vlacq republished the 10 decimal place logarithm tables as Arithmetica logarithma sive logarithmorum chiliades tentum, pro numeris naturali serie crescentibus ab unitate ad 100000 ...
- He appears to have had a connection with the Gouda firm of Petrus Rammaseyn and it is this firm that published the work, this time under Vlacq's name.
- A French translation, Arithmetique logarithmetique, ou, La construction et usage d'une table contenant les logarithms de tous les nombres depuis l'unité jusque 100000 Ⓣ(Logarithmic arithmetic or the construction and use of a table containing the logarithms of all numbers from 1 to 100000) by Vlacq was also published Petrus Rammaseyn at almost the same time.
- Vlacq's fame rests on these tables, which were well received and contain relatively few errors.
- Vlacq became a bookseller and publisher who, in 1632, settled in London and opened a bookshop.
- Vlacq decided that London was not a good place to sell books with the approaching unrest so he left for Paris in 1642.
- In Paris Vlacq again set up a book business.
- Vlacq also constructed logarithm trigonometric tables which he published as Trigonometria artificialis Ⓣ(Trigonometrical logarithms) in 1633 during his time in London.
- Vlacq also published many mathematical works by other authors including, perhaps surprisingly, Briggs himself and also by Gellibrand.
Born 1600, Gouda, Netherlands. Died 1667, The Hague, Netherlands.
View full biography at MacTutor
Tags relevant for this person:
Origin Netherlands
Thank you to the contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0! 
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- non-Github:
- @J-J-O'Connor
- @E-F-Robertson
References
Adapted from other CC BY-SA 4.0 Sources:
- O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
