author
Isaac Barrow
1630–1677
A brilliant seventeenth-century scholar, theologian, and mathematician, he helped lay some of the groundwork for calculus before Isaac Newton made it famous. His life joined sharp mathematical thinking with a major role in Cambridge and the English church.
1 Audiobook
Sermons on Evil-Speaking
by Isaac Barrow
About the author
Born in London in October 1630, Isaac Barrow became one of the most learned English scholars of his time. He studied at Cambridge, developed a strong reputation in classics and mathematics, and later held the first Lucasian Professorship of Mathematics there.
Barrow is remembered in the history of mathematics for work on tangents and for ideas that anticipated the connection between differentiation and integration. He is also often noted as an important teacher of Isaac Newton, though Barrow's own achievements as a mathematician and thinker stand firmly on their own.
His career was not limited to mathematics. He was also a theologian and preacher, eventually becoming Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. He died in London on May 4, 1677, leaving behind a legacy that reaches across mathematics, religion, and university life.