ABSTRACT
In a 1977 article, Paul Lawrence Rose suggested that, during the early decades of the sixteenth century, English friends and admirers of Erasmus were instrumental in expanding the bounds of the ‘new learning’ introduced by them into the Cambridge curriculum to include the mathematical sciences. Mulcaster’s proposal to elevate the status of the mathematical sciences, and to place them on equal footing with the humanities, followed the path established over a century earlier by a more celebrated humanist mathematician, Regiomontanus. Mathematicians and natural philosophers undoubtedly sought to communicate their animating passion to students. The chapter suggests patient research yields up clues to help to piece together a more nuanced, and indeed favourable, picture of mathematical instruction within early modern humanist universities. Many university tutors dispensed similar cautionary advice when instructing their genteel charges. In 1631, John Crowther of Magdalen Hall prepared a study manual for Ralph Verney–a married student, who spent much of his time at home.
