Harriot, Thomas

Thomas Harriot (c.1560–1621) was an important mathematician whose work on algebra has been seen as an unacknowledged influence on René Descartes. Also an accomplished astronomer, he was one of the first Englishmen to use a telescope, produced detailed drawings of the moon, and anticipated Galileo in surmising that planets other than the earth were likely to have satellites. However, Harriot is probably better known today for his involvement with the ventures of his friend and patron Sir Walter Ralegh, most notably Ralegh's effort to establish a settlement in the New World. Harriot's A briefe and true report of the new found land of Virginia (1588), which draws on his own experience as a member of the Roanoke colony, is the product of that effort. A 1590 edition of the Report, published in Frankfurt by Theodore de Bry, features engravings based on drawings by John White, of which 23 offer ‘a faithful record of the now vanished Algonkian Indians of Virginia’ (Hadfield 2002b), and five portray ancient Picts ‘to showe how that the Inhabitants of the great Bretannie haue bin in times past as sauuage as those of Virginia’. This edition has been lauded as ‘one of the monuments of early modern printing’ (Smith 2001).