In 1940 the Manchester University Press published volume I of its edition of the political works of William of Ockham, edited by J. G. Sikes. It contained the Octo Quaestiones and the first part of the Opus Nonaginta Dierum, besides some minor treatises. The war, and the untimely death of Prof. Sikes, have delayed the publication of Vol. II, which is to contain the second part of the Opus Nonaginta Dierum. Meanwhile the editing of Vol. III has been completed by (...) Dr. H. S. Offler. This volume contains three works by Ockham: the Epistola ad Fratres Minores, the Tractatus contra Ioannem, and the Tractatus contra Benedictum. Of these, the Epistola has already been edited twice: by L. Baudry in 1926 and by C. K. Brampton in 1929. The other two are now edited and published in full for the first time. (shrink)

John Stuart Mill has been much admired for his liberalism. His best-known work, the essay On Liberty, may be interpreted as a valiant attempt to protect individual freedom in modern society by determining the proper limits of state intervention; as a cogently reasoned plea for freedom of opinion and freedom of the press; as a defence of private initiative; as a demonstration that progress and culture are better safeguarded by moral and religious plurality than by a socially imposed pattern of (...) conduct. And, in conformity with this benign view, Mill himself has been regarded as a man devoted to the cause of toleration and reason, a good and gentle humanitarian. (shrink)

The Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza, Florence, Italy, possesses an astrolabe with five latitude plates that is now attributed to the Duisburg workshop of Gerard Mercator. Although it is known that Mercator made instruments, this is the first surviving example to be identified. Another latitude plate is shown to come from the workshop of the Florentine, Giovan Battista Giusti. A seventh plate, possibly engraved by Rumold Mercator, provides the only known Mercatorian polar stereographic projection. The role of (...) Egnazio Danti, cosmographer to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, in the acquisition of the astrolabe in about 1570 is considered. (shrink)