557

Iuly. 26. 1682.

Dr. wood vicepresident tooke the chair.
The matters Discoursed of At the preceding meeting were again
Spoken of. And Dr. Grew sayd that one Dr. Iohnson was owner of
the booke that was here shewed the Last Day. And it was further
affirmed that the two first Leaues of the said book were wan
ting which was Discouered by the Indian numbers wth wch
the Leaues were marked. It was conjectured that the
characters now vsed in Arithmetick were taken from -
those characters & that those were much the same
wth those of the chinese for numbers and soe seemd
Deriued fro Primarily from them.
mr. Hooke Read a passage that he had met wth. in
Diggs his stratioticus wherein he affirmes that his father
had a way of Discouering all objects pretty farr -
Distant that Lay . . round about in the country, and
that was by the help of glasses which the said Diggs
. . . affirmed that his father first found out by the help
of a Booke or manuscript of Roger Bacon of Oxford.
who he conceiues was the only man besides his father
that knew it. This was the more remarkable for that this
stratioticus was printed 1579 which was more than 30 years
before metios or Galileo made their Discouery of them.
And therefore, It seemd euident that Roger Bacon was
the first Inuentor of . . . telescopes and Leonard Diggs
was the next reuiuer of them both English men -
Dr. Plot being present sayd that he conceiued that this book
of Roger Bacon wch accidentally fell in to the hands of Leo
nard Diggs might . . . . . /haue been/ in the custody of mr. Thomas Allen
of Gloucester Hall in Oxford.

It was /mr Auberry/ affirmed that there was a passage in the ^ /preface of the/ same Leo
nard Diggs his Booke called Pantometria. which mentioned the
same thing to be known by him and that he had shewn it to
Diuers. which book was printed some time before the Stratio
ticus. Mr. Hill sayd also that there was a great controuersy
between the said Diggs and another Gentleman, vizt Ld cheif
Barron . . .nwod . to which of them the reuiuing the sayd Inuention
was to be ascribed.

The same thing also is mentiond in Dr. Dees comentary vpon
Roger Bacons Epistle to the Pope.
mr Hill sayd also that Fracastorius had mentiond his being able
to Discouer things at a Distance by the help of two spectacle glasses set
at a Distance one from another which was about the year 1530
in the 8th. Chapter of his homocentricks.

Ref: CELL/RS/HF_559  © Centre for Editing Lives and Letters