Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Alexander Anderson

ANDERSON, Alexander, an eminent mathematician, was born at Aberdeen about 1582. In his youth he went to the Continent, and settled as a private teacher or professor of mathematics at Paris, where he published or edited, between the years 1612 and 1619, various geometrical and algebraical tracts, which are conspicuous for their ingenuity and elegance. He was selected by the executors of the celebrated Vieta to revise and edit his manuscript works, a task which he discharged with great ability. He afterwards produced a specimen of the application of geometrical analysis, which is distinguished by its clearness and classic elegance. The works of Anderson amount to six thin quarto volumes, which are now very scarce. As the last of them was published in 1619, it is probable that the author died soon after that year, but the precise date is unknown.