John Smith 1618-1652

John SMITH 1618-52

Biographical Note

Born at Achurch, Northamptonshire. BA Emmanuel College, Cambridge 1641, MA and fellow of Queens' College 1644, where he was also lecturer in mathematics. He was associated with the group who became known as the Cambridge Platonists, many of whom were his contemporaries at Emmanuel College (e.g. Benjamin Whichcote, Ralph Cudworth, Nathaniel Culverwell, John Worthington); although his only publication (Select discourses, 1660) appeared posthumously, he is acknowledged as having significantly influenced his pupil Simon Patrick, and thereby the latitudinarian Anglicanism which Patrick's writings helped to embed.

Books

Smith bequeathed his library of ca. 600 volumes to Queens’, where a contemporary inventory survives. The contents are wide-ranging by both subject and language, and include works on theology, philosophy, history, geography, mathematics, medicine and science, in Latin, English, French, Italian, Greek and Hebrew.

Characteristic Markings

Most of Smith's books are not distinctively marked.

Sources

• Hutton, Sarah. "Smith, John (1618–1652), philosopher." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• Feingold, M. The mathematicians’ apprenticeship, 1984, 53.
• Saveson, J. The library of John Smith, the Cambridge Platonist, Notes & Queries 203 (1958), 215-6.