John Napier

John Napier of Merchistoun (1550 – 4 April 1617), nicknamed Marvellous Merchistoun, was a Scottish mathematician, physicist, astronomer/astrologer and 8th Laird of Merchistoun. He is most remembered as the inventor of logarithms and Napier's bones, and for popularizing the use of the decimal point. Napier's birth place, Merchiston Tower, Edinburgh, Scotland, is now part of Napier University. He is buried in St Cuthbert's Church, Edinburgh.

Napier is relatively little-known outside mathematical and engineering circles, where he made what is undoubtedly a key advance in the use of mathematics.

Logarithms made calculations by hand much easier and quicker, and thereby opened the way to many later scientific advances. His work, Mirifici Logarithmorum Canonis Descriptio, contained thirty-seven pages of explanatory matter and ninety pages of tables, which facilitated the furtherment of astronomy, dynamics, physics, and astrology. He also invented Napier's bones, a multiplication aid.

As a devout Christian, Napier was also fervent biblical scholar. His commentary on the Book of Revelation is titled, A Plaine Discourse on the Whole Revelation of St. John., and was published in 1593.

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