Digges, Leonard

Bornnear Canterbury, Kent, England, 1520s

Died circa 1563

Information about Leonard Digges is a little confused because, of his four major works, three were augmented and corrected by his son, Thomas Digges .

Leonard Digges was from a well-established Kentish family, and one would perhaps use the term “gentleman” in describing his occupation. He was educated in mathematics at University College, Oxford, and admitted to the Law school Lincoln’s Inn in 1537. Digges was apparently an Anglican and took part in Wyatt’s rebellion led by Sir Thomas Wyatt against England’s Catholic Queen Mary. As a result of this, Wyatt was executed, but Digges, who received a death sentence for high treason (in 1554), was reprieved but lost his estates after his father’s death.

Of Leonard Digges’s four works, Tectonicon(which was published by Leonard in 1556) was essentially a surveying manual, and Stratioticos(which appeared in 1579, being finished and enlarged by Thomas) was a book on mathematics for...