Charles Hutton: ‘One of the greatest mathematicians in Europe’?

Abstract

Charles Hutton, 1737–1823. If you are interested in eighteenth- or nineteenth-century British mathematics, you've heard of him; you've quite probably used his 1795 Dictionary as a historical source. You quite possibly don't know much else. I'm at present working on an AHRC-funded biography of Charles Hutton, together with an edition of his hundred-odd surviving letters. This article reflects on the nature and significance of Hutton's achievements, and what his example tells us about mathematical biography more generally.