Leonard Digges

Leonard Digges (1520 - 1559), father of Thomas Digges was a well-known mathematician and surveyor, credited to the invention of the theodolite and a great populariser of science through his publications in English. In a way his son, Thomas Digges followed in his footsteps and was a pivotal player in the popularisation of Copernicus book De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium.

The first publication of many by Leonard Digges was A General Prognostication published in 1553, which became a best-seller as it contained a perpetual calender, collections of weather lore and a wealth of astronomical material, until then largely only obtainable through books published in Latin or Greek.

Leonard Digges is also independently invented the reflecting, and probably the refracting telescope as part of his need to see accurately over long distances during his surveying works.

In 1554, Leonard Digges took part in an unsuccessful rebellion led by the Protestant Sir Thomas Wyatt against England's new Catholic Queen Mary who took over the throne in 1553 from her father Henry VIII. Digges was condemned to death, but escaped capital punishment, instead forfeiting all his estates.

References

Gribbin, John. 2002. Science: A History. Penguin books