Bürgi, Joost

Joost Bürgi, Joost also spelled Jobst, (born Feb. 28, 1552, Lichtensteig, Switz.—died Jan. 31, 1632, Kassel, Hesse-Kassel), mathematician who invented logarithms independently of the Scottish mathematician John Napier.

Bürgi served as court watchmaker to Duke Wilhelm IV of Hesse-Kassel from 1579 to 1592 and worked in the royal observatory at Kassel, where he developed geometrical and astronomical instruments. Word of his exceptional instruments reached Prague, where Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II was trying to establish a science centre, and in about 1603 Bürgi journeyed to Prague to take up the post of imperial clockmaker. Later he also became assistant to the German astronomer Johannes Kepler.

Bürgi was a major contributor to the development of decimal fractions and exponential notation, but his most notable contribution was published in 1620 as a table of antilogarithms. He may have developed the idea for logarithms as early as 1588, but he certainly had compiled his table before his journey to Prague, more than 10 years before Napier published his own logarithm table in 1614.