A Provincial Mathematician and Friend of Isaac Newton: St John Hare and His Books.

This article focuses on the intellectual profile and library of St John Hare, a 17th-century provincial squire and lawyer whose scientific interests connected him to Isaac Newton. Hare, educated at Westminster School and briefly at Christ Church, Oxford, practiced law while pursuing mathematical and scientific studies, including a now-lost manuscript on trigonometry that Newton intended to publish. A newly identified commonplace book at Cambridge University Library catalogs Hare's extensive library of 156 titles, reflecting his interests in mathematics, astronomy, law, philosophy, and literature, and reveals his engagement with contemporary scholars and friends. The collection and Hare's notebooks illuminate the scholarly pursuits of a relatively obscure figure who bridged legal practice and scientific inquiry in the Newtonian era.