The paper examines the structure of the mathematical instrument making trade in London from the mid-sixteenth century to the opening of the Hanoverian era. This analysis of the trade is primarily based on evidence drawn from contemporary advertising. A distinction between informal editorial recommendations and advertising per se is made. It is concluded that up to the mid-seventeenth century mathematical instrument makers worked in either wood or metal. After that date a growing number of workshops advertised that they manufactured in (...) all media. Advertising was aimed at informing professional users from whom particular instruments could be purchased, but not on informing customers in specific terms of the range of instruments manufactured. It is concluded that until the early eighteenth century most mathematical instruments were commissioned. Only towards the end of the period is there evidence of over-the-counter sales, and advertising aimed at encouraging the growing consumer market to buy mathematical instruments for the practice of science as a social or recreational activity. (shrink)

Summary A new culture of mathematics was developed in sixteenth-century England, the culture of ?the mathematicalls?. Its representatives were the self-styled mathematical practitioners who presented their art as a practical and worldly activity. The careers of two practitioners, Thomas Bedwell and Thomas Hood, are used as case studies to examine the establishment of this culture of the mathematicalls. Both practitioners self-consciously used mathematical instruments as key resources in negotiating their own roles. Bedwell defined his role in contrast to mechanicians and (...) he secured patronage in military engineering and the service of the commonwealth; Hood worked in the commercial setting of London as a teacher, author, chartmaker, and retailer. Working in new contexts and dealing with new audiences of gentlemen and mechanicians, Bedwell and Hood used instruments to construct a public consensus on the status and aims of mathematics. (shrink)