Vincent Wing (1619–1668) was an English astrologer and astronomer, professionally a land surveyor.
Life and publications Vincent Wing was born at North Luffenham, Rutland on 9 April 1619.See B.S. Capp, 'Wing, Vincent (1619–1668)' in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: replacing and correcting Agnes Mary Clerke, 'Wing, Vincent', in Dictionary of National Biography (1885–1900), Vol. 62, pp. 179–80. The eldest of four sons of Vincent Wing (1587–1660) (who was taking astronomical observations during the 1620sV. Wing, Astronomia Britannica (1669), p. 288, refers to an observation of Jupiter on 25 April 1627.), his family had been established in the village since at least his grandfather's time, but is thought to have had Welsh antecedents. Wing did not receive a university education, but by assiduous study acquired his working knowledge of Latin, Greek, and Mathematics. With these skills he followed his calling as a surveyor, and invented or developed the use of the forty-link two-pole chain for measuring tracts of land in rods or poles, a method which he explained and advocated in his published works. While so engaged, two of his younger brothers, Solomon (1621) and Samuel (1626), married during the earlier 1640s and began their families, but the first of Vincent's children by his wife Alice to be christened at North Luffenham was Elizabeth, in November 1652.Philip Gretton Dennis, Ed., The Registers of North Luffenham, in the County of Rutland, 1572–1812 Parish Register Society (IV) (London 1896), sub anno.
Urania Practica: with Leybourn During this time Wing collaborated with William Leybourn (1626–1716), and dated the preface to their jointly authored work Urania Practica, (published in 1649) from North Luffenham in 1648.Vincent Wing and Will. Leybourn, Urania Practica, or, Practical Astronomy : in VI parts, Containing, I. An explanation of the vulgar notes used every year, with the order how to finde them for ever, in the Julian and Gregorian accompts, both arithmatically, and by new invented tables, II. An ephemeris for 19 years, beginning anno 1648, and ending anno 1667, with astronomical rules and tables ..., III. An astrologicall treatise ..., IV. The doctrine of the sphear or globe, V. An abbreviate of geographie, representing the surface of the world and the provinces thereof ..., VI. Diverse astronomicall tables of the altitude, azimuth, amplitude, rising, culminating, setting, declination, of the sun and fixed stars ..., Unto which is added (for the benefit of sea-men) diverse rules and tables of extraordinary use in navigation (Printed by R. Leybourn, London 1649). (in English) Containing over 300 pages, this was the first substantial compendium of astronomy written in the English language.Sarah Bendall, "Leybourn, William", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. It was the commencement of important authorial careers in surveying and astronomy for both men, and they defended themselves against their critic Jeremy ShakerleyJ. Shakerley, The Anatomy of Urania Practica (T. Brudenell, London 1649). soon afterwards.Ens fictum Shakerlæi : or the annihilation of Mr. Jeremie Shakerley, his in-artificiall anatomy of Urania Practica. Wherein his falacies or ignorance, are demonstratively detected, his malice in its groundlesse colours display'd, and the authors of the said Urania Practica justly vindicated from his unjust aspersions. By Vin. Wing, and Will. Leybourn, philomathematicis (R. Leybourn, London 1649).
Harmonicon Cœleste
In the following year Wing published independently A Dreadful Prognostication, containing astrological predictions.Vincent Wing, A Dreadfull Prognostication, : or an astrologicall prediction of severall contingencies incident to all Europe, drawn from the effects of severall celestiall configurations: but chiefly from the eclipse of the Moon November 20. 1648. the solar eclipse and the two great lunar eclipses 1649. All which are exactly described, and astrologically handled. (Printed by T.D., in the yeare 1649) However several of Wing's later publications were made through the press of Robert Leybourn, who went into partnership with William Leybourn in 1651. The first of these, Wing's Harmonicon Cœleste, appeared in 1651Vincent Wing, Harmonicon Cœleste: Or, The Cœlestiall Harmony of the Visible World: conteining an absolute and entire piece of astronomie: wherein is succinctly handled the trigonometricall part, generally propounded, and particularly applyed in all questions tending to the diurnall motion: especially respecting, and truly subservient to the main doctrine of the second motions of the luminaries and the other planets : together with their affections as eclipses, &c. Grounded upon the most rationall hypothesis yet constituted, and compared with the best observations that are extant: especially those of Tycho Brahe... : fitted to the meridian of ... London, and principally intended for our English nation. By Vincent Wing, philomathemat. (London : Printed by Robert Leybourn for the Company of Stationers, 1651). at a time when Wing was in correspondence with William Lilly:See a letter from North Luffenham referring to the publication here a surviving copy of the book from the library of Sir Isaac Newton was carefully annotated by its owner.Columbia University Collections, Rare Book and Manuscript Library . In this work Wing had made a transition towards more modern astronomical conceptions.See, e.g., Robert S. Westman, The Copernican Question: Prognostication, Skepticism, and Celestial Order (University of California Press, 2011), pp. 503–04. At the Leybourn press William Leybourn produced his own first enduring and substantial work, The Compleat Surveyor, in 1653:The Compleat Surveyor: Containing The whole Art of Surveying of Land, By The Plain Table, Theodolyte, Circumferentor and Peractor:... (etc) (Printed by R. & W. Leybourn, for E. Brewster and G. Sawbridge, and are to be sold at the signe of the Bible upon Ludgate hill, neer Fleet-Bridge. 1653). Full text at Umich/eebo. the association with Wing persisted until Wing's death.
Astronomia Instaurata: controversy with Street Wing's next major work, his Astronomia Instaurata, appeared in 1656.Vincent Wing, Astronomia Instaurata: or, A new compendious Restauration of Astronomie. In four parts. Wherein is contained, 1. Logistica astronomica: . 2. Doctrina sphaerica: . 3. Doctrina theorica: . 4. Tabulae astronomicae: Whereunto is added, a short catalogue of all the most accurate and remarkable coelestiall observations, that have been made by Tycho, Longomontanus, Gassendus, the landgrave of Hassia (etc) (Company of Stationers, Printed by R. and W. Leybourn London 1656). (in English). This led to a controversy with Thomas Streete, who published his Astronomia Carolina in 1661,T. Streete, Astronomia Carolina. A New of the Coelestial Motions. Composed According to the Best Observations and Most Rational Grounds of Art. Yet Farre More Easie, Expedite and Perspicuous Then Any Before Extant. With Exact and Most Easie Tables Thereunto, and Precepts for the Calculation of Eclipses &c. (London, 1661). and followed it with An Appendix to Astronomia Carolina in 1664(London, Printed for Francis Cossinet 1664) in which he criticised Wing for his mistakes. In 1665 Wing responded in his Examen Astronomiae Carolina,Vincent Wing, Examen astronomiæ Carolinæ: T.S., or, a short mathematicall discourse containing, some animadversions upon Mr. Thomas Streetes astronomicall tables of the cœlestial motions wherein his errours and mistakes are clearly detected, and the author hereof justly vindicated from his unjust aspersions. (In an appendix to the said astronomical treatise.) By Vincent Wing, mathemat. (London: printed by W. Leybourn, for G. Sawbridge, at the Bible upon Ludgate Hill, 1665). exposing the alleged errors of Thomas Street, who retaliated with Examen examinatum of 1667,Examen examinatum: or, Wing's examination of Astronomia Carolina examined : Containing an explication of some of the fundamental-grounds of the said Astronomie. With a castigation of the envy and ignorance of Vincent Wing. By Thomas Streete student in astronomy and mathematicks. Imprimatur. ex ædibus Lamb. 16 July 1666. Tho. Cooke, reverendissimo in Christo Patri & Dno. D. Gilberto Archiepisc. Cant. Sacellanus Domesticus. (London : printed by John Darby, and are to be sold by John Sellers compass-maker, at the signe of the Mariners-Compass and Sphere, at the Hermitage staires in Wapping, 1667). 'a castigation of the envy and ignorance of Vincent Wing.'
Ephemerides: Wing and Flamsteed Wing issued ephemerides for twenty years (1652–1671), which John Flamsteed considered to be the most accurate of their time. As a very young man Flamsteed maintained a correspondence with Wing (who died in 1668).E.G. Forbes, L. Murdin and F. Wilmoth, The Correspondence of John Flamsteed, The First Astronomer Royal (Institute of Physics/CRC Press, London 1995) Vol. 1, passim. Read here Flamsteed, who interested himself in the opinions of both Wing and Streete, wrote: "with [Mr. Wing] I had a faire Correspondence, and though we differed de parallaxi et Æquationibus systematis Solaris and severall other things, yet our dissent made us not the lesse freinds;" adding, that though he [i.e. Flamsteed] differed with Mr. Streete in his opinions de Fixatione Apheliorum et Nodorum, et de Æquationibus Lunae oscillatorijs, yet he hoped that Streete should prove to be a friendly correspondent also.Flamsteed's Correspondence, Vol. 1, p. 32.
Astrology: Wing and Atwell