by Eric Flint
John Dury was an idealist. He had attended the Leipzig Colloquy in the hope of uniting all Protestants in a common front behind Gustavus Adolphus, but his hopes had been dashed. In July he had begun to travel around Germany trying once again to convince Protestant princes that the unity of all Protestants was the only means through which the Habsburgs could be defeated. In early November he had heard about a strange colony of Englishmen in Thuringia who had supposedly arrived from the future and decided to investigate.
When he stopped a stranger on the streets of Grantville and asked him where he might find lodging, the stranger looked him up and down and asked, "You interested in a good time or some peace and quiet?"
Dury had smiled. "Peace and quiet sounds nice."
"Then try the Inn of the Maddened Queen. It's on Clarksburg Street."
Dury had been very pleased with the accommodations at the inn. The rooms were spacious and the linens were clean and fresh. There was a fireplace, as well as a number of cozy chairs and couches in the common room. Several chess games were ongoing at all hours of the day and there were always guests around to engage in pleasant conversation. Bread, cheese, and wine were provided for guests in the evening.
It was there that he met Colette Modi, co-owner and manager of the inn. They struck up a conversation over a game of chess and he listened in fascination as she told her story of how she came to be in Grantville. Later that day he met her husband and it was clear that the love they felt for each other was deep and lasting. Over the next two days Colette and Josh Modi explained much about Grantville. He had been most impressed by Grantville High School since he had long been an advocate for education reform.
The day he was to depart he felt moved to return the kindness that had been extended to him. "Perhaps I can help you, Colette. Do you remember yesterday when you told me that you had prepared a manuscript on the mathematics of the future?"
Colette nodded, her eyes suddenly bright.
"Well, one of my friends is Samuel Hartlib. I think he would be interested in publishing such a manuscript. Samuel is endeavoring to be what is called an Intelligencer, someone who communicates new science and new ideas to others around Europe."
"That would be fine," Colette said. "I want anyone to be free to copy my manuscript. And this would be the first of eleven. Do you think he would still be interested?"
"I think so," Dury said, "although that might limit the number of copies that he decides to make. Don't you want any money for this?"
Colette shook her head. "No, my purpose is to disseminate the knowledge as widely as possible, not to restrict it. And I am just the synthesizer. Most of this knowledge is easy to come by here in Grantville, if you know where to look."
Dury smiled. "Well then, since I am headed to England tomorrow, perhaps I can place some copies in the right hands. How many do you have?"
"Three plus the original." Colette reached into her desk and pulled out three large envelopes and handed them to Dury. "One is for Samuel Hartlib, one is to be mailed to Nicolas Peiresc, and the third to Marin Mersenne." Colette smiled. "I believe you know those gentlemen?"
Dury gave a start of surprise. "How did you…"
Colette grinned. "I was told that a messenger would come, John." She looked up at the ceiling and then back at Dury.
Dury understood immediately. "Mysterious are the ways of God, Colette. Mysterious, indeed."
Before he left, Colette Modi made him promise one thing. "Initially I want no one to know that I wrote these, John. So please promise me that only the name Crucibellus will be connected with these manuscripts. The address I have left in the manuscript is Inn of The Maddened Queen. That way many will assume it is simply a postal drop."
Dury smiled. "I promise."
Two months later John Dury was in London. It was there that he mailed a copy of Colette's manuscript to Marin Mersenne in Paris and Nicolas Peiresc in Aix-en-Provence. The third he took to Samuel Hartlib.
***
To say that the Crucibellus Manuscripts took the European mathematical community by storm would be a vast understatement. In early 1632 many Europeans were still unaware that something unusual had happened to their universe. Even those who had heard the tales of a community of Englishmen in Thuringia tended to discredit the idea unless they had actually traveled to Grantville themselves. But when the Crucibellus Manuscripts began circulating in 1632, people's minds began to change. It was not that all of the concepts were totally new and different. But it was the style and the breadth and the mystery which set intellectual circles abuzz. For Crucibellus had outlined the topics of future manuscripts and promised that each would appear at approximately three month intervals. Mathematical Symbology of the Future. Analytical Geometry. Differential Calculus. Integral Calculus. Differential Equations. Matrix Algebra. Probability. Statistics. Fractals. Special and General Relativity. Quantum Mechanics.
The style was often brutally terse. While only the most essential concepts were given, the example problems in the manuscripts were explained in clear and exquisite detail and were often taken from problems the reader could imagine from everyday life.
And then there were the challenge problems. Theorems unheard of. Problems never dreamt of. Problems no mathematician in the seventeenth century could solve, especially in the ninety days before the answer would appear in the next manuscript. The first challenge problem set the stage for the rest: Prove the existence of the Euler Line. That is, that the orthocenter, centroid, and circumcenter of any triangle must lie in a straight line, with the centroid exactly twice as far from the orthocenter as from the circumcenter.
Soon, of course, a number of mathematicians had discovered the real name of the author and were studying in Grantville themselves.
But without the Crucibellus Manuscripts it might have taken years to stir their curiosity.
Ask a mathematician three hundred years later who Mike Stearns was and many would give you a blank look. But ask them about the Crucibellus Manuscripts and watch their eyes light up with recognition or listen to them discourse for hours on their impact.
The Crucibellus Manuscripts.
Long will they echo across the corridors of time.
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