James Hume

James Hume was a Scottish mathematician who lived in France and is dated only as fl. 1639, because his birth and death are not recorded. He was the son of David Hume of Godscroft, who wrote under the pen-name Theagrius, which is why Hume is sometimes called Scotus Theagrius. He is given credit, along with René Descartes, for introducing the modern notation for exponents. In 1636 he published at Paris an Algèbre de Viète d'une Méthode nouvelle, claire et facile and a Traité de la Trigonométrie for solving rectilinear and spherical triangles, and at the end of the latter he listed nine mathematical works he had written in Latin. He also published a Hebrew grammar at Hamburg in 1624 and a Latin satire, Pantaleonis Vaticinia, at Rouen in 1633.