Walter Warner

Walter Warner, who lived from 1563 to 1643, was an English mathematician and scientist, born in Leicestershire and educated at Merton College, Oxford. At the end of the sixteenth century he belonged to the circle of Henry Percy, ninth Earl of Northumberland, the Wizard Earl, whose three magi were Warner, Thomas Harriot and Robert Hues, and Percy paid him a retainer to help with alchemical experiments. He also belonged to the group around Sir Walter Raleigh, and Jean Jacquot has argued that these experimental researchers represent the transition from the still-magical theories of Giordano Bruno to real science. At this time he was mainly known for chemical and medical interests. After Percy's death he was supported by Algernon Percy, tenth Earl, and then Sir Thomas Aylesbury; he edited Harriot's Artis Analyticae Praxis in 1631 and met Thomas Hobbes through Sir Charles Cavendish.