Talk:Willebrord Snell
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Two issues: First, the 1911 Britannica and some other sources give Snell's birth year as 1591, but others (including the 1999 Britannica and the St. Andrews math history website) have 1580. Anyone have a primary source?
Second, the variant Snellitjs, apparently taken from the "SNELLITJS" on the 1911 Britannica web version, seems to be a scanner error for Snellius, as the 1999 Britannica has it. Where "Snellitis" comes from I have no idea.
- Snellitis may also be a scanner and OCR error 'u' may be read as 'ti'.
Snel or Snell?
I have seen several sources that use the variant spelling, Snel. For an example, see Waves and Grains, by Mark Silverman, p.13. It appears that Snell comes from an anglicization of his latinized moniker, Snellius, while his family name was actually Snel. Are there any other points of reference for this difference?
Grady
Here is an example, in nederlands, that appears to support the idea that his given name was Snel:
http://lerweb.khlim.be/~infav/breking/26snellius.htm
- Currently, both "Snel" and "Snell" are used in Dutch for his name, though "Snellius" is most common. Before 1811, names had no official spelling in the Netherlands, and probably both variant spellings were used, even by Snellius himself. In the current Dutch spelling rules, there are no native words ending in a double "l", but even then, names do not have to follow the rules. -- Eugene van der Pijll 23:44, 3 May 2005 (UTC)