Robert Recorde

Robert Recorde
Robert Recorde (1512–1558)
Born	Robert Recorde c. 1512 Tenby, Pembrokeshire, Wales
Died	1558 (1559) London, England
Nationality	Welsh
Fields	Mathematician and physician
Institutions	University of Oxford Royal Mint
Alma mater	University of Oxford University of Cambridge
Known for	Inventing the "equals" sign (=)

Robert Recorde (c. 1512–1558) was a Welsh physician and mathematician. He invented the "equals" sign (=) and also introduced the pre-existing "plus" sign (+) to English speakers in 1557.

A member of a respectable family of Tenby, Wales, born in 1512, Recorde entered the University of Oxford about 1525, and was elected a Fellow of All Souls College there in 1531. Having adopted medicine as a profession, he went to the University of Cambridge to take the degree of M.D. in 1545. He afterwards returned to Oxford, where he publicly taught mathematics, as he had done prior to going to Cambridge. It appears that he afterwards went to London, and acted as physician to King Edward VI and to Queen Mary, to whom some of his books are dedicated. He was also controller of the Royal Mint and served as "Comptroller of Mines and Monies" in Ireland. After being sued for defamation by a political enemy, he was arrested for debt and died in the King's Bench Prison, Southwark, by the middle of June 1558.

Recorde published several works upon mathematical and medical subjects, chiefly in the form of dialogue between master and scholar, such as the following:

Sherburne states that Recorde also published Cosmographiae isagoge, and that he wrote books entitled De Arte faciendi Horologium and De Usu Globorum et de Statu temporum. Recorde's chief contributions to the progress of algebra were in the way of systematising its notation.