Vincent, Nathanael

"Nathanael Vincent (d. 1722) [was] an obscure and elusive fellow of the Royal Society (1683–7; readmitted 1694) who was also fellow of Clare Hall in Cambridge and chaplain in ordinary to Charles II. An amateur scientist operating in the shadow of the great fellows of the early Royal Society, Vincent’s involvement ranged from investigating the work of Denis Papin to presenting a manuscript of Isaac Newton’s Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica. However, his greatest contribution to the intellectual history of the Restoration is located in his 1685 translation of Confucius’s ‘Great Learning’, which seems to be the first time that a Confucian book began to be printed in the English language. " Matt Jenkinson, "Nathanael Vincent and Confucius's 'Great Learning' in Restoration England", Notes Rec. R. Soc. 60 (2006): 35-47