Edward Cocker (163122 August 1676) was an English engraver, who also taught writing and

arithmetic Arithmetic () is an elementary part of mathematics that consists of the study of the properties of the traditional operations on numbers— addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, exponentiation, and extraction of roots. In the 19th ...

. Cocker was the reputed author of the famous ''Arithmetick'', the popularity of which has added a phrase ("according to Cocker") to the list of English proverbialisms. He is credited with the authorship and execution of some fourteen sets of copy slips, one of which, ''Daniel's Copy-Book, ingraven by Edward Cocker, Philomath'' (1664), is preserved in the British Museum.

Samuel Pepys Samuel Pepys (; 23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English diarist and naval administrator. He served as administrator of the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament and is most famous for the diary he kept for a decade. Pepys had no mariti ...

, in his ''Diary'', makes very favourable mention of Cocker, who appears to have displayed great skill in his art. Cocker's ''Arithmetick'', the fifty-second edition of which appeared in 1748, and which passed through over 100 editions in all, was not published during the lifetime of its reputed author, the first impression being dated 1678. Augustus De Morgan in his ''Arithmetical Books'' (1847) argues that the work was a forgery of the editor and publisher, John Hawkins. Ruth Wallis, in 1997, wrote an article in ''

Annals of Science ''Annals of Science'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering the history of science and technology. It is published by Taylor & Francis and was established in 1936. The founding editor-in-chief was the Canadian historian of science Harcourt ...

'', claiming De Morgan's analysis was flawed and Cocker was the real author.R Wallis, Edward Cocker (1632?–1676) and his arithmetick: De Morgan demolished, Ann. of Sci. 54 (1997), 507–522.

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* 1631 births 1675 deaths English calligraphers 17th-century calligraphers {{UK-printmaker-stub