# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/john-napier
# Generated: 2026-08-31T18:39:48.881Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/john-napier"
name: "John Napier"
slug: "john-napier"
description: "He invented the mathematical tool that turned multiplication into addition — logarithms — and in doing so gave astronomers, navigators, and engineers centuries of faster calculation before the first computer switched on."
tagline: "Scottish mathematician, physicist, and astronomer (1550–1617)"
image: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/John_Napier.jpg"
gender: "male"
country:
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  isoCode: "GB"
category:
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profileType:
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  slug: "academic"
  entityType: "https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q39631"
birthDate: "1550-02-01"
deathDate: "1617-04-04"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
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  momentum:             0
  historical:           24.477684
  currentAttention:     14.53571428571429
  sourceConfidence:     60
  profileCompleteness:  70
  trendDirection:       "FALLING"
ranks:
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  country:  null
  category: null
tags:
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# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  John Napier was born 1 February 1550 at Merchiston Tower in Edinburgh, the 8th Laird of Merchiston and a Scottish landowner who spent his life working the edges of mathematics and astronomy. He discovered logarithms, a breakthrough that collapsed complex computation into something manageable by hand. He also invented Napier's bones, a calculating device, and championed the decimal point in arithmetic — small moves that reshaped how numbers were written and used. Nicknamed Marvellous Merchiston, he died 4 April 1617, leaving behind tools that outlasted him by centuries. His birthplace is now part of Edinburgh Napier University, and a memorial stands at St Cuthbert's Parish Church in the city's heart.