This work, published posthumously, is one of the few books by the mathematician Nicholas Saunderson to be printed. After a serious illness in infancy, Saunderson was left blind for the remainder of his life. Despite this, he received an excellent education in the classics, mathematics and algebra, rising to the position of Lucasian Professor, a post previously held by Sir Isaac Newton, at the University of Cambridge in 1710.

Though he did not publish many of his works, the notes made by his pupils and peers show that he was an excellent teacher, reforming the mathematical curriculum at Cambridge to focus almost exclusively on mathematics and algebra with very little theology.