John Wallis

17th-century English mathematician whose 1685 Treatise of Algebra both Historical and Practical is, per the vault's current sourcing, the earliest documented case of Mabillon-style documentary comparison being applied to adjudicate a scientific-priority dispute — ruling, on the strength of correspondence and an eyewitness account, that Descartes had seen Thomas Harriot's treatise before writing his own Geometry.

References

• claim-wallis-1685-history-of-algebra-used-documentary-evidence-to-favor-harriot-over-descartes
• observation-priority-adjudication-is-documentary-source-criticism