Algorithms; Arithmetic -- Early works to 1900; Mathematics -- History
The number of Latin Algorisms still in manuscript is comparatively
large, but we are here only concerned with two--an Algorism in prose
attributed to Sacrobosco (John of Holywood) in the colophon of a Paris
manuscript, though this attribution is no longer regarded as conclusive,
and another in verse, most probably by Alexander de Villedieu (Villa
Dei). Alexander, who died in 1240, was teaching in Paris in 1209. His
verse treatise on the Calendar is dated 1200, and it is to that period
that his Algorism may be attributed; Sacrobosco died in 1256 and quotes
the verse Algorism. Several commentaries on Alexander’s verse treatise
were composed, from one of which our first tractate was translated, and
the text itself was from time to time enlarged, sections on proofs and
on mental arithmetic being added. We have no indication of the source on
which Alexander drew; it was most likely one of the translations of
Al-Khowarasmi, but he has also the Abacists in mind, as shewn by
preserving the use of differences in multiplication. His treatise, first
printed by Halliwell-Phillipps in his _Rara Mathematica_, is adapted for
use on a board covered with sand, a method almost universal in the
thirteenth century, as some passages in the algorism of that period
already quoted show: “Est et alius modus qui utitur apud Indos, et
doctor hujusmodi ipsos erat quidem nomine Algus. Et modus suus erat in
computando per quasdam figuras scribendo in pulvere. . . .” “Si
voluerimus depingere in pulvere predictos digitos secundum consuetudinem
algorismi . . .” “et sciendum est quod in nullo loco minutorum sive
secundorum . . . in pulvere debent scribi plusquam sexaginta.”
MODERN ARITHMETIC.
Modern Arithmetic begins with Leonardi Fibonacci’s treatise “de Abaco,”
written in 1202 and re-written in 1228. It is modern rather in the range
of its problems and the methods of attack than in mere methods of
calculation, which are of its period. Its sole interest as regards the
present work is that Leonardi makes use of the digital signs described
in Record’s treatise on _The arte of nombrynge by the hand_ in mental
arithmetic, calling it “modus Indorum.” Leonardo also introduces the
method of proof by “casting out the nines.”
DIGITAL ARITHMETIC.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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