Essays on Early Medieval Mathematics: The Latin Tradition

by Folkerts,Menso

• ISBN13: 9780860788959
• ISBN10: 0860788954
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-05-28
• Publisher: Variorum

Summary

This book deals with the mathematics of the medieval West between ca. 500 and 1100, the period before the translations from Arabic and Greek had their impact. Four of the studies appear for the first time in English. Among the topics treated are: the Roman surveyors (agrimensores); recreational mathematics in the period of Bede and Alcuin; geometrical texts compiled in Corbie and Lorraine from Latin sources from late antiquity; the abacus at the time of Gerbert (pope Sylvester II.); and a board-game invented in the first half of the 11th century (the 'Rithmimachia') to help people to learn mathematics. Included in the volume are critical editions of several texts, e.g. that of Franco of Liège on squaring the circle, Bede and Alcuin on recreational mathematics, and part of Pseudo-Boethius' Geometry I. The book opens with a survey of mathematics in the Middle Ages, and ends with a history of Rithmimachia up to the 17th century, when the game fell into disuse.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Acknowledements	xiii
The Importance of the Latin Middle Ages for the Development of Mathematics	1	(86)
English translation of 'Die Bedeutung des lateinischen Mittelalters fur die Entwicklung der Mathematik -- Forschungsstand und Probleme', Wissenschaftsgeschichte heute. Ansprachen und wissenschaftliche Vortrage zum 25jahrigen Bestehen des Instituts fur Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, Mathematik und Technik der Universitat Hamburg, ed. C. Hunemorder. Stuttgart, 1987	87	(224)
Mathematische Probleme im Corpus agrimensorum	311
Die romische FeldmeBkunst. Interdisziplinare Beitrage zu ihrer Bedeutungfur die Zivilisationsgeschichte Roms, ed. O. Behrends and L. Capogrossi Colognesi. Gottingen, 1992, pp.
De arithmeticis propositionibus. A Mathematical Treatise Ascribed to the Venerable Bede	1	(1)
Enlarged and updated English version of 'Pseudo-Beda: De arithmeticis propositionibus. Eine mathematische Schrift aus der Karolingerzeit', Sudhoffs Archiv 56. Wiesbaden, 1972	22
The Propositiones ad acuendos iuvenes Ascribed to Alcuin	1	(13)
English translation of 'Die Alkuin zugeschriebenen Propositiones ad acuendos iuvenes', Science in Western and Eastern Civilization in Carolingian Times, ed. P.L. Butzer and D. Lohrmann. Basel, 1993	273
Die alteste mathematische Aufgabensammlung in lateinischer Sprache: Die Alkuin zugeschriebenen. Propositiones ad acuendos iuvenes. Uberlieferung, Inhalt, Kritische Edition	14
Denkschriften der Osterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Klasse, 116. Band, 6. Vienna, 1978
The Names and Forms of the Numerals on the Abacus in the Gerbert Tradition	1	(186)
Modified reprint of the article originally published in Gerberto d'Aurillac da Abate di Bobbio a Papa dell'Anno 1000. Atti del Congresso internazionale. Bobbio, Auditorium di S. Chiara, 28--30 settembre 2000, ed. F.G. Nuvolone (=Archivum Bobiense, Studia IV). Bobbio / Pesaro, 2001	245
The Importance of the Pseudo-Boethian Geometria During the Middle Ages	187
Boethius and the Liberal Arts: A Collection of Essays, ed. M. Masi. Berne, 1981
Die Altercatio in der Geometrie I des Pseudo-Boethius. Ein Beitrag zur Geometrie im mittelalterlichen Quadrivium	84
Fachprosa-Studien. Beitrage zur mittelalterlichen Wissenschafts- und Geistesgeschichte, ed. G. Keil. Berlin, 1982
The Geometry II Ascribed to Boethius	1	(58)
English translation of 'Das Problem der pseudo-boethischen Geometrie', Sudhoffs Archiv 52. Wiesbaden, 1968	152
A Treatise on the Squaring of the Circle by Franco of Liege, of about 1050 (Parts I & II)	59
Archives Internationales d'Histoire des Sciences 26/98--99. Stuttgart, June & December 1976	225
``Rithmomachia'', a Mathematical Game from the Middle Ages	1	(1)
English translation of German articles on rithmomachia published in 1990 and 2001 (see the Bibliography at the end of this chapter)
Index of Names	1	(1)
Index of Manuscripts	1