The Book of Calculation



Work Name: The Book of Calculation
Work Type: Mathematical text
Date: 1202
Movement: Post-Classical Science

The Book of Calculation

Liber Abaci (also spelled as Liber Abbaci; "The Book of Calculation") is a historic 1202 Latin manuscript on arithmetic by Leonardo of Pisa, posthumously known as Fibonacci.

Liber Abaci was among the first Western books to describe the Hindu–Arabic numeral system and to use symbols resembling modern "Arabic numerals". By addressing the applications of both commercial tradesmen and mathematicians, it promoted the superiority of the system, and the use of these glyphs.

Although the book's title has also been translated as "The Book of the Abacus", Sigler (2002) writes that this is an error: the intent of the book is to describe methods of doing calculations without aid of an abacus, and as Ore (1948) confirms, for centuries after its publication the algorismists (followers of the style of calculation demonstrated in Liber Abaci) remained in conflict with the abacists (traditionalists who continued to use the abacus in conjunction with Roman numerals). The historian of mathematics Carl Boyer stated in his History of Mathematics: "The book in which Fibonacci described the new algorism is a celebrated classic, completed in 1202, but it bears a misleading title – Liber abaci (or book of the abacus). It is not on the abacus; it is a very thorough treatise on algebraic methods and problems in which the use of the Hindu-Arabic numerals is strongly advocated."

Our Mission

The History of Creativity is a visual encyclopaedia that allows you to time travel to any time and place in the past or present.