Early texts on Hindu-Arabic calculation

This article describes how the decimal place value system was transmitted from India via the Arabs to the West up to the end of the fifteenth century. The arithmetical work of al-Khw¯arizm¯ı’s, ca. 825, is the oldest Arabic work on Indian arithmetic of which we have detailed knowledge. There is no known Arabic manuscript of this work; our knowledge of it is based on an early reworking of a Latin translation. Until some years ago, only one fragmentary manuscript of this twelfth-century reworking was known (Cambridge, UL, Ii.6.5). Another manuscript that transmits the complete text (New York, Hispanic Society of America, HC 397/726) has made possible a more exact study of al-Khw¯arizm¯ı’s work. This article gives an outline of this manuscript’s contents and discusses some characteristics of its presentation

Eine bisher unbekannte Abhandlung über das Rechenbrett aus dem beginnenden 14. Jahrhundert

AbstractThis article considers a previously unnoticed mathematical treatise on the counting board, presumably written about 1310 in Bordeaux by an otherwise unknown master Johannes de Elsa. The treatise is contained in manuscript lat. qu. 526, in the Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin. The author of the treatise explains the application of a counting board made from lead for three purposes: for sexagesimal fractions, for the Indian-Arabic calculations with whole numbers and for displaying the coins of shopkeepers and businessmen. His counting board is unusual for the period around 1300; it is similar to line and coin boards preserved from the end of the 15th century and later. This article contains an interpretation and an edition of the Latin text.ZusammenfassungDer Aufsatz behandelt eine bisher unbeachtete mathematische Abhandlung über das Rechenbrett, die vermutlich um 1310 von einem sonst unbekannten Magister Johannes de Elsa in Bordeaux verfaßt wurde. Sie ist in der Handschrift lat. qu. 526 in Berlin, Staatsbibliothek Preußischer Kulturbesitz, erhalten. Der Autor lehrt die Verwendung einer aus Blei hergestellten Rechentafel für drei Zwecke: für die Sexagesimalbrüche, für das indischarabische Rechnen mit ganzen Zahlen und für die Münzdarstellung der Kaufleute. Seine Rechentafel ist für die Zeit um 1300 ungewöhnlich; sie ähnelt den Linienund den Münzbrettern, die erst seit dem Ende des 15. Jahrhunderts erhalten sind. Der Aufsatz enthält eine Interpretation und Edition des lateinischen Textes

Boncompagni Manuscripts: Present Shelfmarks

A list of the current locations for the 600+ history of science manuscripts in the nineteenth-century Boncompagni collection, dispersed by auction in 1898.N

Boncompagni Manuscripts: Present Shelfmarks

A list of the current locations for the 600+ history of science manuscripts in the nineteenth-century Boncompagni collection, dispersed by auction in 1898.N