Treviso Arithmetic

The ''Treviso Arithmetic'', or ''Arte dell'Abbaco'', is an anonymous textbook in commercial arithmetic written in vernacular Venetian and published in Treviso, Italy, in 1478.

The author explains the motivation for writing this textbook:

The ''Treviso Arithmetic'' is the earliest known printed mathematics book in the West, and one of the first printed European textbooks dealing with a science.

The ''Arithmetic'' as an early printed book

There appears to have been only one edition of the work. David Eugene Smith translated parts of the'' Treviso Arithmetic'' for educational purposes in 1907. Frank J. Swetz translated the complete work using Smith's notes in 1987 in his ''Capitalism & Arithmetic: The New Math of the 15th Century''. Swetz used a copy of the ''Treviso'' housed in the Manuscript Library at Columbia University. The volume found its way to this collection via a curious route. Maffeo Pinelli (1785), an Italian bibliophile, is the first known owner. After his death his library was purchased by a London book-dealer and sold at auction on February 6, 1790. The book was obtained for ''three shillings'' by Mr. Wodhull. About 100 years later the ''Arithmetic'' appeared in the library of Brayton Ives, a New York lawyer. When Ives sold the collection of books at auction, George Arthur Plimpton, a New York publisher, acquired the ''Treviso'' and made it an acquisition to his extensive collection of early scientific texts. Plimpton donated his library to Columbia University in 1936. Original copies of the ''Treviso Arithmetic'' are extremely rare.

There are 123 pages of text with 32 lines of print to a page. The pages are unnumbered, untrimmed and have wide margins. Some of the margins contain written notes. The size of the book is 14.5 cm by 20.6 cm.

The book included information taken from the 1202 '' Liber Abaci'', such as lattice multiplication. George G. Joseph in ''Crest of the Peacock'' suggests that John Napier read this book to create Napier's bones (or rods).

Reasons for publication

The ''Treviso Arithmetic'' is a practical book intended for self study and for use in Venetian trade. It is written in vernacular Venetian and communicated knowledge to a large population.

It helped to end the monopoly on mathematical knowledge and gave important information to the middle class. It was not written for a large audience, but was intended to teach mathematics of everyday currency.

The ''Treviso'' became one of the first mathematics books written for the expansion of human knowledge. It provided an opportunity for the common person, rather than only a privileged few, to learn the art of computation. The ''Treviso Arithmetic'' provided an early example of the Hindu–Arabic numeral system computational algorithms.Swetz, 26

See also

*Ars Magna (Gerolamo Cardano) (1510)
*'' Trigonometria'' (1595)

Notes

References

* Boyer, Carl. 1991. ''A History of Mathematics''. New York City: Wiley.
*
*Carter, Baker. 2006. ''The Role of the History of Mathematics in Middle School''. Presentation at East Tennessee University, August 28.
*Gazale, Midhat, J. 2000. ''Number''. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
*Newman, J, R. 1956. ''The World of Mathematics''. New York City: Simon & Schuster.
*Peterson, Ivars. 1996. ''Old and New Arithmetic''. Mathematical Association of America. http://www.maa.org/mathland/mathland_8_5.html (accessed October 11, 2006).
*Swetz, Frank, J. 1987. ''Capitalism and Arithmetic''. La Salle: Open Court.

External links

Full text of the ''Treviso Arithmetic''
{{authority control

1478 books
Mathematics books
15th century in science
Venetian language
Works published anonymously
15th-century Italian mathematicians
Treviso