Description
Book SynopsisThe book deals with Gerbert of Aurillac (Pope Sylvester II) and his investigations in the field of theoretical (philosophy of numbers) and practical (counting) arithmetic. The book represents the comprehensive inquiry of both these aspects of arithmetic in his thought. The analysed sources are Gerbert’s so-called scientific letters written to his friends, colleagues or pupils, and also including some of his other texts. On this basis, attention is paid to arithmetic as the mother of all sciences and as the path to wisdom (e.g., the so-called Saltus Gerberti, relation between arithmetic and other disciplines of the quadrivium, etc.) and also to practical arithmetic (e.g., the introduction of Hindu-Arabic numerals and the re-introduction of a new form of abacus to the Latin Christian West).
Table of ContentsArithmetic as the science of numbers
Theoretical arithmetic:
- The Nature of Numbers: Saltus Gerberti (Letter to Constantine)
- Figurative Numbers and Geometry (Letter to Adelbold)
- Music and Harmony (Two Letters to Constantine)
- Astronomy and Timekeeping (Letter De sphaera, Richer’s Historia, and the horological letter to Adam)
Practical arithmetic:
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Tabula abaci, decimal positional notation and ghubar numbers
- Regulae multiplicationis
- Regulae divisionis
