Mathematical Treasure: John Bonnycastle’s Arithmetic and Algebra

John Bonnycastle (1751-1821) was a self-educated British mathematics master who eventually became a mathematics instructor at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, teaching cadets. He was a prolific and well respected writer of mathematics textbooks. His two most popular books were The Scholar’s Guide to Arithmetic, first published in 1780, and Introduction to Algebra (1782). The Arithmetic eventually went through eighteen editions and the Algebra, thirteen editions.

The images shown below are from an 1815 American edition of the Arithmetic.

Pages 120 and 121 discuss the reduction of common fractions.

Page 160 provides information on computing discounts for various business transactions.

The following images of Bonnycastle’s Algebra are from the American edition of 1811.

Page 38 discusses the subtraction of fractions.

The extraction of simple roots is explained on page 141.

A selection of student exercises is offered on page 216.

The images above are presented courtesy of the University of Pennsylvania Libraries.

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