Mathematical Treasure: Bradwardine's Geometry and Arithmetic

Geometria speculativa, by Thomas Bradwardine (ca. 1295-1349), was published in 1511. It was one of the first geometries not based solely on Euclid. The cover of the particular edition examined here contains marginal comments of previous readers.

The first pages of text contain definitions and accompanying illustrations.

An edition of Thomas Bradwardine’s Arithmethica was published in 1513. It was a rather brief book of a few pages and considered some basics of arithmetic. The cover illustration depicts fourteen monks listening to a reader depicted in the upper center. One assumes that the lecture concerned mathematics.

The opening page of the text contains marginal notes of a past reader.

The images above are provided courtesy of Columbia University Libraries. A complete copy of Geometria speculativa is also available in the Internet Archive.

Index to Mathematical Treasures