Mathematical Treasure: Halliwell's Rara Mathematica

James Halliwell (1820-1889) was an English Shakespearean scholar and collector of nursery rhymes. He is most famous for introducing the western world to the story of the “three little pigs.” A prolific author, he published Rara Mathematica in 1839. This was a collection of mathematical and mathematically related medieval manuscripts he found at the British Library.

The table of contents provides a list of the manuscripts.

The contents of one 14th century manuscript concern the processes of numeration.

The images above are supplied through the courtesy of the University of California Libraries. The work may be viewed in its entirety in the Internet Archive.

Index to Mathematical Treasures