Mathematical Treasures - 16th-Century Tuscan Arithmetic

Arithmetica (1577) is an anonymous manuscript (Plimpton MS 223), believed to have been written in the Tuscany region of Italy. It is rather artistically rendered as the cover design shows (folio 1).

One type of problem considered in the work involves the computation of the volume of vats used in wine production (folios 45v-46).                                              

The images above have been obtained through the kind cooperation of the Rare Book and Manuscript Library of the Columbia University Libraries. These and more images may be accessed via Digital Scriptorium, a digital collection of medieval and early Renaissance manuscripts made available by a consortium of cooperating university libraries headed by the University of California, Berkeley. 

Index to Mathematical Treasures