
Spain played a central role in dissemination of Islamic intellectual tradition.
Since West Arabic gobar figures came into use early in Spain it was only a question of time before they appeared in Latin texts.
The oldest mathematical European manuscript is Codex Vigilanus contains 1 - 9 but no zero (AD 976).
So Hindu Arabic numerals came to the West helped by:
Translation of Algorithms from the Arabic and the writing of learned dissertations on arithmetic (C12, C13)
The final introduction "from below" by merchants (C15, C16).
Over the centuries the numerals became like ours, with rotation from column to column.
In addition an unmarked round counter was placed in a column temporarily empty.
It didn't catch on - went back to unmarked counters. He had pinched his system from the Arabs but didn't see its advantages (only comes with calculation).
"Arithmetic" by Al-Khouarizmi was translated - his name was used in its Latin form "Algorithms" to denote new Arithmetic.
All books used Hindu-Arabic numerals and showed elementary computing operations.
The zero by itself meant nothing but when placed after another numeral the value of this numeral was enhanced 10 fold - difficult to understand!
Italy had trade links with Arabs.
Leonardo of Pisa's "Liber Abaci" used the Hindu-Arabic figure and was a great success amongst the merchants.
General European use C15 (Florence banned them in 1299 because you could falsify them).
FIRST ASSESSMENT
Hindu-Arabic Numerals
Counting Systems and Notations
History of Mathematics Module
Links to other History of Mathematics sites
[ Comments ] [ Module Leader ]
These pages are maintained by M.I.Woodcock.