Figuring out: The Spread of Hindu-Arabic Numerals in the European Tradition of Practical Mathematics (13th-16th Centuries)

Abstract

The paper focusses on the spread of Hindu-Arabic arithmetic among European practitioners. The analysis is based on an original database recording detailed information on over 1200 practical arithmetic manuals, both manuscript and printed. This database provides the most detailed reconstruction available of the European tradition of practical arithmetic from the late 13th to the end of the 16th century. The paper argues that studying this spread makes it possible to open a perspective on a progressive transmission of 'useful knowledge' from the 'commercial revolution' to the 'little divergence'. Focussing on the transmission of practical arithmetic allows to stress the role of skills and human capital in pre-modern European economic development. Moreover, it allows to reconstruct a progressive transmission, from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, of a 'practical knowledge' which eventually contributed to major developments in European 'theoretical knowledge'.