
Algorithms, Monks, And Merchants: Computing In Everyday Life In The Middle Ages
Giorgio Ausiello(Author)
World Scientific Publishing Co Pte Ltd
Published on 20. March 2025
Book
Hardback
200 pages
978-981-12-9927-8 (ISBN)
Description
This book explores the tight relationship that existed between application needs and computational problem-solving methods during the Middle Ages, particularly the period between the 9th and 15th centuries. It was a time of great cultural and economic evolution, starting with the blooming phase of Arab science and continuing with the acquisition of Hindu-Arabic computation methods (based on the decimal positional number system) in Western Europe.The aim is to show, by means of suitable examples, how in the Middle Ages mathematics and computation were tightly related to the solution of everyday life problems. These ranges from religious problems like computing the date of Easter to land measurement and financial computations, as well as handling various volumes and managing agricultural resources.In particular, during the late medieval centuries when the economy saw a substantial upswing, merchants' activity required strong computational skills to solve a great variety of problems. It is such need that led to the creation of the so called 'abacus schools' that the sons of merchants, primarily Italians but also from other European regions, attended during their boyhood to learn computing techniques.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Singapore
Singapore
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
448 gr
ISBN-13
978-981-12-9927-8 (9789811299278)
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Schweitzer Classification