Summa de arithmetica.

£135,000 · Offered by Shapero Rare Books

the most influential work in the history of capitalism Second edition of 'the first great general work on mathematics printed' (Smith, Rara arithmetica, p56) and the first printed text to set out the method of double-entry bookkeeping, leading to its description as 'the most influential work in the history of capitalism' and earning Pacioli the title 'Father of Accounting'. Furthermore, it is the first printing of any of the works of the great thirteenth-century mathematician Leonardo of Pisa, called Fibonacci (c. 1175-c. 1250), and of the author's friend, the brilliant mathematician and artist Piero della Francesca (1416-92). The Summa, the writing of which had been completed by 1487, is in two volumes, the first dealing with arithmetic and algebra, the second with geometry. The first volume is divided into nine chapters (distinctiones): the first seven on arithmetic (222 pages), chapter 8 on algebra (78 pages), and chapter 9 on business (150 pages). The second volume comprises chapters 1-8 (151 pages) on geometry, with separate signatures and foliation and a caption title. There is a brief colophon at the end of part 1 referring to the full colophon at the end of part 2. The first part of the Summa is the first printed comprehensive treatment of algebra and arithmetic, based largely on Fibonacci's 1202 Liber Abaci which famously introduced Arabic numbers to the West, and which was itself in part a translation of the treatises on algebra and arithmetic of the Persian mathema

• Binding: Hardcover

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.