Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 77.djvu/234

228 served largely to spread the knowledge of the numerals which we now employ. This "Algorism" was first published at Strassburg in 1488 and at least thirteen other editions followed before fifty years had elapsed. In the first edition it appeared with a computus, the title applied to works on the arithmetic of the church calendar. The Latin version of our rhyme "Thirty days hath September," etc., appears in this "Compotus Manualis" (in verse) and was written by Anianus, a Strassburg astronomer and poet. The name algorism was applied for some five hundred years to the arithmetic which explained the method of reckoning with the Hindu-Arabic numerals. The word is a corruption from the name of Mohammed ben Musa, al-Khowarazmi, whose Arabic work on this subject was translated into Latin in the early twelfth century. Early manuscripts of Sacrobosco's classic are found in the Columbia Library as well as in the Plimpton collection.

Many theologians and churchmen, among the earliest of these may be mentioned the Venerable Bede (c. A.D. 700), and Cassiodorus (c. A.D. 550), amused themselves by writing arithmetics, but this was inevitable in the period when learning was so largely confined to church institutions. Thomas Bradwardin (c. 1290–1349), who was professor of theology at Oxford and later archbishop of Canterbury, wrote extensively on mathematics. His name suffered, as did many others, at the hands of transcribers, being found as Bragwardine, Brandnardinus, Bredwardyn, Bradwardyn, de Bradwardina and de Bredwardina. Another of these professors of theology was Christian Ursinus (also known as Allassiderus, Allassisiderus, Wursteisen or Urstis) who published in 1579 at Basel an arithmetic entitled "Elementa Arithmeticæ."

The surnames, as noted above, were rather shabbily treated from the modern point of view, since the first names were regarded as the important ones. It was common, too, for scholars to Latinize their names, or more rarely to give the Greek equivalent. The reformer Melanchthon, who appears as a writer on the nature and value of mathematics, was baptized Schwarzerd. Schreiber (c. 1525) became as a writer of school texts Grammateus, but was also known as Scriptor. Melanchthon's friend, Camerarius, who was also a classical scholar, was born as Liebhard. Camerarius wrote a commentary on the arithmetic of Nicomachus. Conrad Dasypodius, whose family name was originally Rauchfuss or Hasenfuss, wrote two works which should have been included in this catalogue. Copies of these rare books, both published at Strassburg in 1567–1570 and 1593–1596, respectively, are found in the Astor Library. The older one is entitled "First and Simplest Mathematics," and is partly in Greek and partly in Latin, treating of geometry, logistic (a Greek name for practical arithmetic), astronomy and geography. The writer was professor of mathematics at Strassburg