Old Arithmetic Books: Mathematics in Spain in the First Half of the Sixteenth Century

Abstract

During the sixteenth century, a relevant number of books related to practical arithmetic were published in Spain. This paper presents a comparative study that aims to identify the object and target of five old mathematics books and the main contents of these books. In order to do so, all the contents and all the examples found in five arithmetic books written during the first half of the 16th century were identified and categorised. A historical-mathematical analysis using a content analysis technique was then applied. The results show the authors' concerns about mathematics at the time and the different contents that were included in some arithmetic books of this century.

“Dig Where You Stand” 7. Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on the History of Mathematics Education. September 19-23, 2022, Mainz, Germany

“…Spain was no exception to this phenomenon (Madrid et al, 2020), so in this situation the following research question naturally arises: how were fractions introduced and treated in 16 th century Spanish arithmetic texts? As far as we know, this question has not been thoroughly addressed in the existing research, so we aim to fill this gap in the literature.…”