Mathematics from Manuscript to Print 1300-1600

Based on a 1984 Anglo-French conference on Renaissance mathematics, this superb collection of essays explores the impact of the era upon the subsequent history of mathematics and science. The contributors discuss technical topics in mathematics history, such as figurate numbers and the development of solutions to algebraic equations; and they present mathematics in its broader cultural context by analyzing the economic, social, and ideological factors that shaped the pre-history of probability. Key developments in Italian, French, and Dutch mathematics are traced, with special attention to interactions of mathematics with other disciplines, as in the emerging uses of perspective in art. A fascinating reference for mathematics and science historians, mathematicians, and students.