Sumario Compendioso

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Sumario Compendioso is an arithmetic book in Spanish that was published in Mexico City in 1556 , making it the oldest known printed mathematics book in America that deals with arithmetic and algebra. It was aimed in particular at merchants and their employees who traded gold and silver from the mines of Peru. Today only four originals remain. They are located in the University of Salamanca (the only complete edition), Huntington Library , British Library, and Duke University .

History and content

The author of the book was the priest Juan Díez (also Juan Diez Freile or Freyle) from Galicia , whose life dates are unknown and was the companion of Hernán Cortés . In a letter to Charles V from 1533 he is described as an elderly and honorable clergyman. He was also editor of the works of Juan de Ávila after David Eugene Smith . According to David Eugene Smith, he is often confused with Juan Díaz (1480–1549), author of a description (Itinario) of the crossing of the Spanish fleet under Juan de Grijalva to Mexico in 1518 and also chaplain of Cortez. The printer Juan Pablos was the first book printer in Mexico and arrived there in 1536, his first books appeared in 1537.

It is not the first printed book with mathematics from America, there is a book on geometric figures and a book on logic after Bruce Stanley Burdick, both from 1554. It is not only one of the oldest printed mathematics books outside of Europe, but also one of the oldest textbooks of all, apart from theological works.

The book mostly deals with arithmetic , six pages are devoted to algebra , with the focus on solving a quadratic equation . In arithmetic, practical problems such as currency conversion and calculating the dues to the Spanish king (one fifth) are dealt with.

expenditure

  • Sumario compendioso de las quentas de plata y oro que en los reynos de Piru son necesarias a los mercaderes y todo genero de tetradantes. Con algunas reglas tocantes de arithmetica, Mexico City: J. Pablos 1556
  • Facsimile edition by David Eugene Smith (Editor): The Sumario Compendioso of Brother Juan Diez; The Earliest Mathematical Work of the New World , Boston: Ginn and Company 1921, Reprint, Camelot Publ. 1996, ISBN 1314464000 (mainly the text and only one of the tables that served as a calculation aid was reproduced), archives

literature

  • Bruce Stanley Burdick: Mathematical Works printed in the Americas 1554-1700 , Johns Hopkins University Press 2009
  • Clifford A. Pickover: The Math Book: From Pythagoras to the 57th Dimension - 250 Milestones in the History of Mathematics , ISBN 978-90-8998-280-3

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Frank Swetz: Mathematical Treasures. Sumario compendioso, MAA , August 2013
  2. ↑ So in the edition of the book by David Eugene Smith
  3. ↑ David Eugene Smith, loc. cit. P. 6, clerigo anciano y honrado
  4. ↑ Review by JW Young, Bulletin AMS, Volume 27, 1921, p. 484