Ulrich Wagner (mathematician)

6 pages from the "Bamberger Rechenbuch" from 1483

Ulrich Wagner († around 1490) was a Nuremberg arithmetic master of the 15th century who published the " Bamberg arithmetic book" published in 1483 . It is considered to be the oldest completely preserved printed German arithmetic book .

Wagner is mentioned as arithmetic master in Nuremberg in 1456 and 1486/87. The council minutes from 1486/87 show that he was in dispute with the arithmetic masters Michael Jöppel and Rupprecht Kolberger (died 1505). Wagner had an arithmetic school in Nuremberg and became so wealthy that he was able to buy a house in Spitalgasse in 1489. He must have died shortly afterwards, because court records mention his widow as early as 1490. He was married to Kunigunde Gutpir, with whom he had at least one son. His widow continued the arithmetic school and died in 1513, supported by his son Hans Wagner (died 1541). Another son Johann became a theologian.

At that time there was another arithmetic master in Nuremberg, Hans Wagner, who died in 1560.

Only fragments of his first arithmetic book, printed in 1482 by Heinrich Petzensteiner in Bamberg, are preserved in the Bamberg State Library; two complete copies of the second edition in 1483 (also by Petzensteiner) are known, one in Zwickau and one in Zurich (discovered and edited by Johann Jakob Burckhardt ). In 21 chapters , the book deals with basic arithmetic operations , fractions and the conversion of coins in everyday tasks. According to Monika Zimmermann (in ²VL , Volume I, 1978, Col. 596-598) Wagner was not the author of the Bamberg arithmetic book, which was handed down from an unedited German-speaking book written before 1450 and handed down by the author of the Ratisbonensis algorism (Emmeran Monastery, Regensburg, around 1450) Treatise.

There is also the Bamberg block book (a xylography ) from this period in Germany , created between 1471 and 1482, and an arithmetic book by Johannes Widmann in Leipzig (1489). The first arithmetic books printed in Italy are not much older or at the same time: the Treviso Arithmetic (1478), the Arithmetica by Piero Borghi (1484) and a little later the Summa by Luca Pacioli (1494).

literature

• Wagner: The Bamberg arithmetic book from 1483. Akademie Verlag 1988 and VCH, Weinheim 1988 (epilogue Eberhard Schröder, based on the copy in Zwickau)
• Wagner: Bamberg arithmetic book . Facsimile print, Swiss Bibliophile Society 1966 and Munich, Graphos Verlag 1966 (editor K. Elfering, epilogue Johann Jakob Burckhardt, based on the copy in the Zurich Central Library)
• Heinrich Bunner: The first German arithmetic book. In: Communications from the Association for the History of the City of Nuremberg. Volume 35, 1937, pp. 1-16.
• Adolf Jaeger: Position and activity of the typists and arithmetic masters (millers) in Nuremberg in the late Middle Ages and at the time of the Renaissance. Dissertation. Erlangen 1925.
• Eberhard Schröder Ulrich Wagner, author of the first printed German-language commercial arithmetic book from 1483 , in Rainer Gebhardt (Hrsg.): Arithmetic masters and cossists of the early modern era. Technische Universität, Freiberg 1996, pp. 29-36.
• Eberhard Schröder: The Bamberg mathematical handwriting and its relationship to the Algorimus Ratisbonensis and the Bamberg arithmetic book by Ulrich Wagner 1483. Rainer Gebhardt (editor): Kaufmanns arithmetic books and mathematical writings of the early modern period. Writings of the Adam-Ries-Bund, Annaberg-Buchholz 2011, p. 167 f.
• Monika Zimmermann: Bamberger Rechenbuch 1483. In: Burghart Wachinger and others (Hrsg.): The German literature of the Middle Ages. Author Lexicon . 2nd, completely revised edition, volume 1: 'A solis ortus cardine' - Colmar Dominican chronicler. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1978, ISBN 3-11-007264-5 , Sp. 596-599.

Web links

• Literature by and about Ulrich Wagner in the catalog of the German National Library
• Astronomy in Nuremberg to Wagner
• Bamberg arithmetic book from 1482 Fragment of the Bamberg State Library
• Regula von dre is drey dinck die du sets the block book of the Bamberg State Library

Individual evidence

1. ^ Helmuth Gericke Mathematics in Antiquity, Orient and Occident , Fourier Verlag, Volume 2, p. 347
2. ↑ In the colophon recognized as the author.
3. ↑ Published by Kurt Vogel in 1980 at KG Saur
4. ↑ Overview of early German arithmetic books ( Memento of the original from March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
5. ^ Gericke Mathematics in Antiquity, Orient and Occident , Fourier Verlag