Princeton University Press
Sourcebook in the Mathematics of Medieval Europe and North Africa
Key Metrics
- Victor J Katz
- Princeton University Press
- Hardcover
- 9780691156859
- 10.1 X 7.3 X 1.8 inches
- 3.05 pounds
- Mathematics > History & Philosophy
- English
Secure TransactionBook Description
Medieval Europe was a meeting place for the Christian, Jewish, and Islamic civilizations, and the fertile intellectual exchange of these cultures can be seen in the mathematical developments of the time. This sourcebook presents original Latin, Hebrew, and Arabic sources of medieval mathematics, and shows their cross-cultural influences. Most of the Hebrew and Arabic sources appear here in translation for the first time.
Readers will discover key mathematical revelations, foundational texts, and sophisticated writings by Latin, Hebrew, and Arabic-speaking mathematicians, including Abner of Burgos's elegant arguments proving results on the conchoid--a curve previously unknown in medieval Europe; Levi ben Gershon's use of mathematical induction in combinatorial proofs; Al-Mu'taman Ibn Hūd's extensive survey of mathematics, which included proofs of Heron's Theorem and Ceva's Theorem; and Muhyī al-Dīn al-Maghribī's interesting proof of Euclid's parallel postulate. The book includes a general introduction, section introductions, footnotes, and references.
The Sourcebook in the Mathematics of Medieval Europe and North Africa will be indispensable to anyone seeking out the important historical sources of premodern mathematics.
Author Bio
Victor J. Katz is Professor of Mathematics emeritus at the University of the District of Columbia. He has long been interested in the history of mathematics and its use in teaching. The third edition of his well-regarded textbook, A History of Mathematics: An Introduction, appeared in 2008. Katz is also the editor of The Mathematics of Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, India and Islam: A Sourcebook, published in 2007.
Professor Katz has written and spoken extensively on the history of mathematics and its use in teaching. He has edited three books dealing with this subject as well as two collections of historical articles taken from journals of the Mathematical Association of America in the past 90 years.
He has directed two NSF-sponsored projects to help college teachers learn the history of mathematics and its use in teaching and also involved secondary school teachers in writing materials demonstrating this use in the high school curriculum. These materials, Historical Modules for the Teaching and Learning of Mathematics, were published on a CD in 2005.
Professor Katz was the founding editor of Loci:Convergence, the MAA’s online magazine in the history of mathematics and its use in teaching.
Source: Department of Mathematics University of Hawaii at Manoa
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