The History of Arithmetic

Karpinski, Louis Charles

Edité par Rand McNally & Company, Chicago, 1925

First Edition. Hardcover. The friendly, if enigmatic figures on the front cover of this 1925 first edition welcome you into the long, illustrious history of arithmetic around the globe and across the centuries. Here, that story is not only compelling told but bountifully illustrated, with in-text figures including Aztec hieroglyphics, Babylonian cuneiform tablets, Korean number rods, and Peruvian 'quipu,' and photographs from early math manuscripts from the East and West to the early primers and treatises of colonial America. This particular copy is additionally annotated throughout by an engaging and attentive reader of the time, with her pencilled remarks indicating a close reading, perhaps in order to instruct students, including, beside an illustration of Mayan hieroglyphic number symbols, the promise: "PRIZE to anyone who can see what K. says is here." Starting with early forms of numerals spanning ancient Egypt, Babylonia, Greece, Rome, China, Japan, Korea, and North America, through the Arabic development of arithmetic, touching on landmark textbooks of the subject including European works after 1200 and American primers before 1800, covering fundatmental operations along the way, from additions to fractions and beyond, in The History of Arithmetic, American mathematician and later president of the History of Science Society, Louis Charles Karpinski (1878-1956) sought to demonstrate that ".arithmetic connects intimately with the early civilization of America and the Orient, that it is associated directly with the progress of the art of printing, and that illuminating contact is made with the development of the English language." 7 3/4" X 5 3/8". xi, 200pp. Presents nicely in protective archival jacket. Publisher's cloth binding designed by Edward Stratton Holloway (1859-1939), with his monogram to upper board. Bound in ribbed and clay-colored cloth over boards, stamped in black with medieval and mathematical figures to upper board, lettered in black to upper board and spine. Moderate wear to binding, with bumping to extremities, light fraying to head and tail of spine and to bottom corners, and light staining to cloth at upper board. Slight lean to spine, and text block a touch shaken; binding remains quite firm and sound. Annotated throughout by an attentive reader of the time, with her inked name to front pastedown: Mabel M. Fortney, with her pencilled remarks to pages indicating a close reading, perhaps in order to instruct students. N° de réf. du vendeur 16798

Détails bibliographiques

Titre : The History of Arithmetic
Éditeur : Rand McNally & Company, Chicago
Date d'édition : 1925
Reliure : Hardcover
Etat : Very good
Edition : First Edition.