jured, that he was frequently obliged to guess the meannig of the author, or supply the deficiency. At a later period, the celebrated French mathematician Fermat supplemented the commentary of Bachet by notes of his own on the writings of the Greek algebraist. These are extremely valuable, on account of Fermat's profound knowledge of this particular branch of analysis. This edition, the best which exists, appeared in 1670.
Arabian writers. Although the revival of the writings of Diophantus was an important event in the history of mathematics, yet it was not from them that algebra became first known in Europe. This important invention, as well as the numeral characters and decimal arithmetic, was received from the Arabians. That ingenious people fully appreciated the value of the sciences; for at a period when all Europe was enveloped in the darkness of ignorance, they preserved from extinction the lamp of knowledge. They carefully collected the writings of the Greek mathematicians; they translated them into their language, and illustrated them with commentaries. It was through the medium of the Arabic tongue that the elements of Euclid were first introduced into Europe; and a part of the writings of Apollonius are only known at the present day by a translation from the Arabic, the Greek original being lost.
The Arabians ascribe the invention of their algebra to one of their mathematicians, Mahommed-ben-Musa, or Moses, called also Mahommed of Buziana, who flourished about the middle of the 9th century, in the reign of the Caliph Almamoun.
It is certain that this person composed a treatise on this subject, because an Italian translation was known at one time to have existed in Europe, although it is now lost. Fortunately, however, a copy of the Arabic original is preserved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, bearing a date of transcription corresponding to the year 1342. The title-page identifies its author with the ancient Arabian. A marginal note concurs in this testimony, and further declares the work to be the first treatise composed on algebra among the faithful; and the preface, besides indicating the author, intimates that he was encouraged by Almamoun, commander of the faithful, to compile a compendious treatise of calculation by algebra.
The circumstance of this treatise professing to be only a compilation, and, moreover, the first Arabian work of the kind, has led to an opinion that it was collected from books in some other language. As the author was intimately acquainted with the astronomy and computations of the Hindoos, he may have derived his knowledge of algebra from the same quarter. The Hindoos, as we shall presently see, had a science of Algebra, and knew how to solve indeterminate problems. Hence we may conclude, with some probability, that the Arabian algebra was originally derived from India.
The algebraic analysis, having been once introduced among the Arabians, was cultivated by their own writers. One of these, Mahommed Abulwafa, who flourished in the last forty years of the 10th century, composed commentaries on the writers who had preceded him. He also translated the writings of Diophantus.
It is remarkable, that although the mathematical sciences were received with avidity, and sedulously cultivated during a long period by the Arabians, yet in their hands they received hardly any improvement. It might have been expected that an acquaintance with the writings of Diophantus would have produced some change in their algebra. This, however, did not happen: their algebra continued nearly in the same state, from their earliest writer on the subject, to one of their latest, Behaudin, who lived between the years 953 and 1031.
Introduction into Europe by Leonardo.Writers on the history of algebra were long under a mistake as to the time and manner of its introduction into Europe. It has now, however, been ascertained that the science was brought into Italy by Leonardo, a merchant of Pisa. This ingenious man resided in his youth in Barbary, and there learned the Indian method of counting by the nine numeral characters. Commercial affairs led him to travel into Egypt, Syria, Greece, and Sicily, where we may suppose he made himself acquainted with everything known respecting numbers. The Indian mode of computation appeared to him to be by far the best. He accordingly studied it carefully; and, with this knowledge, and some additions of his own, and also taking some things from Euclid's Geometry, he composed a treatise on arithmetic. At that period algebra was regarded only as a part of arithmetic. It was indeed the sublime doctrine of that science; and under this view the two branches were handled in Leonardo's treatise, which was originally written in 1202, and again brought forward under a revised form in 1228. When it is considered that this work was composed two centuries before the invention of printing, and that the subject was not such as generally to interest mankind, we need not wonder that it was but little known; hence it has always remained in manuscript, as well as some other works by the same author. Indeed it was not known to exist from an early period until the middle of the last century, when it was discovered in the Magliabecchian library at Florence.
The extent of Leonardo's knowledge was pretty much the same as that of the preceding Arabian writers. He could resolve equations of the first and second degrees, and he was particularly skilful in the Diophantine analysis. He was well acquainted with geometry, and he employed its doctrines in demonstrating his algebraic rules. Like the Arabian writers, his reasoning was expressed in words at length; a mode highly unfavourable to the progress of the art. The use of symbols, and the method of combining them so as to convey to the mind at a single glance a long process of reasoning, was a much later invention. Considerable attention was given to the cultivation of algebra between the time of Leonardo and the invention of printing. It was publicly taught by professors. Treatises were composed on the subject; and two works of the oriental algebraists were translated from the Arabian language into Italian. One was entitled the Rule of Algebra, and the other was the oldest of all the Arabian treatises, that of Mahommed-ben-Musa of Corasan.
Lucas de Burgo.The earliest printed book on algebra was composed by Lucas Paciolus, or Lucas de Burgo, a minorite friar. It was first printed in 1494, and again in 1523. The title is Summa de Arithmetica, Geometria, Proportioni, et Proportionalita.
This is a very complete treatise on arithmetic, algebra, and geometry, for the time in which it appeared. The author followed close on the steps of Leonardo; and, indeed, it is from this work that one of his lost treatises has been restored.
Lucas de Burgo's work is interesting, inasmuch as it shows the state of algebra in Europe about the year 1500: probably the state of the science was nearly the same in Arabia and Africa, from which it had been received.
The power of algebra as an instrument of research is in a very great degree derived from its notation, by which all the quantities under consideration are kept constantly in view; but in respect of convenience and brevity of expression, the algebraic analysis in the days of Lucas de Burgo was very imperfect: the only symbols employed were a few abbreviations of the words or names which occurred in the processes of calculation, a kind of short-hand, which formed a very imperfect substitute for that compactness of expression which has been attained by the modern notation.
