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DescriptionsandImages
oftheEarlyMedievalLatinAbacus
I
ThepositionofarithmeticinearlyMedievalLatinschoolswasinmany
waysexceptional.Thisartwasregardedasthefirstofthequadrivium
1
and
itsrolewascomparablewiththeroleoflogic(dialectics)withinthetrivium
arts
2
.Amongtheauthorsofthemostauthoritativeandimportanttextswere
AureliusAugustinus,MartianusCapella,IsidoriusofSeville
3
,Cassiodorus,
andBoethius.Theirtextsservedasanargumentsupportingthegrowinginter-
estinthisartaswellasfunctionedasteachingmaterial.
Referencestotheabacus,amathematictoolusedforbasicarithmeticcal-
culations(addition,subtraction,halving,multiplication,doubling,anddivi-
sion),canbefoundinthetextsasearlyasthosewrittenbetweenthe4
th
and
1
A.M.S.Boethius:DeinstitutionearithmeticaI,1.Ed.H.Oosthout;J.Schilling:
CorpusChristianorum,SeriesLatina94A.Turnhout1999,pp.12113,or:F.M.A.Cassiodo-
rus:InstitutionesdivinarumethumanarumlitterarumII,4,1.Ed.R.A.B.Mynors.Oxford
1961,p.132.
2
Comp.R.Franci:L’insegnamentodell’aritmeticanelMedioevo.In:Itineramathema-
tica.StudiinonorediGinoArrighiperilsuo900compleanno.Eds.R.Franci,P.Pagli,
L.T.Rigatelli.Sienna1996,pp.12113.
3
SeeAugustinusHipponensis:DeliberoarbitrioII,3113.Ed.W.M.Green.Cor-
pusChristianorum,SeriesLatina29.Turnhout1970;MartianusCapella:DenuptiisPhilo-
logiaeetMercurii.Ed.J.Willis.Leipzig1983;IsidoriHispalensisepiscopiEtymologiarium
siveOriginumlibriXX.Ed.W.M.Lindsay.Oxford1911.
