You are here

Mathematical Treasures - Adam Riese's Rechenbuch

Author(s): 
Frank J. Swetz and Victor J. Katz

/images/cms_upload/0800804251310.jpg

This is a page from the 1550 Rechenbuch (reckoning book) of Adam Riese (1492–1559), one of the greatest reckoning masters of the 16th century.  The complete title of the book is Rechnung nach der lenge/auff den Linien und Feder.  This page (78) deals with the gauging of barrels, that is, with measuring the contents of a barrel.

/images/cms_upload/0800804251310.jpg

This page from the Rechenbuch (6) has a table showing numbers in German words, in Roman numerals, and in the Hindu-Arabic numerals.

The images above have been obtained through the kind cooperation of the Rare Book and Manuscript Library of the Columbia University Libraries. The images below show a copy previously owned by Robert B. Honeyman (1897–1987) and Erwin Tomash (1921–2012) that was offered for sale by the German rare bookseller Milestones of Science Books.

Table of contents and opening page from Adam Riese's 1550 Rechenung nach der Lenge.

Folio 43 from Adam Riese's 1550 Rechenung nach der Lenge.

Folio 59 from Adam Riese's 1550 Rechenung nach der Lenge.

Folio 106 from Adam Riese's 1550 Rechenung nach der Lenge.

Folio 134 from Adam Riese's 1550 Rechenung nach der Lenge.

Index to Mathematical Treasures

Frank J. Swetz and Victor J. Katz, "Mathematical Treasures - Adam Riese's Rechenbuch," Convergence (January 2011)

Mathematical Treasures from the Smith and Plimpton Collections at Columbia University