Mathematical Treasure: Early Spanish Arithmetic and Algebra

Little is known about Marco Aurelio Alemán (or Marco Aurel, the German), except that he taught arithmetic in Valencia and was the author of the Iberian Peninsula’s first known algebra book, Libro primero de aritmética algebraica, published in Valencia in 1552. This is the title page of this historic book.

These pages provide definitions for “arithmetic” and “numerals”:

Reference 

Maria Rosa Massa Esteve, "Spanish 'Arte Mayor' in the Sixteenth Century," in Pluralité de l'algèbre a la Renaissance (Rommevaux, Spiesser, and Massa Esteve, eds.), Paris: Honoré Champion, 2012, pp. 103-126. Also available via ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273343085_Spanish_Arte_Mayor_in...

These images are obtained through the cooperation of the Hispanic Society of America Museum and Library.

Index to Mathematical Treasures