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Mathematical Treasure: Johann Hemeling’s Kleines Rechenbuch

Author(s): 
Frank J. Swetz (The Pennsylvania State University)

Johann Hemeling (ca 1615–1684) was a German reckoning master who wrote several mathematics books. His Kleines Rechenbuch was quite popular. Carl Freidrich Gauss possessed a copy. The version shown here was printed in 1817.

Title page of 1817 printing of Johann Hemeling's Kleines Rechenbuch.

The opening pages concern numeration:

First page of 1817 printing of Johann Hemeling's Kleines Rechenbuch.

Page 2 of 1817 printing of Johann Hemeling's Kleines Rechenbuch.

Page 3 of 1817 printing of Johann Hemeling's Kleines Rechenbuch.

Page 4 of 1817 printing of Johann Hemeling's Kleines Rechenbuch.

Page 5 of 1817 printing of Johann Hemeling's Kleines Rechenbuch.

Later in the text, special computational rules such as “the inverse rule of three” are explained.

Page 126 of 1817 printing of Johann Hemeling's Kleines Rechenbuch.

Page 127 of 1817 printing of Johann Hemeling's Kleines Rechenbuch.

A full digitization of the copy owned by the University of Michigan is available at HathiTrust.

Index to Mathematical Treasures

Frank J. Swetz (The Pennsylvania State University), "Mathematical Treasure: Johann Hemeling’s Kleines Rechenbuch," Convergence (December 2022)