Systematization of european Commercial Arithmetic in the 13th century

Abstract

Europe in the 13th century went through changes in its commercial activities, these changes led to the need for more optimized and efficient calculations. At this moment, a book called Liber Abaci written by Leonardo Fibonacci (1180 – 1250) came into play and met many of these needs. Thus, we aim to present the context found by Leonardo Fibonacci in the 13th century and present examples of systematizations brought by him to Commercial Arithmetic. in his Liber Abaci. In this way, we carried out a bibliographical research of sources related to the history of the Middle Ages, the history of medieval mathematics, medieval arithmetic and mercantile arithmetic. Additionally, we explored the contents present in chapters VIII, IX, X and XI of Liber Abaci. It was possible to identify that the context that Leonardo Fibonacci found at the beginning of the 13th century was favorable to his contributions and his proposed systematizations met the needs and demands of commerce.