The linguistic expressions of arithmetical operations in the Italian Libri d’Abbaco

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The present paper is the first ever investigation of the formation of vernacular mathematical terminology in Italian Renaissance practical arithmetic manuals called abbaci (where abbaco means ‘computation’). These are an excellent source of information about the lexicon and grammar of the Renaissance merchant and artisan, and reveal many of the regional and dialectal variations of the spoken language. The distinctive feature of abbaco literature is its emphasis on the practical aspect of learning: these works aimed to put mathematical knowledge into everyday use by providing practice in a great variety of mathematical problems, and these were mainly couched in situations familiar in the market‐place of Renaissance towns. We focus on the lexicon (mainly verbs) used for the basic operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, because it reveals much about the formation of the mathematical lexicon, where vernacular terms having everyday meanings also acquire a specialized meaning within the mathematical register. Our analysis shows that in the abbaci some common everyday terms were employed to denote mathematical concepts and procedures; these were widely shared and established within the tradition despite geographical differences and local phonological differences, undergoing a process of meaning specialization. We investigate how vernacular mathematical vocabulary differs from the corresponding established Latin vocabulary in several respects: it seeks to explain new arithmetical procedures by using terms from the spoken language, thus embodying a process of new knowledge production addressing a new audience of common people. Terms belonging to the sphere of everyday language acquire new technical meanings in the context of computation.

Authors: Maiden, M; Petrocchi, A

• Language: English