Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
xxvi (1988)
I. INTRODUCTION
however minor, will make the theory more fit and so will be naturally selected.
The successive accumulation of individual differences through the natural
selection of ideas yields a variety which differs more and more from its parent-
theory. Then, as different varieties of theories interbreed through the combi-
nation, reorganization, and introduction of ideas, and as natural selection acts
upon the favourable variations which result, the varieties may gradually
develop into clear and distinct species of mathematical theories. If at any time
during the evolutionary process, however, a variation, that is, an idea or an
approach occurs which is neither useful nor injurious, it would persist
essentially unaltered until changes in the mathematical environment rendered
it either advantageous or disadvantageous. Viewed with respect to this kind of
an evolutionary framework, what the modern mathematician and some
historians might regard as the false starts, ill-conceived techniques, and
imperfectly formed theories of the past, actually appear as intermediate steps
in the evolutionary process of descent with modification.
The development of algebra from al-Khwarizmi to Viete provides a good
test case for this model of the natural selection of ideas. In the sixteenth
century, algebra became the stage for the confrontation of the more or less
continuous and adapting Arabic line of al-Khwarizmi (c. 80o-c. 847) and the
previously latent but newly rediscovered approach of Diophantus of Alexan-
dria (fl. A.D. 250). Writing at midcentury, Girolamo Cardano (1501-76)
opened his Ars magna by declaring algebra's indebtedness to the Arab world..
He asserted that "this art originated with Mahomet the son of Moses the Arab
[i.e., al-Khwarizmi]" and proceeded to expound the findings of al-Khwarizmi
and his successors in the Arabic line of descent. By the end of the century,
though, this Arabic approach to algebra no longer held sway. Long neglected
manuscripts of Diophantus's Arithmetica had come to light, and mathemati-
cians like Raphael Bombelli (1526-72) and Francois Viete (1540-1603) not
only absorbed the ideas presented there but also recognized the Arithmetica as
a mathematical work significantly different from the usual Arabic-inspired
text. In his In artem analyticem isagoge of 1591, Viete clearly expressed his
humanistic desire to purge algebra of its Arabic corruptions and to return it to
a more pristine state inspired by the classical Greeks. He bade his readers:
Behold, the art which I present is new, but in truth so old, so spoiled and
defiled by the barbarians, that I considered it necessary, in order to
introduce an entirely new form into it, to think out and publish a new
vocabulary, having gotten rid of all its pseudotechnical terms lest it should
retain its filth and continue to stink in the old way, but since till now ears
have been little accustomed to them, it will be hardly avoidable that many
will be offended and frightened away at the very threshold. And yet
underneath the Algebra or Almucabala which they lauded and called "the
THE ART OF ALGEBRA . 131
the Arithmetica was not completed by Qusta ibn Liiqa until the middle of the
ninth century or later," we can be fairly certain that the more theoretical ideas
of Diophantus had not yet entered the environment of, and so had not come
into competition with, Arabic mathematics. Given this complex mathematical
environment with its well-defined varieties of algebraic theories, we must now
examine how the theory al-Khwarizrni presented in his AI-jabr wa'l-muqabala
could have arisen through a natural selection of ideas.
In the opening algebraic part of the AI-jabr wa'l muqabala, al-Khwarizmi
distinguished and solved six types of algebraic equations up to and including
the quadratic, namely, squares equal to roots, squares equal to numbers, roots
equal to numbers, squares and roots equal to numbers, squares and numbers
equal to roots, and roots and numbers equal to a square. In modern notation
these become ax' = bx, ax' = c, bx = c, ax' + bx = c, ax' + c = bx,
and bx + c = ax', respectively, with the presence of six separate cases
following from the fact that mathematicians up to and well beyond this time
acknowledged neither zero coefficients nor negative numbers. Al-Khwarizmi
systematically presented the algebraic solutions, known since Babylonian
times, of particular cases of these equations and then provided geometric
justification for his algebraic rules. Consider his discussion of squares and
roots equal to numbers:
... a square and 10 roots are equal to 39 units. The question therefore in
this type of equation is about as follows: what is the square which
combined with ten of its roots will give a sum total of 39? The manner of
solving this type of equation is to take one-half of the roots just
mentioned. Now the roots in the problem before us are 10. Therefore take
5, which multiplied by itself gives 25, an amount which you add to 39
giving 64. Having taken then the square root of this which is 8, subtract
from it half the roots, 5 leaving 3. The number three therefore represents
one root of this square, which itself, of course is 9. Nine therefore gives the
square."
In modern notation, the problem was to solve the equation r + lOx = 39 for
+
x', 10 The method, given step by step, translates as I0 = 5, 52 = 25, 39 +
25=64, y64=8, 8-+'10=3 sox=3andx2=9.
However, al-Khwarizrni went beyond merely providing the sort of algebraic
recipe found in Babylonian texts. He insisted upon superadding a Euclidean
style of geometrical proof for algebraic fact. Thus, after explicitly stating that
" ... it is necessary that we should demonstrate geometrically the truth of the
same problems which we have explained in numbers", II he proceeded to justify
the above example with two different geometrical constructions, both of which
yielded a completion of the square. In the second construction he required that
THE ART OF ALGEBRA . 133
... to the square as representing the square of the unknown we add ten
roots and then take half of these roots giving 5. From this we construct
two areas added to the sides of the square figure ab [Figure I]. These again
g a
b
h d
FIG. I
are called ag and bd. The breadth of each is equal to the breadth of one
side of the square ab and each length is equal to 5. We now have to
complete the square by the product of 5 and 5, which, representing the half
of the roots, we add to the two sides of the first square figure, which
represents the second power of the unknown. Whence it now appears that
the two areas which we joined to the two sides, representing ten roots,
together with the first square, representing r, equals 39. Furthermore it is
evident that the larger or whole square is formed by the addition of the
product of 5 by 5. This square is completed and for its completion 25 is
added to 39. The sum total is 64. Now we take the square root of this,
representing one side of the larger square and then we subtract from it the
equal of that which we added, namely 5. Three remains, which proves to
be one side of the square ab, that is, one root of the proposed r. Therefore
three is the root of this x 2, and x 2 is 9Y
Although not as formal in style, this argument paralleled that given by
Euclid in the Elements for 11.6: "If a straight line be bisected and a straight line
A c B D
IK L H M
E G F
FIG. 2
be added to it in a straight line, the rectangle contained by the whole with the
added straight line and the added straight line together with the square on the
134· KAREN HUNGER PARSHALL
half is equal to the square on the straight line made up of the half and the
added straight line.,,13 For a straight line AB bisected at C [Figure 2] and a
straight line BD added to it, Euclid proved 11.6 by showing that rectangle
ADMK equals the sum of rectangles CDML and HMFG. Thus, by adding the
square on CB, that is, by adding square LHGEto CDML and HMFG, we have
square CDFE, as desired." With respect to al-Khwarizmi's proof above,
square BDMH played the role of ab, the equal rectangles CBHL and HMFG
were the geometric results of dividing the ten roots into two groups of five
roots each and corresponded to ag and bd, and finally square LHGE for
Euclid and al-Khwarizmi's square bh completed the larger square. The two
arguments hinged on exactly the same sequence of steps." ,
By incorporating a certain measure of Euclidean geometrical rigour into a
practical textbook on algebraic manipulation, al-Khwarizmi effected a varia-
tion upon which the natural selection of ideas could act. His idea amounted to
uniting aspects of two previously distinct varieties of algebraic thought,
namely, the calculationally oriented Babylonian approach to algebra and
Euclid's formal geometrical interpretation of algebra. In the present context,
this may be viewed as the interbreeding of two varieties yielding an offspring, a
new variety, which, through the preservation of the favourable characteristics
of both parents by natural selection, was distinct from both. The Babylonians
wanted accurate techniques for solving practical problems involving both
linear and quadratic equations, while as Sir Thomas Heath explained, Euclid
wished" ,.. to show the power of the method of geometrical algebra as much as
to arrive at results"." Al-Khwarizmi's new variety of algebra presented the
favourable variation of practical computation justified by mathematical
proof.'? Thus, in our model, the natural selection of ideas should have
preserved this favourable variation. That it was indeed preserved may be seen
in the fact that al-Khwarizmi's AI-jabr wa'l muqabala served as the point of
departure for many succeeding Arabic treatments of algebra.
In the generation just after al-Khwarizmi, Abii-Kamil (c. 8SO-c. 930) based
his own Kitab fi al-jabr wa'l-muqabala or Book on completion and balancing on
al-Khwarizrni's work. In his text, Abii-Kamil not only quoted directly from al-
Khwarizmi, but he also incorporated almost half of al-Khwarizmi's forty
examples into his work with little more than numerical changes." The
mathematical environment in which Abii-Kamil's thought developed involved
more than the work of al-Khwarizmi, however. Whereas the evidence of
Euclidean ancestry in the mathematical thought of al-Khwarizmi, though
strong, was purely morphological, Abii-Kamil actually cited Euclid in his
geometrical proofs." Thus, after only one generation, Euclid's text and ideas
appear to have become more widespread within the environment of algebraic
ideas. Since any variation which better adapts a theory to changed conditions
should be preserved under the action of natural selection, Abii-Kamil's idea of
THE ART OF ALGEBRA . 135
... the obvious solution is the root when one lays out a surface of a square
quadrilateral on it - ABGD [Figure 3]: One adds the roots to it which
were originally associated with the square-it is IO-they are ABWH.
One knows that line BH is 10 because the side AB of the surface ABGD
H r--- W
l;I M K
B A E
G D N
FIG. 3
fifteen were commercial in nature. Second, these final fifteen problems gave
solutions with no proofs, geometrical or otherwise, for fifteen different
algebraic equations. Third, while six of these last fifteen equations were the
standard six equations we have seen in al-Khwarizmi, Abii-Kiimil, al-Karaji,
and Leonardo, nine of them were cubic and of these five were irreducible." For
the first time in Western mathematical literature, Gerardi gave general, albeit
incorrect, solutions for the irreducible cubics: ax' = bx + N, ax' = bx' + N,
and ax' = bx' + ex + N. 38 His solutions were merely naive applications of
the quadratic formula to cubic equations. Thus, for ax' = bx + N, he claimed
that is, the solution of the quadratic ax' = bx + N. Since he did not check his
answers by reapplying them to the original problem, he did not recognize that
his solution techniques yielded erroneous results. Nevertheless, Gerardi's
treatment of irreducible cubics categorically proved that the quest for solu-
tions to such equations did not begin in the sixteenth century with the
celebrated controversy involving Cardano and Niccolo Tartaglia (c. 1499-
1557). In fact, " ... Gerardi's rules, his problems, and even his erroneous
formulations are repeated in similar abacus manuscripts dating from about
1340 to the time of Paciolo .... Thus Gerardi's treatise was only the beginning
of a long tradition in the study of higher order equations that did not bear fruit
until the sixteenth century. "39 Interpreted in the light of the present point of
view, however, Gerardi's text presented favourable variations which endured
through the action of natural selection.
By the middle of the fourteenth century, two more libri d'abaco introduced
yet another important variation, the irreducible quartic equation, into the
mathematical environment and so into the struggle for existence. The anony-
mous Trattato dell'alcibra amuchabile (c. 1340) and the Aliabraa argibra
(midcentury, possibly 1344) of Master Dardi of Pisa belied the notion that the
search for solutions to fourth degree equations began with the successful
general solution of Ludovico Ferrari (1522-65) in the sixteenth century.f"
Furthermore, in his 1463 Trattato di praticha d'arismetrica, Maestro Bene-
detto of Florence selected many of the findings of the maestri d'abaco for
inclusion in his discussion of the work of Fibonacci and al-Khwarizmi.
Of importance for the present development, however, Benedetto questioned
the pretended general solutions of the cubic equations and thereby introduced
the variation represented by this new research problem into the mathematical
environment. He also mentioned the abbreviations in use for the various
powers of the unknown in his treatise, namely, p = "cosa" = x, c = "census"
= x 2, b = "cubo" = x', cc = "censo di censo" = x", br = "cubo relato cosa"
= x5, and bb = "cubo di cubo cosa" = x6 • Although he basically used only
140· KAREN HUNGER PARSHALL
the symbol for "cosa" in his text, this underscored the shift that was taking
place during the fifteenth century away from the purely rhetorical writing style
of al-Khwarizmi, Leonardo, and the fourteenth century authors and toward
an algebraic notation. Finally, influenced by two centuries of these practical
tracts, Benedetto's work reflected the gradual abandonment of strict geometri-
cal demonstrations and the progressive rise of more abstract algebraic
justification."
Over the more than two centuries between the appearance of Leonardo's
Liber abbaci and the work of Maestro Benedetto, the natural selection of
favourable variations within a heavily commercial environment had resulted
in a well-marked variety of algebraic treatment which had diverged from its
parent-species in the range of problems considered, in the type of justification
presented, and in the language and form of presentation. As the need for
problem-solving texts gradually diminished over the course of the fifteenth
century, however, the practical tracts of the maestri d'abaco became less
competitive and were supplanted by texts of a more theoretical nature. The
first of these treatments, Fra Luca Pacioli's (c. I445-c. 1517) Summa de
arithmetica, geometria, proportioni e proportionalita (1494, second edition
1523) dealt with the ideas and findings of the maestri d'abaco while also
drawing from the theoretical portion of works such as Euclid's Elements and
Fibonacci's Liber abbaci. This theory with its emphasis on the geometrical
proof of algebraic fact had lain dormant in the environment of practical
problem-solving characteristic of the intervening three centuries. The reintro-
duction of such notions at the turn of the sixteenth century represented a new
and favourable variation upon which natural selection acted.
Owing largely to the fact that Pacioli's Summa was the first work on algebra
to appear in print as opposed to manuscript, it reached a relatively wide
audience and established Pacioli, rightly or wrongly, as an important mathe-
matical contributor." In essence, little of the mathematics presented in the
Summa was due to Pacioli. His contribution lay rather in bringing virtually all
realms of mathematical knowledge together in one work. Written in a curious
blend of Italian, regional dialect, and Latin, the Summa was subdivided into
parts on arithmetic, algebra, commercial mathematics, and geometry. With its
arithmetic and algebraic parts drawn primarily from Fibonacci's Liber abhaci,
its presentation of Archimedean geometry from his Practica geometriae, and
its number-theoretic sections from his Liber quadratorum.t' the Summa
effected a change in the mathematical environment which brought the
advances, techniques, and geometrical standards of proof evident in these
works back to the fore." As they remarked in their respective works, Cardano,
Tartaglia, and Bombelli had read and absorbed the work presented in Pacioli's
mathematical encyclopedia. They were each in a position to accept or reject
THE ART OF ALGEBRA . 141
the ideas they found there in light of the continuing, but no longer dominant,
practical line of algebra which they each appreciated.
While in content Pacioli's Summa contained little that had not already
appeared, the presentation of these known facts differed significantly from the
originals. As we have seen, the works of the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries were purely rhetorical in style with everything except the numerals
written out in words. Benedetto's work of 1463 evidenced a slight movement
away from this with the introduction of a symbol, p, for the unknown. In
Pacioli's Summa of 1494, however, algebraic computations took on an even
more abbreviated form. Consider the following sequence from the Summa:"
p", l.co.rhk.v.Lce. m36
2a • 6
3". l.co.pkv.lce. m36
2.co.p6 216
2.co. 210
valor rei 105.
In modern notation this becomes:
1'1 x - y!(x 2 - 36)
2nd 6
3rd X + y!(x 2 - 36)
2x + 6 216
2x 210
value of x 105.
Thus, Pacioli's Summa reflected the fifteenth century trend toward greater
abbreviation of the old rhetorical style which gave algebraic manipulations a
more compact look and set them out in the text." Still, it is important to
acknowledge that this did not represent a true notation. In the Summa, co. was
merely a shortened form of "cosa", ceo abbreviated "census", R, derived from
"radix" or "root", and p and m came from the first letters of "piu [plus]" and
"meno [minus]", respectively. Furthermore, these abbreviations occurred in a
largely rhetorical setting. Abbreviation had not fully taken over, and the
beginning of a true algebraic symbolism would not begin to appear for about a
century.
Aside from the changes in mathematical exposition which Pacioli's Summa
embodied, the work directly or indirectly spurred the search for general
solutions of the cubic equations. As we have seen, incorrect solutions to
various forms of cubics and quartics had already appeared in the libri d'abaco
of Paolo Gerardi and Master Dardi of Pisa. Maestro Benedetto had recog-
nized the errors which had been passed down by successive generations of
142· KAREN HUNGER PARSHALL
maestri d'abaco and had noted that general solutions continued to elude
mathematicians. In the Summa, Pacioli perpetuated the variation which
Benedetto had introduced by asserting the impossibility of such general
solutions within the context of the algebra of the day. Yet he left open the
possibility that solutions might someday be found." Through the visibility of
Pacioli and his work, Benedetto's observation dominated mathematical re-
search in Italy for almost fifty years.
In the years from 1501 to 1502, Pacioli's name appeared on the roster of
professors at the University of Bologna. There, he undoubtedly gave lectures
which reflected the contents of his Summa. Although it is not known whether
Scipione dal Ferro (1465-1526), a professor of mathematics at the University
of Bologna, heard these lectures or whether Pacioli dealt therein with the
problem of higher degree equations, it is known that dal Ferro succeeded in
solving the cubic ax 3 + bx = c sometime between 1500 and ISIS, and possibly
in 1504.48 In keeping with the customs of the time, dal Ferro kept his discovery
a closely guarded secret, revealing it only to a very privileged few. Among the
privileged were his son-in-law, the mathematician Annibale della Nave (c.
150(}-58) and his student, Antonio Maria Fiore. The solution was not
published; it was by no means disseminated; it was private and precious
property.
At the turn of the sixteenth century in Italy, the teacher of mathematics lived
in a highly competitive world. At this time, students paid their professors
directly for each course they took. Thus, if they became dissatisfied with the
level or quality of instruction, payment could be summarily suspended, and
the instructor could be forced to leave the school and even the town. To
uphold their reputations and to insure their livelihoods, professors engaged in
public contests with the winner gaining prestige and, presumably, greater
numbers of students. These contests were generally initiated by an underdog
who proposed a series of problems to an established figure. The better-known
mathematician then prepared a comparable set of examples for the challenger.
After a predetermined length of time, the participants came together in public
to present their solutions, the one with the greater number of correct answers
taking the contest." In such an atmosphere, the guardian of a new solution or
technique gained a distinct advantage over potential opponents and enjoyed
job security by virtue of his secret. Given the system, it was simply not in one's
best interests to publicize major discoveries. Hence, although dal Ferro
introduced an important variation into the body of mathematical knowledge,
namely, his solution to the cubic ax' + bx = c, it did not immediately come
into competition with other algebraic ideas. In fact, it lay dormant, outside the
scope of the natural selection of ideas, until Cardano published it in his Ars
magna in 1545.
THE ART OF ALGEBRA . 143
Dal Ferro's death in 1526 released his confidants from their pledge of
secrecy, and in 1530 Fiore challenged Zuannin de Tonini da Coi, a mathemati-
cian from Brescia, to a contest which involved the irreducible cubic. Unable to
resolve the challenge problems, Tonini da Coi in turn put them to a local rival,
Niccoli> Tartaglia. In 1530, Tartaglia responded that such problems were
impossible. In 1535, when Fiore challenged him directly with thirty examples
requiring the same secret formula, Tartaglia independently discovered the
solution and won the contest.".
Cardano heard of Tartaglia's feat and petitioned him to share his findings so
that it could be included, with all due credit, in the book Cardano was busy
preparing. Wishing to see his discovery first published in one of his own
forthcoming works, however, Tartaglia declined to divulge the secret. At
Cardano's subsequent entreaties, though, he capitulated sometime in 1539. By
publishing the result in 1545, Cardano sparked one of the most spectacular
priority controversies in the history of mathematics, but that need not concern
us here." Of importance to our study is the fact that Cardano's publication of
solutions of the cubic equations brought these variations into competition
within the mathematical environment. In particular, the struggle for existence
between these new facts and the algebraic theory as previously held took place
within the context of Cardano's own statement on algebra, his text entitled Ars
magna.
Earlier writers on the history of mathematics often saw in Cardanoa beacon
of the renaissance of mathematics and a modern who completely cast off the
mathematical bonds of the past. For instance, Morris Kline assessed Cardano
in these words in his Mathematics in western culture: "In his lewdness and
rejection of authoritarian doctrines, as well as in his searching mathematical,
physical, and medical studies, Cardano symbolized the revolt from a thousand
years of intellectual serfdom .... "52 In his biography of Cardano, Oystein Ore
expressed a similar point of view: "A revolution took place in mathematics
during the first half of the sixteenth century. The classical works of the Greek
mathematicians had been for nearly two thousand years the unsurpassable
pinnacles of mathematical attainment. And then, within a few years the
shackles were broken and new fields with golden opportunities lay open. The
theories of higher equations and algebra were created and some of the more
visionary mathematicians, especially Cardano, began to see the general
principles which were to occupy mathematicians in the centuries to come. "53
As we have seen, neither the theory of higher degree equations in particular
nor algebra in general sprang fully matured from the minds of the sixteenth
century. Cardano's systematic exposition of the theory of algebra marked not
a revolution in mathematics but a step in the continuing process of the natural
selection of ideas. He did not revolt against the ideas of his predecessors. He
144' KAREN HUNGER PARSHALL
selected from among them and, in combination with his own ideas, produced a
new variety of algebra.
Cardano opened his Ars magna with a brief historical passage in which he first
traced his intellectual lineage from al-Khwarizrni through Fibonacci to Pacioli
and then outlined the sixteenth century developments on the solution of the
cubic equation. In this passage, he not only indicated the mathematical
environment in which his thoughts had developed but also, like so many of his
contemporaries, expressed a firm conviction in the unlimited capabilities of the
art of algebra thereby justifying his researches. As he put it: "Since this art
surpasses all human subtlety and the perspicuity of mortal talent and is a truly
celestial gift and a very clear test of the capacity of men's minds, whoever
applies himself to it will believe that there is nothing he cannot understand.?"
As a true Renaissance natural philosopher, Cardano sought the keys to a
deeper understanding of nature. He believed that his Ars magna perfectly
revealed at least one such key, the key to the art of algebra.
Cardano began this work by specifying the limits which his environment
forced on his mathematics. He explained that only those problems which
described some aspect of three-dimensional space were real and true. In his
words: "For as positio [the first power of the unknown] refers to a line,
quadratum [the square of the unknown] to a surface, and cub urn [the unknown
cubed] to a solid body it would be very foolish for us to go beyond this point.
Nature does not permit it. "55 Thus, Cardano preserved the standards of his
acknowledged ancestors. He held that only equations of or reducible to
degrees one, two, or three made sense because only equations of those degrees
described nature. Furthermore, since he also selected the standard of geome-
trical proof of algebraic fact evident in the work of the Arabic mathematicians,
Fibonacci, and Pacioli, geometry restricted him to a consideration of third
degree equations at most. From this viewpoint, consider then his demon-
stration of the infamous cube and first power equal to the number:
For example [Figure 4], let GH3 plus six times its side GH equal 20, and let
AE and CL be two cubes the difference between which is 20 and such that
the product of AC, the side [of one], and CK the side [of the other], is 2,
namely one-third the coefficient of x. Marking off BC equal to CK, I say
that, if this is done, the remaining line AB is equal to GH and is, therefore,
the value of x, for GH has already been given as [equal to x].
In accordance with the first proposition of the sixth chapter of this book
[on the formula, in modern notation, (a + h)3 = a3 + 3azh + 3ahz + h3], I
complete the bodies DA, DC, DE, and DF; and as DC represents BCl, so
THE ART OF ALGEBRA . 145
F E
D
G H
A B
0
C
L
K
I
FIG. 4
FIG. 5
resulted in the body shown in Figure 5, where, for instance, DE is the shaded
region. In Cardano's set-up, AC3 corresponded to the cube AE and CK3
represented the cube CL and was equivalent to BC 3, so
AC3 - Be = AC3 - CK3 = 20,
by hypothesis, and
AC3 - BC 3 = AC3 - CK3 = DA + DE + DF
(1)
that "since such a remainder is negative, you will have to imagine v' _15",69
and he concluded his discussion admitting that "this truly is sophisticated,
since with it one cannot carry out the operations one can in the case of a pure
negative and other [numbers]"." Thus, the rejection of the geometrical
constraints produced a new algebraic entity which behaved very differently
from anything previously known, an entity which had no physical interpre-
tation, and "so progresses arithmetic subtlety the end of which, as is said, is as
refined as it is useless"."
In Cardano's Ars magna, we witness a definite struggle for existence between
the old, venerated tradition of Euclid and the Arabs and the new, untried ideas
of the sixteenth century. At the same time he tried to maintain the Euclidean
standard, Cardano acknowledged the solution of the fourth degree equations,
a discovery which he could not completely justify within his chosen frame-
work. While desirous of purely geometrical interpretations of algebraic facts,
Cardano admitted that negative numbers satisfied certain equations in spite of
the fact that negative lengths, areas, and volumes made no sense. Even in light
of the thorny geometrical problem presented by unadorned negative numbers,
Cardano conceded that their square roots yielded to algebraic manipulation
and provided solutions to equations. Far from casting off his mathematical
heritage as Kline, Ore, and others have suggested, Cardano worked to uphold
it in the face of new mathematical facts and constructs. In Cardano's work, we
see evidence not of the complete rejection of the past but rather of the struggle
for existence of the old and venerated geometrical standard for algebraic proof
within an environment changed by fourth degree equations and imaginary
numbers. In an environment so altered, geometrical justification was
obviously no longer the "fittest" way of proving all algebraic facts. In Raphael
Bombelli's Algebra of 1572 and Francois Viete's In artem analyticem isagoge
of 1591, we see evidence of yet another struggle for existence. By the last
quarter of the century, Cardano's variety in the geometrical line came into stiff
competition with the ideas found in a newly rediscovered Greek text, the
Arithmetica of Diophantus.
In fact, by 1572 when his Algebra finally appeared in print, Bombelli had
accepted the Diophantine point of view and had altered his own work
accordingly. Thus, while the Algebra's first version was phrased in terms of the
Arabic-inspired "cosa" and "census" for the unknown and its square, its 1572
rewriting employed the translations "tanto" and "potenza" of Diophantus's
"number [ap19J,1o<;]" and "power [MVUJ,11<;]"Y Furthermore, Bombelli con-
sciously excised most of the practical problems taken from the maestri d'abaco
and replaced them by 143 indeterminate problems taken from Diophantus. In
his introduction to Book III, he announced that he had broken with the usual
custom of casting problems " ... in the guise of human actions (buying, selling,
barter, exchange, interest, defalcation, coinage, alloys, weights, partnership,
profit and loss, games and other numerous transactions and operations
relating to daily livingj.?" He wished to teach "the higher arithmetic (or
algebra) in the manner of the ancients'I."
Responding to the broader intellectual environment which was dominated
by the humanistic revival of Greek texts, the mathematician Bombelli sought
to purify an algebra tainted by the practical, untheoretically motivated
problems of the maestri d'abaco. The new variety that he produced presented
the characteristics of both of its parent-varieties: for problems of a determinate
nature, the Algebra employed Cardano's geometrical algebra, but for the new,
indeterminate problems, it used Diophantus's new, ungeometrical, indetermi-
nate analysis. The variation which Bornbelli's algebra presented was the
focusing on a type of algebraic problem which was not solved using geometri-
cal devices and, by implication, the acknowledgement that all algebraic
problems did not require geometrically justified solutions. Given geometry's
inability to deal successfully with the solution of the quartics and with negative
and imaginary solutions in general, Bombelli's work presented a favourable
variation which the action of the natural selection of ideas should have
preserved. The work of Francois Viete evidenced the preservation of just this
sort of variation.
Viete prepared his In artem analyticem isagoge or Introduction to the analytic
art of 1591 in a humanistic environment in which the dominance of geometri-
cal algebra was being challenged by newly rediscovered ideas. Thus, although
firmly grounded in algebra as presented by Cardano in the Ars magna, Viete
also drew from such works as Diophantus's Arithmetica, Federico Commandi-
no's (1509-75) Latin translation of Pappus of Alexandria's (fl. A.D. 320)
Mathematical collection, and the humanist texts of Petrus Ramus (1505-72).90
In Ramus's writings, for example, Viete read of the algebraic content of Book
II of Euclid's Elements, of Diophantus's kind of indeterminate analysis, and of
the equation of algebra and analysis as opposed to its equation to geometrical
synthesis. Furthermore, as indicated by the quote from the In artem analyticem
isagoge which we cited earlier," Viete's humanistic leanings predisposed him
154· KAREN HUNGER PARSHALL
to reject the geometric variety of algebra with its Arabic line of descent. An
algebra more of recipes, albeit geometrically justified ones, than of general
problem-solving techniques, from Viete's stance, this variety failed to uncover
the "incomparable gold [that] lay hidden"." By selecting certain characteris-
tics of the works of Pappus and Diophantus and by combining these with his
own ideas, Viete developed just such a general method of problem-solving. At
its heart lay his new notion of a "species".
As we have already mentioned, Pappus's Mathematical collection (in the
Commandino translation which appeared in Pesaro in 1588) formed a part of
Viete's mathematical environment. In its seventh book, Viete found a com-
plete exposition of Greek analysis and synthesis as applied primarily to
geometry. According to Pappus: "Analysis, then, is the way from what is
sought, taken as admitted by means of a previous synthesis ... but in synthesis,
going in reverse, we supposed as admitted what was the last result of the
analysis, and, arranging in their natural order as consequences what were
formerly the antecedents, and connecting them with one another, we arrive at
the completion of the construction of what was sought; and this we call
synthesis."93 He went on to break analysis down into two basic kinds where
"the one is searching for the truth [i.e., zetetic from ... 'to search'], which is
called theoretical and the other is for supplying what is required [i.e., poristic
from ... 'to supply'], which is called problematical"." Thus, since Pappus
understood analysis and synthesis as converse procedures, each of the two
forms of analysis had its corresponding synthesis. Direct proof was the
synthesis of the zetetic art; proof generated by geometric construction was that
of the poristic art. Diophantus tacitly recognized these same correspondences,
but whereas Pappus used them only in solving geometrical problems, he
applied them only to algebraic ones." By means of his new concept of a
species, Viete formally extended Pappus's notions to encompass both geo-
metric and algebraic questions and thereby created a unified and universal
theory of problem-solving. He introduced his new variation on these old ideas
in the opening chapter of The analytic art.
After defining analysis and synthesis in virtually the same way as had
Pappus, Viete continued by noting that
although the ancients set forth a twofold analysis, the zetetic and the
poristic, to which Theon's definition primarily refers, it is nevertheless
fitting that there be established also a third kind, which may be called
rhetic or exegetic, so that there is a zetetic art by which is found the
equation or proportion between the magnitude that is being sought and
those that are given, a poristic art by which from the equation or
proportion the truth of the theorem set up is investigated, and an exegetic
art by which from the equation set up or the proportion there is produced
THE ART OF ALGEBRA . 155
the magnitude itself which is being sought. And thus, the whole threefold
analytical art, claiming for itself this office, may be defined as the science
of right finding in mathematics."
In other words, Viete recognized the need for a set of clearly expounded rules
for actually solving equations and proportions. Reacting against the kind of
unmotivated solution of one example after another which characterized
Diophantus's Arithmetica, Viete underscored the importance of a lucid
explanation of general procedures to motivate the solutions given.
Viete's addition of the rhetic art to Pappus's twofold analysis represented an
important variation in that " ... it encompasse[d] nothing less than the theory
of equations addressed to their solutions"." Correlated to this variation,
however, was another of equal or greater import. A little further on in The
analytic art he wrote: "In the zetetic art, however, the form of proceeding is
peculiar to the art itself; inasmuch as the zetetic art does not employ its logic
on numbers - which was the tediousness of the ancient analysts - but uses its
logic through a logistic which in a new way had to do with species. This logistic
is much more successful and powerful than the numerical one .... "98 His new
logistic, the logistice speciosa, in contradistinction to Diophantus's reckoning
with indeterminate numbers, or logistice numerosa, operated " ... with species
or forms of things, as, for example, with the letters of the alphabet'i."
For Viete, a species was a placeholder for an undetermined unknown or a
given magnitude. He called for " ... the given magnitudes [to] be distinguished
from the undetermined unknowns by a constant and very clear symbol, as, for
instance, by designating the unknown magnitude by means of a letter A or
some other vowel E, I, 0, U, or Y, and the given magnitudes by means of
letters B, G, and D or other consonants" .100 Then, unlike Diophantus but in
keeping with the views of his predecessors in the line of descent of the
geometrical algebra, Viete attached dimension to the species in any given
equation and insisted that only expressions of equal dimension were commen-
surate. He stated this formally as follows:
The supreme and everlasting law of equations or proportions, which is
called the law of homogeneity because it is conceived with respect to
homogeneous magnitudes is this:
1. Only homogeneous magnitudes are to be compared [compararzl with
one another.
For ... it is impossible to know how heterogeneous magnitudes may be
conjoined.
And so, if a magnitude is added to a magnitude, it is homogeneous with
it.
If a magnitude is multiplied by a magnitude, the product is hetero-
geneous in relation to both.
156, KAREN HUNGER PARSHALL
Thus, for Viete, the notions of dimensionality and its homogeneity bound his
new notational system together. Without them, a symbolism such as his lacked
an internally dictated and coherent set of rules for operation and so lacked
meaning. To Viete's way of thinking, then, Diophantus's system suffered
precisely from the absence of this philosophical glue.
In Viete's new system, (A cube) + (B solid) denoted the addition of a three-
dimensional unknown and a three-dimensional magnitude, (A square) + (B
plane) stood for the addition of a two-dimensional unknown and a two-
dimensional magnitude, and A + B (with the dimensionality terms sup-
pressed) represented the analogous situation in one-dimension. Subtraction,
multiplication, and division behaved similarly.l'" With this system in his
employ, Viete could write expressions such as
x 21b +c= x +
b cb.
Viete explicitly demonstrated the immediate efficacy of his new art in the
Zeteticorum libri quinque, a work published in 1593 but probably written in
1591.105 Since he aimed to contrast his logistice speciosa directly with Dio-
phantus's logistice numerosa in this text, Viete juxtaposed dozens of Diophan-
tus's solutions with his own in order to demonstrate the superiority of his
methods. Consider his version of Diophantus's 1.1 which we examined above:
Given the difference of two "sides" and their sum, to find the "sides".
Let the differences B of the two "sides" be given, and also let their sum
D be given.
It is required to find the "sides".
Let the less "side" be A; then the greater will be A + B. Therefore, the
sum of the "sides" will be A2 + B. But the same sum is given as D.
Wherefore, A2 + B is equal to D. And, by antithesis, A2 will be equal to D
- B, and if they are all halved, A will be equal to Df + Bt.
Or, let the greater "side" be E. Then the less will be E - B. Therefore,
the sum of the "sides" will be E2 - B. But the same sum is given as D.
Therefore, E2 - B will be equal to D, and by antithesis, E2 will be equal
to D + B, and if they are all halved, E will be equal to Df + Bt.
Therefore, with the difference of two "sides" given and their sum, the
"sides" are found.
For, indeed, half the sum of the "sides" minus half their difference is
equal to the less "side", and half their sum plus half their difference is
equal to the greater.
Which very thing the zetesis shows.
Let B be 40 and D 100. Then A becomes 30 and E becomes 70.
By recasting Diophantus's problem into more general terms, Viete highlighted
the algebraic forms involved in the problem and the algebraic manipulations
necessary to effect a general solution in terms of Band D. Then he simply
substituted in the given values for Band D, namely, 40 and 100, to generate the
particular solution.
In his work, On the origin of species, Darwin explained that since" ... there
will be a constant tendency in the improved descendants of anyone species to
supplant and exterminate in each stage of their descent their predecessors and
their original parent, ... all the intermediate forms between the earlier and the
later states, that is between the less and the more improved state of a species, as
well as the original parent-species itself will generally tend to become
extinct" .107 Viete's analytic art, with its more general notation and emphasis on
general problem-solving, represents such a highly improved and competitive
descendant, a descendant which totally supplanted both its Diophantine and
its geometrical algebraic predecessors through the continued and continuing
action of the natural selection of ideas.
158' KAREN HUNGER PARSHALL
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
REFERENCES
1. Girolamo Cardano, The great art or the rules of algebra, trans. by T. Richard Witmer
(Cambridge, 1968),7.
2. Francois Viete, Introduction to the analytic art, trans. by Rev. J. Winfree Smith, in Jacob
Klein, Greek mathematical thought and the origin of algebra (Cambridge, 1968),318-19.
Smith's translation of Viete's work forms an appendix to Klein's book and may be found
on pp. 315-53. In what follows, I shall cite "Viete, Introduction" when drawing
quotations directly from this translation of Viete's work. More recently, nine of Viete's
works, including the Introduction to the analytic art, have been translated by T. Richard
Witmer in Francois Viete, The analytic art: Nine studies in algebra, geometry and
trigonometry from the Opus restitutae mathematicae analyseos, seu algebra nova, trans. by
T. Richard Witmer (Kent, Ohio, 1983). For a reprint of the original 1646 edition of
Viete's collected works, see Francois Viete, Opera mathematica, recognita francisci a
Schooten, ed. by Joseph E. Hofmann (Leiden, 1646; reprint edn, Hildesheim-New York,
1970).
3. Gerald Toomer, "Al-Khwarizmi, Abii Ja'far Muhammad ibn Miisii", Dictionary ofscientific
biography, ed. by C. C. Gillispie (New York, 1970-80; hereafter DSB), vii, 358-65, p. 358;
J. Al-Dabbagh, "Banii Miisii, three brothers-Muhammad, Ahmad, and al-Hasan",
DSB, i, 443--6, p. 444; and David C. Lindberg, "Transmission of Greek and Arabic
learning to the West", in David C. Lindberg (ed.), Science in the Middle Ages (Chicago,
1978), 52-90, pp. 55-58.
4. Here "al-jabr" translates as "completion" and signifies the elimination of negative quantities
from an equation. For example, "al-jabr" transforms x = 10 - 3x into 4x = 10. The
term "al-muqiibala" translates as "balancing" and refers to reducing positive quantities
of the same power on both sides of an equation. For example, "al-muqabala" turns lOx
+ 64 = 5x + 36 + x' into 5x + 28 = x'. See Toomer, op. cit. (ref. 3), 359.
5. Sir Thomas L. Heath, The thirteen books of Euclid's Elements, i (Cambridge, 1926),73-84.
6. See Solomon Gandz, "The sources of al-Khwarizmi's algebra", Osiris, i (1936), 263-77.
7. See Otto Neugebauer, The exact sciences in Antiquity (New York, 1969), 147.
8. Jacques Sesiano, Books IV to VII of Diophantus' Arithmetica in the Arabic translation
attributed to Qusta ibn Luqa (New York, 1982), 8. In this work, Sesiano presents an
English translation of and commentary on four of the thirteen books of the Arithmetica,
which had been considered lost for well over six hundred years. For a new translation (in
French) of the ten known books of the Arithmetica, see Diophantus, Les Arithmetiques,
trans. by Roshdi Rashed (Paris, 1984). In his translation, Rashed claims priority for the
discovery of the four newly-discovered books of the Arithmetica and strongly criticizes
Sesiano's version. See, for example, Les Arithmetiques, iii, ref. 63, pp. lix-Ixii. On Qusta
ibn Liiqa's dates, see ibid., iii, pp. xvi-xxii.
THE ART OF ALGEBRA . 159
42. Franci and Toti Rigatelli, "Towards a history of algebra" (ref. 40), 61. See pp. 61--66 on the
Summa and what the authors term Pacioli's "unmerited fame".
43. Completed around 1225, the Liber quadratorum represented Leonardo's main foray into
indeterminate analysis in the style of Diophantus. See ref. 31 above on Leonardo's
sources.
44. P. Speziali, "Luca Pacioli et son eeuvre", in Sciences de la Renaissance: VIII' Congres
international de Tour (Paris, 1973), 93-106, p. 96. Pacioli drew the commercial sections of
the Summa principally from the maestri d'abaco.
45. Florian Cajori, A history of mathematical notations, i (Chicago, 1928),90.
46. See ibid. for a historical development of the cossist school and the notation it developed.
47. Speziali, "Luca Pacioli et son oeuvre" (ref. 44), 98. AI-Khayyiimi also left open the possibility
for general solutions of higher degree equations. See A. P. Youschkevitch and B. A.
Rosenfeld, "Al-Khayyami (or Khayyam), Gheyiith al-Din Abii'L-Fatb 'Umar ibn
Ibrahim al-Nisiibiiri (or al-Naysaburi), also known as Omar Khayyam", DSB, vii, 323-
34, p. 328. The work of al-Khayyami was unknown in the West at this time, however.
48. In his Ars magna written in 1545, Cardano said that the solution was discovered "well-nigh
thirty years ago", which would put the date at around 1515. See Cardano, The great art
(ref. I), 96. However, P. Speziali in "L'Ecole algebriste italienne du XVI' siecle et la
resolution des equations des 3' et 4' degres", in Sciences de la Renaissance (ref. 44), 107-
20, gives the date "1504 or maybe even the year before", without any further evidence.
See ibid., 110.
49. See Speziali, "L'Ecole algebriste italienne du XVI' siecle", 108, and Oystein Ore, Cardano:
The gambling scholar (Princeton, 1953), 62--63.
50. Speziali, "L'Ecole algebriste italienne du XVI' siecle", III, and Ore, op. cit., 63-65.
51. See Ore, op. cit., 77-107. For biographical information on Cardano, see Ore, op. cit., 3-52;
Girolamo Cardano, The book of my life, trans. by Jean Stoner (Toronto, 1931); Mario
Gliozzi, "Cardano, Girolamo", DSB, iii, 64--67; and for a Jungian slant on his life, see
Markus Fierz, Girolamo Cardano (1501-1576): Philosopher, natural philosopher, mathe-
matician. astrologer. and interpreter of dreams, trans. by Helga Niman (Boston, 1983).
52. Morris Kline, Mathematics in Western culture (New York, 1953), 100.
53. Ore, op. cit., 47-48. Here when Ore refers to "the Greek mathematicians", he means
mathematicians like Euclid whose work enjoyed a more or less continuous tradition.
54. Cardano, The great art (ref. I), 8.
55. Ibid., 9.
56. Ibid., 96-97.
57. Ibid., 97. I would like to thank my colleague, George Francis, for his rendering of Fig. 5.
58. In modern notation, this says a' + 3ab' = (a - b)' + b' + 3a'b, an equivalent version of
(a - W = a J - 3a'b + 3ab' - b',
59. Cardano, The great art (ref. 1),96-101.
60. Ibid., 9. My emphasis.
61. Ibid., 237.
62. Ibid., 237-53.
63. Ibid., 38-39.
64. Ibid., II. My emphasis. In the remainder of the text, Cardano inconsistently mentions
negative roots. For example, he gives only 18 as a solution to x' = lOx + 144. See ibid.,
36.
65. In his subsequent treatment of negatives, particularly in Chap. 37, he does give the
traditional interpretation of negatives as debits or defects.
66. Cardano, The great art (ref. 1),39.
67. Ibid., 39.
162· KAREN HUNGER PARSHALL
85. For texts of the fourth and fifth books, see Bombelli, op. cit., 477--{)18, 619--{)9.
86. Jayawardene, "Unpublished documents relating to Raphael Bombelli" (ref. 80), 392.
87. On Bombelli's nomenclature, see Bombelli, op. cit., 155--{). On his notation in general, see
Ettore Bortolotti, "Sulla rappresentazione simbolica della incognita e delle potenze di
essa introdotta dal Bombelli", Archivo di storia della scienza, viii (1927), 49--{)3.
88. Jayawardene, "The influence of practical arithmetics" (ref. 81), 511, see ref. 7 for the
translation. For the original Italian, see Bombelli, op. cit., 317.
89. Ibid, 511.
90. On Viete's sources, see Karin Reich, "Diophant, Cardano, Bombelli, Viete ein Vergleich
ihrer Aufgaben", in Rechenpfennige: Aufsatze zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte Kurt Vogel
zum 80. Geburtstag (Munich, 1968), 131-50; Michael S. Mahoney, "Die Anfange der
Algebraische Denkweise in 17. Jahrhundert", Rete, i (1971),15-31; and Mahoney, The
mathematical career of Pierre de Fermat ( 1601-1665) (Princeton, 1973), 26-48. It is not
clear whether Viete had studied Bornbelli's Algebra by 1591, but his reading of
Diophantus had led him to many of the same conclusions regarding the role of geometry
in algebra.
91. See Section I above.
92. Viete, Introduction (ref. 2), 319.
93. Ibid., ref. 218,260, and Pappus of Alexandria, La Collection mathematique, trans. by Paul
Ver Eecke, ii (Paris, 1933),477.
94. Klein, op. cit. (ref. 2), ISS, and Pappus, op. cit., ii, 478.
95. Klein, op. cit. (ref. 2), 155-7.
96. Viete, Introduction (ref. 2), 320--1. In the In artem analyticem isagoge, Viete attributed the
definitions he gave of analysis to Theon. Klein explained this as a result of the "general
humanistic tendency to derogate the authority of those writers who were recognized as
authorities in the schools, on the grounds of a 'better' knowledge of the ancients". See
Klein, op. cit. (ref. 2), ref. 217, 260-1.
97. Mahoney, The mathematical career of Pierre de Fermat (1601-1665) (ref. 90), 34.
98. Viete, Introduction (ref. 2), 321-2.
99. Ibid., 328.
100. Ibid., 340. In the natural selection of ideas, this variation proved favourable and persists
today with Rene Descartes's (1596-1650) modification of it calling for letters at the
beginning of the alphabet, such as a, b, c, to denote the indeterminate magnitudes and
letters at the end, such as x, y, z, to indicate the unknowns.
101. Ibid., 324-5.
102. See ibid., 325-38. It is important to note that Viete did not acknowledge negative numbers.
For him subtraction signified taking the smaller from the larger. In this he did not differ
from Cardano, Fibonacci, or any of his predecessors. Like Cardano, the limitations of
dimensionality did not stop Viete from dealing with fourth and higher degree equations.
For these, he resorted to so-called mechanical methods.
103. Ibid., 338.
104. On the reactions of Descartes and Fermat to Viete's ideas on dimension, for example, see
Mahoney, The mathematical career of Pierre de Fermat (1601-1665) (ref. 90), 42--44.
105. For a translation of this work into English, see Viete, The analytic art: Nine studies (ref. 2),
83--153.
106. Viete, Introduction (ref. 2), ref. 23, 331, or Viete, The analytic art: Nine studies (ref. 2), 83-84.
Note that Yiete employes no notation for equality. I. G. Bachmakova and E. I. Slavutin
have examined Viete's treatment of Diophantus's indeterminate problems in "'Genesis
164· KAREN HUNGER PARSHALL
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