Leonard of Pisa and the New Mathematics of the Middle Ages

by Frances Gies, Joseph Gies

A wonderful book about Leonardo Fibonacci's rediscovery of the Golden Ratio in the 13th century. Includes explanations of the Golden Rectangle, the Golden Spiral, and Fibonacci's own math problems (with solutions).

Genres: Mathematics, Nonfiction

128 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1983

About the author

Frances and and her husband Joseph Gies were historians and writers who collaborated on a number of books about the Middle Ages as well as wrote individual works.

Reviews

[Elizabeth S]

Despite its short length, this is not a quick read. Extremely worth it, however. Not much is known about Fibonacci, so a biography is not easy. Gies handles this by discussing generalisms of places Fib lived, combined with the few events we do know. And then the math. Oh, the math is wonderful! Some history of mathematical notation, how various places and cultures developed and furthered the definition of place value, the concept of zero, and the base 10 and base 60 systems. Fib read and wrote about much of this, bringing many concepts to Europe.

Gies also gives us mathematical problems and solutions that Fib put in his books, including the famous Fib Sequence. And then Gies takes us further, showing how the Fib sequence relates to the Golden Mean and has been examined and used over the centuries. Wonderful stuff.

[Tia]

Fascinating!

[Kate]

I read this just because it was by the Gieses, and because I was discarding it from the middle school library so I felt guilty. A very padded biography of Fibonacci (apparently because there is so little to discover of him) with some lovely history of Pisa and medieval merchants. The book really picks up when they get into his books, the introduction of Arabic numerals, and Fibonacci's mathematical breakthroughs. It is worth thinking about how much we learn in elementary school now that was the stuff of theoretical mathematicians of the past - and how much our thinking may change from something like the move from Roman numerals to a number system that has 0s and place value.

[Tuncer Şengöz]

A short book which includes all the adequate information about the life and works of Leonard of Pissa (Leonardo Fibonacci), Italy and Arabic world in the 11st and 12nd centuries, Fibonacci's introduction of Hindu-Arabic numbers to the western world and his contributions to western civilization. Book also includes very nice illustrations of the 12nd century Italy, all the mathematical problems in Leonardo's book (Liber Abaci), information about Golden Rectangle and solution to one of his famous problems. Suggested Reading is given in a Bibliography .