«cr. i.] DISSERTATION SECOND. 21 



was received in Europe from Arabia. As early aa the be- 

 ginning of (be thirteenth century, Leonardo, a merchant of 

 Pisa, having made frequent visits to the East, in the course 

 of commercial adventure, returned to Italy enriched by the 

 traffick, and instructed by the science of those countries. 

 He brought with him the knowledge of Algebra; and a 

 late writer quotes a manuscript of his, bearing the date of 

 1202, and another that of 1228. l The importation of Al- 

 gebra into Europe is thus carried back nearly 200 years 

 farther than has generally been supposed, for Leonardo has 

 been represented as flourishing in the end of the fourteenth 

 century, instead of the very beginning of the thirteenth. 

 It appears by an extract from his manuscript, published by 

 the above author, that his knowledge of Algebra extended 

 as far as quairafick equations. The language was very 

 imperfect, corresponding lo the infancy of the science ; the 

 quantities and the operations being expressed in words, 

 with the help only of a few abbreviations. The rule for 

 resolving quadraticks by completing the square, is demon- 

 strated geometrically. 



Though Algebra was brought into Europe from Arabia, 

 it is by no means certain that this last is its native coun- 

 try. There is, indeed, reason to think that its invention 

 must be sought for much farther to the East, and probably 

 not nearer than Indostan. We are assured by the Arabian 

 writers, that Mahomet Ben Musa of Chorasan, distinguish- 

 ed for his mathematical knowledge, travelled, about the 

 year 959, into India, for the purpose of receiving farther 

 instruction in the science which he cultivated. It is like- 

 wise certain, that some books, which have lately been 

 brought from India into this country, treat of Algebra in a 

 manner that has every appearance of originality, or at least 



1 M. Cossali of Pisa, in a Tract on the Origin of Algebra 

 1707. 



3 



