148 THE LIFE AND LEGEND OF MICHAEL SCOT 



of his most distinguished contemporaries, and that 

 in a way which makes him appear as an honoured 

 master in the science of algebra, then lately intro- 

 duced from the Moorish schools. This improvement 

 and testimony were both of them due to a certain 

 Leonardo of the Bonacci family of Pisa, who was, 

 perhaps, the first to bring the new method of cal- 

 culation to the knowledge of his countrymen. His 

 father had been overseer of the customs at Bougie, 

 in Barbary,^ on behalf of the Pisan merchants who 

 traded thither. Observing the superior way of 

 reckoning used by the Moors in that country, he 

 sent home for his son that the boy might be trained 

 in this admirable way of counting. Leonardo per- 

 fected his art in after years by travel and study in 

 Egypt, Syria, and Greece, as well as in Sicily and 

 Provence. The ripe fruit of this knowledge saw 

 the light in 1222, when he published for the 

 first time his famous Liber Abhaci. It consisted of 

 fifteen chapters, in which the author declared the 

 secret of the Indian numerals as well as the funda- 

 mental processes of algebra." 



This brief account of one who must ever hold an 

 honourable place in the history of mathematical 

 science may enable us to value at its true worth 

 the praise which Leonardo bestowed on Michael 

 Scot. It seems that the first edition of the Liber 

 Abbaci was not entirely satisfactory. Scot wrote 

 a letter to the author which possibly contained 



1 This city was founded in 1067-68 by En-Nacer ben Alennas ibn 

 Hamuiad, who made it his capital. 



- Mss. of the Lihei- Ahbaci are to be found in Florence, Bibl. Naz. 

 i. 2616, iii. 25, and xi. 21. The first of these has been exactly reprinted 

 by Boncompagni at Rome, 1857. Other mss. are in the Boncompagni 

 library, see Nardiicci's Catalogue, Nos. 176 and 255. The most im- 

 portant work on the whole subject is ' Delia Vita e delle Opere di 

 Leonardo Pisano,' by Boncompagni, Eome, 1852. 



