Rare Fibonacci Manuscript Goes Up For Auction

A rare manuscript offered by Bonhams in their June 22, 2011 auction of Fine Books and Manuscripts is one of the cornerstones of modern mathematic thinking. Up for sale is a lot featuring a rare 15th century manuscript that includes key pieces of the ground breaking mathematical work, Liber Abaci or Book of Calculation by Fibonacci. Fibonacci is credited with bringing the Hindu-Arabic numeral system to the western world. and lends his name to the Fibonacci Sequence where each successive number is the sum of the two preceding numbers.

Within the text of the Liber Abaci, Fibonacci explains the benefits of Arabic numerals and the symbol for zero by applying them to the practical world of book-keeping, weights and measures, and trade. By appealing to tradesmen and academics he eventually convinced the public to adapt the system paving the way for modern mathematical equations, sequences used in computer programming and financial markets. The manuscript on offer contains the complete text of the section of Liber Abaci known as Flos or "The Flower," which is the most advanced sections of Liber Abaci, dealing with calculus, and geometrical and algebraic methods for solving quadratic equations. The book first appeared in 1202, in manuscript form, and only 12 copies of the manuscript from the 13th through the 15th centuries have been traced in European libraries, many of them in the Vatican.