PACIOLI, LUCA

Pacioli, Luca: translation

(ca. 1445-1517)

Italian mathematician and teacher. Born at Borgo San Sepolcro in Tuscany, he became a tutor to a wealthy family inVeniceand developed his mastery of mathematics under a local teacher. By 1475 he was a teacher at theUniversityof Perugia. About this time he became a Franciscan friar and continued to teach mathematics at various places. He was a friend of at least two major artists,Piero della FrancescaandLeonardo da Vinci, both of whom had a strong interest in mathematics. He published several books, includingSumma de arithmetica,geometría,proportione et proportionalità/A Summary of Arithmetic,Geometry,and Propor-tion(1494), a Latin edition of Euclid'sElements(1509), and a bookDe divina proportione/On Divine Proportion(1509), an expanded version of a work written collaboratively with Leonardo and illus-trated by him. TheSummawas an important book, combining the in-tellectual mathematics of the academic tradition with the practical mathematics of the abacus, and showing a sophisticated grasp of al-gebra. It is also significant because it contains the first printed de-scription of the method of double-entry bookkeeping that Italian mer-chants had developed during the two preceding centuries.