Numerals and Arithmetic in the Middle Ages

Their Intellectual and Social Context and Magic and Divination in the Middle Ages: Two Texts and Techniques in the Islamic and Christian Worlds, this third Variorum volume from Charles Burnett's hand collects papers dealing with the period and process of adoption of the Hindu-Arabic numerals. The collection shows us the intricacies of this process, a process which was probably the 'most momentous development in the history of pre-modern mathematics' [IX.15]. Intricacies are certainly not unexpected in a process of this kind; but their precise portrayal can only be painted by someone as familiar as Burnett with the original documents, their languages, their style and context.