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| Leonardo Pisano was born around 1175 in what is now Pisa, Italy. His nickname, Fibonacci*, means "filius Bonacci" or "son of Bonacci". His father, Guilielmo Bonacci, was a diplomat representing the Republic of Pisa in Bugia, a Mediterranean port in Northeastern Algeria. Fibonacci travelled extensively with his father and he was educated in North Africa. Through his travels, Fibonacci was exposed to many different arithmetic systems, but he saw particular advantages to the Hindu-Arabic numerals and decimal positional system. After returning to Pisa, Fibonacci wrote several books: Liber abbaci (1202), Practica geometriae (1220), Flos (1225), Liber quadratorium (1225) and A letter to Master Theodorus (~1225). Unfortunately, some of Fibonacci's works have been lost. (His books were all hand-written and so, very few copies were ever produced.) Liber abbaci, meaning "Book of the Abacus" or "Book of Calculating", contains arithmetic and algebra that Leonardo learned during his travels. Through this book, Fibonacci introduced our current algorismic system of Arabic numerals and place-value to much of Europe. In addition, the book contains a series of mathematical problems through which he presented a numerical series that is now referred to as the Fibonacci numbers. Fibonacci was one of the greatest mathematicians of the 12th and 13th centuries. He made significant contributions to mathematics through his own discoveries, and was instrumental in the revival of mathematical learning in Europe following the Dark Ages. *Fibonacci is pronounced Fi-buh-NOTCH-ee |
| References: Garland, Trudi Hammel. 1987. Fascinating Fibonaccis: Mystery and Magic in Numbers. Dale Seymour Publications, Palo Alto. 103 pp. Newton, Lynn D. 1987. Fibonacci and Nature: Mathematics investigations for schools. Mathematics in School. 16:5:2-8. http://www.mcs.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/R.Knott/Fibonacci/fib.html http://tlc.ai.org/fibonacc.htm |
| Fibonacci (1175-1250) |
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