Chapter I - Mediæval mathematics

Summary

The subject of this chapter is a sketch of the nature and extent of the mathematics read at Cambridge in the middle ages. The external conditions under which it was carried on are briefly described in the first section of chapter VIII. It is only after considerable hesitation that I have not incorporated that section in this chapter; but I have so far isolated it as to render it possible, for any who may be ignorant of the system of education in a mediaeval university, to read it if they feel so inclined, before commencing the history of the development of mathematics at Cambridge.

The period with which I am concerned in this chapter begins towards the end of the twelfth century, and ends with the year 1535. For the history during most of this time of mathematics at Cambridge we are obliged to rely largely on inferences from the condition of other universities. I shall therefore discuss it very briefly referring the reader to the works mentioned below1 for further details.

Throughout the greater part of this period a student usually proceeded in the faculty of arts; and in that faculty he spent the first four years on the study of the subjects of the trivium, and the next three years on those of the quadrivium. The trivium comprised Latin grammar, logic, and rhetoric; and I have described in chapter VIII. both how they were taught and the manner in which proficiency in them was tested.