The first edition of Robert Recorde's The Grounde of Artes was printed in London, at the sign of the Brazen Serpent, by Reynold Wolfe in 1543. The book teaches the rules and operations of arithmetic and provides many simple examples. It was probably intended as a textbook for the rapidly increasing number of mercantile clerks, but also for mariners engaged in the newly important science of celestial navigation. Recorde first shows how to carry out numerical operations using pen and paper, which in his time was a comparatively new and potentially confusing way of performing calculations. He goes on to demonstrate arithmetic done with counters, the centuries-old method of manipulating tokens on a ruled board. Finally, he shows how to indicate numbers with the hands, a system practised by merchants in market halls and on quaysides since antiquity. In a preliminary discussion Recorde defines the art of arithmetic and claims it to be the basis of all learning, not only of geometry and astronomy but also of music, physic, law, grammar, philosophy and even theology - hence the title, The Grounde of Artes. The book is written in the form of a dialogue between a master and a somewhat precocious scholar. Recorde makes an effort to reproduce the speaking voice, within the limits of his didactic purpose, in the question and answer sessions. To the modern reader his prose is delightfully colloquial, if always straight to the point and never unnecessarily chatty. In places he injects statements of principle, for example this warning of the dangers of rote learning: Scholar. Sir, I thank you: but I think I might the better doe it, if you did shew me the working of it. Master. Yea, but you must prove yourself to doe some things without my aid, or else you shall not be able to doe any more than you are taught: And that were rather to learn by wrote (as they call it) than by reason.
The first edition of Robert Recorde's The Grounde of Artes was printed in London, at the sign of the Brazen Serpent, by Reynold Wolfe in 1543. The book teaches the rules and operations of arithmetic and provides many simple examples. It was probably intended as a textbook for the rapidly increasing number of mercantile clerks, but also for mariners engaged in the newly important science of celestial navigation. Recorde first shows how to carry out numerical operations using pen and paper, which in his time was a comparatively new and potentially confusing way of performing calculations. He goes on to demonstrate arithmetic done with counters, the centuries-old method of manipulating tokens on a ruled board. Finally, he shows how to indicate numbers with the hands, a system practised by merchants in market halls and on quaysides since antiquity. In a preliminary discussion Recorde defines the art of arithmetic and claims it to be the basis of all learning, not only of geometry and astronomy but also of music, physic, law, grammar, philosophy and even theology - hence the title, The Grounde of Artes. The book is written in the form of a dialogue between a master and a somewhat precocious scholar. Recorde makes an effort to reproduce the speaking voice, within the limits of his didactic purpose, in the question and answer sessions. To the modern reader his prose is delightfully colloquial, if always straight to the point and never unnecessarily chatty. In places he injects statements of principle, for example this warning of the dangers of rote learning: Scholar. Sir, I thank you: but I think I might the better doe it, if you did shew me the working of it. Master. Yea, but you must prove yourself to doe some things without my aid, or else you shall not be able to doe any more than you are taught: And that were rather to learn by wrote (as they call it) than by reason.
