Colloquium by Michaela Wiesinger
Tuesday, 24.03.26, 16:30
HS C
Students, Academic Staff
We invite you to our colloquium by Michaela Wiesinger, Institut für Germanistik, Universität Innsbruck.
ARITHMETIC: A Project on the Forgotten Handwritten Tradition of Early Modern German Mathematics.
How did numbers move from cloister to countinghouse? This talk charts the evolution of numbers, numerals, and reckoning as arithmetic left Latin and entered German vernaculars (c. 1400–1520). ARITHMETIC examines handwritten treatises before print, tracing translation, adaptation, and pedagogical recipes that forged a pragmatic tradition linking abacus schools, merchants, and civic offices. By digitally editing and analyzing these texts, we reconstruct lines of transmission, from Latin models to local workshops, and show how vernacular arithmetic shaped practices of calculation, stabilized numerical language, and prepared the ground for early modern scientific literacy.
Organizers: K. Erath-Dulitz, H.-C. Nägerl, F. Marleau