Reading numbers in early modern England

Abstract

In print and manuscript, readers in early modern Britain engaged with mathematics within the broader context of a popular literary culture. Arithmetic and numeracy were read and written within an emergent vernacular English literature, whether as literary genres or as annotations and sums written alongside other works in the margins. Taking instructional texts, copybooks, and popular serials as its focus, this paper explores the characteristics of popular numeracy in early modern Britain. This paper was first delivered at the conference ‘Numeracy: historical, philosophical, and educational perspectives’ at St Anne's College, Oxford, in December 2009.

Notes

¹ William Cecil's annotated proof copy of the atlas, completed by Christopher Saxton in 1579, British Library, Royal MS 18.D.iii.

² A version of this was still in print in 1629, with the title Arithmeticke: or, an introduction to learne to reckon with the pen.

³ The English short-title catalogue (ESTC) lists 22 editions from 1543 to 1610 and 20 editions of Records arithmetick from 1615 to 1699.

⁴ The passage on the arts is somewhat different in the original edition of 1621, but does include the question ‘What more pleasing studies can there be than the mathematicks, theorick, or practick parts?’

⁵ As Mary Serjant notes in her copybook, she was taught arithmetic and writing by Hannah Bean. The notebook of Sarah Cole, another student of Hannah Bean, is held in the collections of the Folger Shakespeare Library as Folger MS V.b.292. The two notebooks follow a similar template for instruction and decoration.