The medieval counting table revisited: a brief introduction and description of its use during the early modern period

Abstract

In this paper I adopt the approach advocated by Sibum (1995, 73–106) in my reworking of the use of the medieval counting table during the early modern period. Whilst textbooks written in the vernacular from 1532 onwards include sections on using the counting table to perform calculations, the approaches given may not have been those adopted by the general populace. Using questions from these texts I will perform the calculations, manipulating the counters in a variety of ways, attempting to establish which feels most comfortable for the counter-caster. In the first part of the paper I focus on the ubiquity of the medieval counting table, its place in literature and in the early modern household, evidence for the latter being provided by a range of testamentary evidence. This will then be followed by a section in which I will give a detailed report of my experiences using a counting table and comparing the approaches I used with those outlined in the earliest books written in English, An introduction for to lerne to recken with pen or with counters (1539) and Robert Recorde’s The grounde of artes (1543). In doing so, I will endeavour to establish the range and extent of tacit, practical knowledge and that the skilled practitioner acquired learning and skills beyond those in the written text.

Notes

¹ Prior to the introduction of latten jettons the Exchequer had used actual coins as counters for recording and calculating.

² Abacus schools under the tutelage of the maestri d’abacci were thriving in Florence from the fourteenth century, with their focus being predominately commercial arithmetic.

³ As counters were generally sold in sets of 100, I used 100 poker chips to ensure the same constraint on usage.

⁴ Recorde also demonstrates that rather than using multiplication, several more columns could be used, with repeated addition.