De Viribus Quantitatis

Luca Pacioli (1445–1517), an Italian Franciscan priest, is considered to be one of the most famous mathematicians of the Renaissance. He was inter alia closely befriended with Leonardo da Vinci, the great historical universal genius, with whom he also collaborated. Pacioli left behind numerous groundbreaking and significant works, which were concerned with the problems of and fascination with mathematics in all its aspects. For example, the text De divina proportione about the golden rule or his chess book De ludo scachorum.

A Unique, Unpublished Manuscript

In the years 1496–1508, Pacioli finally composed a small book that only marginally dealt with mathematics and also did not ostensibly follow the perspective of a text book like his other works: De viribus quantitatis, “The Strength of Numbers”. This unique manuscript is stored today in the Bologna University Library. Pacioli wrote 661 pages with black and red ink and illustrated it with a total of 98 explanatory illustrations.

A Significant Math-Based Book of Entertainment

De viribus quantitates is certainly no mathematic treatise, but nonetheless contains a description of algebraic and geometric principles in the first section. The content that made the text famous follows thereafter: gimmicks both mathematical and otherwise, card tricks and number riddles, but also instructions for performing magic or juggling and much more, everything that is useful for a fun diversion. As a result, the book is a diverse, mathematically-entertaining puzzle book, a compendium of various tricks and amusements. Alongside mathematics and logic, other natural sciences are represented and even the literary!