The Arithmetica of Jordanus Nemorarius

Recently1 I published the edition of the treatise De elementis arithmetice of Jordanus Nemorarius. Despite the fact that Jordanus was a major figure in medieval mechanics and mathematics, nothing definite is known about the man and his life. It is assumed that he lived early in the thirteenth century since his works are included in the Biblionomia, a catalogue of Richard de Fournival’s library compiled sometime between 1246 and 1260. However, it is remarkable that from the 25 manuscripts which contain the whole Arithmetica or a part of it, seven are extant at Paris in the Bibliothèque Nationale, and that three other manuscripts, namely Milan, Ambrosiana C 241 inf., Venice, Marciana VIII.77, and Cambridge, Pepys 2329 were written at Paris in 1401, 1406 and 1407 respectively. This accumulation of manuscripts at one place may be an indication for the assumption that Jordanus taught at Paris in the earlier part of the thirteenth century, and that until the mid-13th century a “Jordanian circle„ stayed active around the same center under fairly direct influence from the master as Jens Høyrup has said.2