Fibonacci
1170 – 1250 Italian mathematician
The mathematician who brought Arabic numerals to Europe.
- Religion
- Catholic, as was standard in his time; his work is secular.
- Affiliations
- Merchant scholar of Pisa. No secret society.
Fibonacci, or Leonardo of Pisa, learned Hindu-Arabic numerals through trade in North Africa and championed them in his book Liber Abaci. That system replaced clumsy Roman numerals and transformed European commerce and mathematics. The Fibonacci sequence, which he described, still appears across science and art.
In the timeline
- 1202 Fibonacci publishes the Liber Abaci central figure
- 1202 Fibonacci brings Hindu-Arabic numerals to Europe central figure