The first edition of Robert Recorde's The Grounde of Artes was
printed in London, at the sign of the Brazen Serpent, by Reynold
Wolfe in 1543. The book teaches the rules and operations of
arithmetic and provides many simple examples. It was probably
intended as a textbook for the rapidly increasing number of
mercantile clerks, but also for mariners engaged in the newly
important science of celestial navigation. Recorde first shows how
to carry out numerical operations using pen and paper, which in his
time was a comparatively new and potentially confusing way of
performing calculations. He goes on to demonstrate arithmetic done
with counters, the centuries-old method of manipulating tokens on a
ruled board. Finally, he shows how to indicate numbers with the
hands, a system practised by merchants in market halls and on
quaysides since antiquity. In a preliminary discussion Recorde
defines the art of arithmetic and claims it to be the basis of all
learning, not only of geometry and astronomy but also of music,
physic, law, grammar, philosophy and even theology - hence the
title, The Grounde of Artes. The book is written in the form of a
dialogue between a master and a somewhat precocious scholar.
Recorde makes an effort to reproduce the speaking voice, within the
limits of his didactic purpose, in the question and answer
sessions. To the modern reader his prose is delightfully
colloquial, if always straight to the point and never unnecessarily
chatty. In places he injects statements of principle, for example
this warning of the dangers of rote learning: Scholar. Sir, I thank
you: but I think I might the better doe it, if you did shew me the
working of it. Master. Yea, but you must prove yourself to doe some
things without my aid, or else you shall not be able to doe any
more than you are taught: And that were rather to learn by wrote
(as they call it) than by reason.
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