A mathematician's ten-year quest to tell Fibonacci's story
In 2000, Keith Devlin set out to research the life and legacy of the
medieval mathematician Leonardo of Pisa, popularly known as Fibonacci,
whose book Liber abbaci, or the "Book of Calculation," introduced
modern arithmetic to the Western world. Although most famous for the
Fibonacci numbers--which, it so happens, he didn't discover--Fibonacci's
greatest contribution was as an expositor of mathematical ideas at a
level ordinary people could understand. Yet Fibonacci was forgotten
after his death, and it was not until the 1960s that his true
achievements were finally recognized. Drawing on the diary he kept of
his quest, Devlin describes the false starts and disappointments, the
unexpected turns, and the occasional lucky breaks he encountered in his
search. Fibonacci helped to revive the West as the cradle of science,
technology, and commerce, yet he vanished from the pages of history.
This is Devlin's search to find him.