Renaissance and Numbers
Renaissance and Numbers
The Renaissance was a time of “rebirth” for Europe. In this time the classical Greek and Roman values of literary purity and aesthetic beauty were reintroduced after the dark Middle Ages. Just as importantly, there was also great growth in trade, finance, science and cultural exchange, although it is a habit of many to focus on the art alone. During this period, specifically around 1202, Fibonacci introduced the use of Arabic numerals to conduct business through addition, subtraction and multiplication. Before this time, Europe was still using Roman Numerals. When Fibonacci first started using Arabic numerals to do his accounting, he realized that this was a much simpler representation. We can certainly imagine that even without Fibonacci, eventually Europe would have evolved or borrowed a numeric system, but then again, we might all be using Roman Numerals to this day. Imagine if binary ran on Is and Xs instead of 0s and 1s. What would digital be like without the digits? Fortunately, we will never have to know.