''Arithmetic'' () is a 1703
mathematics
Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...
textbook by the Russian educator and mathematician
Leonty Magnitsky. The book served as the standard Russian mathematics textbook until the mid-18th century.
Mikhail Lomonosov
Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov (; , ; – ) was a Russian polymath, scientist and writer, who made important contributions to literature, education, and science. Among his discoveries were the atmosphere of Venus and the law of conservation of ...
was educated on this book, and referred to it as the "gates of my own erudition". It was the first mathematics textbook written in the Russian language that was not a translated edition of a foreign work.
It consisted essentially of Magnitsky's own lecture notes, and offered an encyclopedic overview of arithmetic at the time, with sections on navigational
astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...
,
geodesy
Geodesy or geodetics is the science of measuring and representing the Figure of the Earth, geometry, Gravity of Earth, gravity, and Earth's rotation, spatial orientation of the Earth in Relative change, temporally varying Three-dimensional spac ...
,
algebra
Algebra is a branch of mathematics that deals with abstract systems, known as algebraic structures, and the manipulation of expressions within those systems. It is a generalization of arithmetic that introduces variables and algebraic ope ...
,
geometry
Geometry (; ) is a branch of mathematics concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. Geometry is, along with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. A mathematician w ...
, and
trigonometry
Trigonometry () is a branch of mathematics concerned with relationships between angles and side lengths of triangles. In particular, the trigonometric functions relate the angles of a right triangle with ratios of its side lengths. The fiel ...
.
It was organized in instructive question and answer format, and rooted not in the abstract but in practical and demonstrable applications of theories and axioms. The book also contained astronomical tables and coordinate maps for various Russian locales.
Production for the School of Navigation
The origins of the book lie in
Peter the Great
Peter I (, ;
– ), better known as Peter the Great, was the Sovereign, Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia, Tsar of all Russia from 1682 and the first Emperor of Russia, Emperor of all Russia from 1721 until his death in 1725. He reigned j ...
's establishment of the
School of Navigation in Moscow, and the subsequent appointment of Magnitsky at the school's helm. He needed a text to teach from, and so formulated the book around his lectures and the prevailing European mathematics texts of the age.
Full title
The full title and subtitle reads: "Arithmetic, that is the science of numbering. Translated from different languages into Russian, put together and divided into two parts". The book runs 600 pages. Its publication was extensively researched in 1914 by Dmitrii Galanin in his book ''Leonty Filippovich Magnitsky and His Arithmetic''. Original copies are preserved in the
Moscow State University
Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public university, public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, a ...
library.
Gallery
References
{{reflist
1703 non-fiction books
Mathematics textbooks
Russian-language books