B chapter.indd - Charles Babbage Institute - University of Minnesota

Erwin Tomash Library
Boissière, Claude de Boissière, Claude de
Jean Boisseau was a French geographer and genealogist
who had an appointment as Enlumineur du Roi.
This is a multiplication table in the form of a large
circular volvelle (lacking the movable pointer). The
device consists of thirty-seven concentric circles
containing multiples of numbers found in the innermost
circle. To multiply, one found the number (or one of its
components, as after 10, only multiples of 10, 100, or
1000 are shown) in the innermost circle, then moved
the pointer (which evidently had the same markings as
the sector with the multiples of 1 inscribed in it) to that
sector. The product could be found by inspecting the
value in the outer circle corresponding to the multiplier
(or one of its components).
The conversion table on the second sheet gives various
systems of weights and measures for different goods:
cloth of various kinds and origins, grains, wine, gold,
time and distance, with the factors for converting them
to the French systems.
This device was known to Harsdörffer (see entry for
Schwenter, Daniel and Harsdörffer, Georg Phillip;
Deliciae physico-mathematicae, 1651), who reproduced
a modified version. Leupold (Theatrum, 1727) also
reproduced a version but had to rely on Schwenter’s
example as he could not find an original. No other
original example of this work is known.
Illustrations available:
Several scans, each showing a portion of the large instrument.
B 190
Boissière, Claude de (1554–1608)
L’ art d’arythmetique contenant toute dimention, tres
singulier et commode, tant pour l’art militaire, que
autres calculations
Year: 1554
Place: Paris
Publisher: Annet Briere
Edition: 1st
Language: French
Binding: modern leather; covers gilt embossed; gilt spine
Pagination: ff. 72
Collation: A–I 8
Size: 170x105 mm
Reference: Smi Rara, pp 260–262
Claude de Boissière was a philosopher, astronomer,
mathematician and musician born near Grenoble.
This arithmetic book is considered by some to have been
written for students at the University of Paris. Smith
(History of mathematics) prefers to classify Boissière as
a dilettante of mathematics.
The text is a combination of an elementary practical
arithmetic and a discussion of theoretical aspects much
like those treated by Boethius. It not only begins with
simple numeration but carries this to the extreme. It
mentions the usual orders such as units, tens, hundreds,
etc. but also extends the system to Mille de Quintillions
(thousands of quintillions). It is interesting that this
section gives names for orders such as bimillions (a
million million), trimillions (a million million million),
quadrimillion, etc. but then indicates that it is suitable
to shorten these names to billion or trillion to avoid
confusion.
B 190
Pythagorean example, B 190
After treating the four standard arithmetical operations
(the only interesting variant is that he does subtraction
very differently from the way it is done today—see
illustration), he proceeds to a second book, in which he
treats the more theoretical subjects. He considers not
only the usual Boethian type of figurative numbers but
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