{"podcast":{"title":"New Books in Mathematics","slug":"new-books-in-mathematics-736372","podcast_index_feed_id":736372,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/LIT8989774512","website_url":"https://newbooksnetwork.com/category/science-technology/mathematics/","image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/bd5e76ba-eda3-11e8-949d-1b696f92facc/image/2907bb4f8e3fb589b390ec6e53b6b845.png?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"New Books Network","episode_count":172,"summary":"This podcast is a channel on the New Books Network. The New Books Network is an academic audio library dedicated to public education. In each episode you will hear scholars discuss their recently published research with another expert in their field. Discover our 150+ channels and browse our 28,000+ episodes on our website: newbooksnetwork.com Subscribe to our free weekly Substack newsletter to get informative, engaging content straight to your inbox: https://newbooksnetwork.substack.com/ Follow us on Instagram and Bluesky to learn about more our latest interviews: @newbooksnetwork Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/mathematics","last_synced_at":null,"page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-mathematics-736372"},"episode":{"title":"Raffaele Danna, \"The Craft of Indo-Arabic Numerals: How Practical Arithmetic Shaped Commerce and Mathematics in Western Europe, 1200–1600\" (Harvard UP, 2026)","slug":"raffaele-danna-the-craft-of-indo-arabic-numerals-how-practical-arithmetic-shaped-commerce-and-mathematics-in-western-europe-1200-1600-harvard-up-2026","published_at":"2026-04-28T08:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-mathematics-736372/raffaele-danna-the-craft-of-indo-arabic-numerals-how-practical-arithmetic-shaped-commerce-and-mathematics-in-western-europe-1200-1600-harvard-up-2026","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-mathematics-736372","url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/NBNK1266378806.mp3?updated=1777315586","audio_url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/NBNK1266378806.mp3?updated=1777315586","summary":"In the thirteenth-century Mediterranean, commerce transformed as merchants shifted from Roman to Indo-Arabic numerals—an alternative that better facilitated complex calculations. It has long been known that this transition stemmed from Europe’s increasing exchanges with India, Persia, and the Arabic world. Yet much remains to be understood about how Indo-Arabic numerals—and the practical arithmetic they enabled—actually spread across Europe. As Dr. Raffaele Danna shows in The Craft of Indo-Arabic Numerals: How Practical Arithmetic Shaped Commerce and Mathematics in Western Europe, 1200–1600 (Harvard University Press, 2026), it was hundreds of ordinary merchants, schoolmasters, and artisans who nurtured these changes, thereby driving key advances in both commerce and mathematics. Drawing on an original catalog of more than 1,200 practical arithmetic manuals, Dr. Danna charts the incremental spread of the new figures with unprecedented precision. While Italian merchants were the early adopters, it took nearly three centuries for Indo-Arabic numerals to become established in northern Europe. As Dr. Danna shows, adoption did not follow the routes of maritime trade. Rather, Indo-Arabic numerals moved gradually across the continent through inland networks of practitioners. Everywhere they went, the ten figures enhanced commercial practices and facilitated the emergence of a coherent language of mathematical craft. The growing social circulation of this knowledge, in turn, had a lasting impact on the economic trajectory of Western Europe. By the late sixteenth century, even academics were absorbing lessons from the vernacular tradition—a development that led to the first major breakthroughs in European mathematical theory since antiquity. Combining economic history with the s…","meta_description":"In the thirteenth-century Mediterranean, commerce transformed as merchants shifted from Roman to Indo-Arabic numerals—an alternative that better facilitat…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3863,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/new-books-in-mathematics-736372/episodes/raffaele-danna-the-craft-of-indo-arabic-numerals-how-practical-arithmetic-shaped-commerce-and-mathematics-in-western-europe-1200-1600-harvard-up-2026/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-mathematics-736372/raffaele-danna-the-craft-of-indo-arabic-numerals-how-practical-arithmetic-shaped-commerce-and-mathematics-in-western-europe-1200-1600-harvard-up-2026.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}