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Alcuin of York

Descrizione: Maths games at Charlemagnes court

Alcuin of York(735-804), English monk, director/head/leader of the prestigious school of theYork

Cathedral, had been invited by Charlemagne to reorganize the schools of the Empire and, in

particular, the Palace School, the famous Schola Palatina.Alcuin established/fixed the cultural-pedgogical system of the schools settled, by order of

Charlemagne, in the main archbishops seats and monasteries, introducing the disciplines of the

Trivium (grammar, rethoric and logic) and Quadrivium (arithmetics, geometry, music and

astronomy).

He favoured the spread of a simple, elegant and easily readable writing called Caroline minuscule.

Not only religious texts but also the oldest/most ancient versions of many Greek mathematical

works arrived up to present/our times, were copied down with this writing/font.

Heres an example of Caroline minuscule font made at/with the computer, but quite faithful to the

original one:

In the XII century the Caroline minuscule (was) changed, in Rome, into the Roman minuscule,

which can be considered the forerunner of a very known and spread type font at present: the Times

New Roman.

Alcuin, who was also asked (required) to teach the Emperors children, wrote different texts for the

new schools and among these the Propositiones ad acuendo iuvenes (Problems to sharpen the

young), (which are) the oldest collection of Maths problems in Latin known at present. His

problems are very similar to what we nowadays call Maths games.The Italian expression Save goat and cabbage, which sounds run with the hare and hunt with

the hounds, you can't have your cake and eat it, or manage to have it both ways in

English, (meaning to get out of an impasse, to have it both ways, to keep everybody happy),

derives from a well-known problem included in Alcuins book.

The problem isPropositio de lupo et capra et fasciculo cauli (The wolf, goat and cabbage).

Among the 53propositiones (problems) there are the first known versions of some very interesting

problems. Some of them, as the so called Jeep problem, which is a variant/version of Propositio

LII, are still used nowadays even in the Universities to face/focus on important Maths topics.

Heres the text of this problem:

LII. PROPOSITIO (PROBLEM) ABOUT THE HOUSEHOLDER

A householder ordered 90 modii (container about 9 litres) of wheat to be taken from one of

his houses to another, 30 leagues (about 5 km) away. Since the total charge of wheat could

be taken by a camel in three times (trips), and since a camel feeds on one modium each

league, can you tell, if you want, how many modii remained (at the end of the journey)?