CfP: Cuthbert Tunstall 500 years symposium, 9-10 Sept 2022

Reappraising the ‘Art of Counting’. An international symposium to celebrate 500 years of Cuthbert Tunstall’s De arte supputandi libri quatuor

9-10 September 2022, Durham University

Deadline 1 April.

The British Society for the History of Mathematics and the Department of Mathematical Sciences at Durham University are organising a  two-day symposium aimed at exploring and re-assessing the significance of Cuthbert Tunstall’s "De arte supputandi libri quattuor", a tract on arithmetic that was widely received across Europe in its day and that holds the honour of being the first work devoted exclusively to mathematics to have been printed in England.

The symposium will bring together intellectual historians and historians of mathematics and will seek to illuminate aspects of the life and work of the Yorkshire-born humanist, who began his academic studies at Balliol College, Oxford, before proceeding to Padua where he studied under Niccolò Leonico Tomeo and Pietro Pomponazzi. It is anticipated that some contributors will focus on De arte supputandi itself, or its relation to Luca Pacioli’s Summa, while others will consider Tunstall’s place alongside contemporary humanist scholars from Britain, Ireland and beyond who pursued their studies in Italy. Others still might consider the continental reception of De arte Supputandi or seek to place the author’s scientific work in the context of his diplomatic employments by Wolsey or his role as Prince-Bishop of Durham. Public outreach events will include an exhibition on the life and work of Tunstall and a public lecture by Travis Williams (Rhode Island).

We invite proposals for presentations of 20 mins (+ 5 mins for questions). We also welcome suggestions for non-standard formats, discussions, etc.  Please send suggestions, and abstracts (up to 200 words) + brief biographical details to Isobel Falconer by 1 April.