On budget day, Tom Johnson joins Malin Hay to discuss the revolution in numeracy and use of numbers in Early Modern England, from the black and white squares of the ‘reckoning cloth’ to logarithmic calculating machines, as described in a new book by Jessica Marie Otis. How did the English go from seeing arithmetic as the province of tradespeople and craftsmen to valuing maths as an educational discipline? Tom and Malin consider the importance of the move from Roman to Arabic numerals in this ‘quantitative transformation’ and the uses and abuses of statistics in the period.
Find further reading on the episode page: https://lrb.me/earlymodernmaths
Sponsored links:
Use the code ’LRB’ to get £100 off Serious Readers lights here: https://www.seriousreaders.com/lrb
To find out about financial support for professional writers visit the Royal Literary Fund here: https://www.rlf.org.uk/
Find out more about ACE Cultural Tours: https://aceculturaltours.co.uk
Discover the LRB's subscription podcast, Close Readings, and audiobooks here: https://lrb.me/audio
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.