treasures of antiquity. With the spread of Christianity the Latin language was introduced not only in ecclesiastical but also in scientific and all important worldly transactions. Naturally the science of the Middle Ages was drawn largely from Latin sources. In fact, during the earlier of these ages Roman authors were the only ones read in the Occident. Though Greek was not wholly unknown, yet before the thirteenth century not a single Greek scientific work had been read or translated into Latin. Meagre indeed was the science which could be gotten from Roman writers, and we must wait several centuries before any substantial progress is made in mathematics.
After the time of Boethius and Cassiodorius mathematical activity in Italy died out. The first slender blossom of science among tribes that came from the North was an encyclopaedia entitled Origines, written by Isidorus (died 636 as bishop of Seville). This work is modelled after the Roman encyclopædias of Martianus Capella of Carthage and of Cassiodorius. Part of it is devoted to the quadrivium, arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy. He gives definitions and grammatical explications of technical terms, but does not describe the modes of computation then in vogue. After Isidorus there follows a century of darkness which is at last dissipated by the appearance of Bede the Venerable (672-735), the most learned man of his time. He was a native of Ireland, then the home of learning in the Occident. His works contain treatises on the Computus, or the computation of Easter-time, and on finger-reckoning. It appears that a finger-symbolism was then widely used for calculation. The correct determination of the time of Easter was a problem which in those days greatly agitated the Church. It became desirable to have at least one monk at each monastery who could determine the day of religious festivals and could compute the calendar.
