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Mathematics Education in Europe in the Premodern Times

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Handbook on the History of Mathematics Education

Abstract

This chapter is devoted to mathematics education in Europe in the premodern times. Looking at a map of Europe from the beginning of the period in question, the reader will see that the borders at that time were considerably different from the borders of today. In the East, along with the Grand Duchy of Moscow, an enormous region was occupied by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which contained many lands that later became parts of the Russian Empire. The Southeast of Europe was occupied by the Turkish Empire. In Western and Central Europe, nation-states were only beginning to emerge – the Holy Roman Empire, which formally included all the territory that today belongs to many countries (Germany, Italy, Austria, Czech Republic, and others) and which lasted nominally until 1806, was in effect a union of almost independent states.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Actually, the Ratio Studiorum prescribed 3 years for the teaching of philosophy, but in practice it was generally 2 years.

  2. 2.

    For state administration of secondary schools in other Protestant territories, see Bruning 2005, pp. 296–305.

  3. 3.

    “The mathematics teacher is not a colleague.”

  4. 4.

    In the nineteenth century, the name was changed to Mathematical Tripos.

  5. 5.

    See the chapter on Portugal in the next part.

  6. 6.

    See the chapter on teacher formation.

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Acknowledgments

The author would like to express his gratitude to Dr. Nicos Kastanis and Dr. Snezana Lawrence for helping him to locate sources on Balkan countries.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, USA

    Alexander Karp

  2. University of Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany

    Gert Schubring

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Correspondence to Alexander Karp , Gert Schubring , Gert Schubring or Alexander Karp .

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  1. Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA

    Alexander Karp

  2. Universität Bielefeld Institut für Didaktik der Mathematik, Bielefeld, Germany

    Gert Schubring

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Karp, A., Schubring, G. (2014). Mathematics Education in Europe in the Premodern Times. In: Karp, A., Schubring, G. (eds) Handbook on the History of Mathematics Education. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9155-2_7

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