THE GREAT ART, WHICH

THEY COMMONLY CALL COSSA, OR THE

ALGEBRAIC RULES,

reduced into Forty Chapters by Master Girolamo Cardano, and it is

the Tenth Book of his Arithmetic.

On the two equations in individual chapters. Chapter I.

This art originally took its beginning from Muhammad, the son of Moses the Arab Al-Khwarizmi (c. 780–850), the Persian polymath whose name is the root of the word "algorithm" and whose book "Al-Jabr" gave us the word "algebra.". Indeed, Leonardo of Pisa Fibonacci (c. 1170–1240), who traveled to North Africa and introduced the Hindu-Arabic numeral system and algebraic methods to Europe. is a reliable witness to this fact. He left behind four chapters, with their demonstrations, which we will assign to their proper places. After many intervals of time, three derivative chapters were added to them by an unknown author, which were nevertheless placed with the principal ones by Luca Pacioli A Franciscan friar who published "Summa de arithmetica" in 1494, which summarized all mathematical knowledge of the time but claimed cubic equations were impossible to solve.. Finally, I read of another three derivative chapters discovered from the first ones by some unknown man; these, however, had hardly come to light, even though they were far more useful than the others, for they taught the estimation original: "æstimationem," referring to the process of finding the value or root of an unknown. of the cube and a number, and of the square-squared original: "cubi quadrati," likely referring to fourth-power equations.. But in our times, Scipione del Ferro of Bologna discovered the chapter of the "cube and things equal to a number" This refers to the solution for equations of the form $x^3 + ax = n$., a truly beautiful and admirable thing, since this art surpasses all human subtlety and the clarity of every mortal genius. It is surely a celestial gift and a test of the power of minds, so illustrious that whoever touches it believes there is nothing they cannot understand. In emulation of him, Niccolò Tartaglia of Brescia, our friend, when he had come into competition with Scipione's disciple, Antonio Maria Fiore, discovered the same chapter so as not to be defeated; and he, yielding to my many prayers, handed it over to me. For I was deceived by the words of Luca Pacioli, who denied that any other general rule could exist beyond his own chapters. Although so many things had already been discovered by me and were at hand, I nevertheless despaired of finding what I did not dare to seek. But then, having obtained that rule and hunting for its demonstration, I realized that many other things could be possessed. And with that study, and with confidence now increased, I found new rules partly by myself, and also some through Lodovico Ferrari, formerly our student. Furthermore, those things found by them will be graced with their names; the rest, which lack a name, are ours. Also the demonstrations, except for three by Muhammad and two by Lodovico, are all ours, and each will be placed before its own chapter, then the rule added, and the proof original: "experimentum," meaning a numerical check or demonstration of the rule's validity. subjoined. And although a long discourse could be held about these matters,