The Senses of Mixed Mathematics

How did engagement with the new printed book reshape early modern disciplines? This chapter considers the rapidly changing area of Renaissance mathematics, focusing on two ‘mixed’ mathematical disciplines, cosmography and music. In cosmography, the new paratexts transformed a medieval standby, Sacrobosco’s Sphere, into a cutting-edge handbook that taught students the procedures of calculation. In music, Lefèvre’s sensory experience of sound prompted him to adopt new geometrical tools to solve old arithmetical problems. In both cases, a close attention to the roles of visualization, touch, and hearing in mathematical practice prompted a distinctive approach to the printed page, shifting the very structures of the mathematical disciplines. The underlying mental habits such books were intended to inculcate can be traced through the margins of Beatus Rhenanus’ mathematical books.