Monograph

La matematica degli Egizi

I papiri matematici del Medio Regno
  • Alice Cartocci,

A form of thought in the pure state stripped of the garb of words, mathematics embodies in an essential manner, with numbers and operations, the logical structures of those who have created it. Hence it can represent a source of insight into a lost civilisation. This study has essentially two objectives: to sketch out a compendium of the mathematical themes and techniques known in the Egypt of the Middle Kingdom, and to deduce from these as much information as possible on the Egyptian mentality. The mathematical evidence is tackled here from a dual viewpoint: as the tools of an empirical science of calculation, and also as emblematic of a mode of conceiving mathematics as an instrument of knowledge in the sense of being a reflection of the established order. The evidence throws up the fact that mathematics is not conceived as an abstract science, but rather as the practical preliminary tool of a physics understood as measurement of the quantities and the greatness of the visible world. The role which it plays in the cognitive process is not independent, but always connected with questions of a philosophical nature. It is therefore a practical science in the sense in which the Egyptians understood it, that is an instrument for understanding nature: a science at the service of theology.

  • Keywords:
  • matematica,
  • Scienza,
  • Papirologia,
  • Egitto antico,
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Alice Cartocci

University of Siena, Italy

Alice Cartocci graduated in 2003 in Classical Literature at the University of Florence, her thesis being this study on the mathematical papyri of the Middle Kingdom elaborated during the period of studies carried out in the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London. In 2007 she obtained a Master's degree in Geotechnologies for Archaeology at the Centre for Geotechnologies of the University of Siena. Together with Professor Gloria Rosati, in December 2005 she published in the "Arte" series of Il Sole 24 Ore, the volume Arte Egizia. Again in collaboration with Professor Rosati, she is currently engaged in the three-dimensional reconstruction of the Temple of Ramses II at Antinoe (modern el-Scheikh 'Ibâda) in Middle Egypt. Since 2004 she has been collaborating with the Arezzo Provincial Authority. For the Culture Department she is currently engaged in the organisation, communication and marketing of the exhibition Piero della Francesca e le Corti Italiane, to be held in Arezzo in the spring of 2007.

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  • Publication Year: 2007
  • Pages: 148
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  • Publication Year: 2007
  • Pages: 148
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  • Publication Year: 2007
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Bibliographic Information

Book Title

La matematica degli Egizi

Book Subtitle

I papiri matematici del Medio Regno

Authors

Alice Cartocci

Peer Reviewed

Number of Pages

148

Publication Year

2007

Copyright Information

© 2007 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY-NC-ND 2.5 IT

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Publisher Name

Firenze University Press

DOI

10.36253/978-88-8453-580-1

ISBN Print

978-88-8453-581-8

eISBN (pdf)

978-88-8453-580-1

eISBN (xml)

978-88-9273-879-9

Series Title

Studi e saggi

Series ISSN

2704-6478

Series E-ISSN

2704-5919

781

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