Decoding Cardano's \textit{Liber de Ludo Aleae}
type: Item
instance of: scholarly article
title: Decoding Cardano's \textit{Liber de Ludo Aleae}
zbMATH Open document ID: 1072.01008
author: David R. Bellhouse
published in: Historia Mathematica
publication date: 2005-06-30T00:00:00Z
review text: The author describes Cardano's educational background in the context of the state of mathematical learning of his time and examines his \textit{Liber de Ludo Aleae} (written in mid-16th c., first published 1663, English translation 1953 and (1961; Zbl 0099.24301)). He argues that that book was based on the anonymous poem \textit{De Vetula} (ca. 1250) and that Cardano's aim was to establish conditions under which games of chance might be approved (as opposed to their flat rejection by Aristotle) rather than to compile a mathematical tract. Consequently, the author remarks as Cardano's mathematics is faulty but notes that Aristotle's concept of justice led him to state that the ratio of the wagers of two gamblers ought to be equal to that of their chances of winning (e.g., that their expected winnings be equal).
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 01A40
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 60-03
zbMATH DE Number: 2184192
zbMATH Keywords: Aristotle's \textit{Ethics}
zbMATH Keywords: card and dice games
zbMATH Keywords: history of probability
zbMATH Keywords: justice
zbMATH Keywords: renaissance humanism
reviewed by: O. B. Sheĭnin
MaRDI profile type: Publication
full work available at URL: j.hm.2004.04.001
OpenAlex ID: W2152572697
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Wikidata QID: Q56083241
DOI: 10.1016/J.HM.2004.04.001
description: scientific article; zbMATH DE number 2184192