Editing Fibonacci (section)

==Biography==
Fibonacci was born around 1170 to Guglielmo, an Italian merchant and customs official<ref name=livio/> who directed a trading post in [[Béjaïa|Bugia]], modern-day Béjaïa, Algeria.<ref>G. Germano, ''New editorial perspectives in Fibonacci's Liber abaci'', «Reti medievali rivista» 14, 2, [http://www.rmoa.unina.it/2147/1/400-1462-3-PB.pdf pp. 157–173] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709022418/http://www.rmoa.unina.it/2147/1/400-1462-3-PB.pdf |date=2021-07-09 }}.</ref> Fibonacci travelled with him as a young boy, and it was in Bugia where he was educated that he learned about the [[Hindu–Arabic numeral system]].<ref name="GlickLivesey2014">{{cite book|author1=Thomas F. Glick|author2=Steven Livesey|author3=Faith Wallis|title=Medieval Science, Technology, and Medicine: An Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=77y2AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA172|year=2014|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-45932-1|page=172|access-date=2018-12-07|archive-date=2023-03-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230313121951/https://books.google.com/books?id=77y2AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA172|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Knott" />

Fibonacci travelled around the [[Mediterranean]] coast, meeting with many merchants and learning about their systems of doing arithmetic.<ref>In the ''Prologus'' of the ''Liber abacci'' he said: "Having been introduced there to this art with an amazing method of teaching by means of the nine figures of the Indians, I loved the knowledge of such an art to such an extent above all other arts and so much did I devote myself to it with my intellect, that I learned with very earnest application and through the technique of contradiction anything to be studied concerning it and its various methods used in Egypt, in Syria, in Greece, in Sicily, and in Provence, places I have later visited for the purpose of commerce" (translated by G. Germano, ''New editorial perspectives in Fibonacci's Liber abaci'', «Reti medievali rivista» 14, 2, [http://www.rmoa.unina.it/2147/1/400-1462-3-PB.pdf pp. 157–173] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709022418/http://www.rmoa.unina.it/2147/1/400-1462-3-PB.pdf |date=2021-07-09 }}.</ref> He soon realised the many advantages of the Hindu-Arabic system, which, unlike the [[Roman numerals]] used at the time, allowed easy calculation using a [[place-value system]]. In 1202, he completed the {{Lang|la|[[Liber Abaci]]}} (''Book of Abacus'' or ''The Book of Calculation''),<ref>The English edition of the ''Liber abacci'' was published by L.E. Sigler, ''Leonardo Pisano's book of calculation'', New York, Springer-Verlag, 2003</ref> which popularized Hindu–Arabic numerals in Europe.<ref name=Knott/>

Fibonacci was a guest of [[Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor|Emperor Frederick II]], who enjoyed mathematics and science. A member of Frederick II's court, [[John of Palermo]], posed several questions based on Arab mathematical works for Fibonacci to solve. In 1240, the [[Republic of Pisa]] honored Fibonacci (referred to as Leonardo Bigollo)<ref>See the incipit of ''Flos'': "Incipit flos Leonardi '''bigolli''' pisani..." (quoted in the [[MS Word]] document [https://web.archive.org/web/20040722081047/http://www.g4g4.com/MyCD5/SOURCES/SOURCE1.DOC ''Sources in Recreational Mathematics: An Annotated Bibliography''] by David Singmaster, 18 March 2004 – emphasis added), in English: "Here starts 'the flower' by Leonardo the wanderer of Pisa..."<br/>The basic meanings of "bigollo" appear to be "bilingual" or "traveller". A. F. Horadam contends a connotation of "bigollo" is "absent-minded" (see first footnote of [http://faculty.evansville.edu/ck6/bstud/fibo.html "Eight hundred years young"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081219100546/http://faculty.evansville.edu/ck6/bstud/fibo.html |date=2008-12-19 }}), which is also one of the connotations of the English word "wandering". The translation "the wanderer" in the quote above tries to combine the various connotations of the word "bigollo" in a single English word.</ref> by granting him a salary in a decree that recognized him for the services that he had given to the city as an advisor on matters of accounting and instruction to citizens.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.theguardian.com/education/2002/nov/07/research.science | title=A man to count on | author=Keith Devlin | date=7 November 2002 | newspaper=The Guardian | access-date=7 June 2016 | archive-date=17 September 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160917004540/https://www.theguardian.com/education/2002/nov/07/research.science | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>«Considerantes nostre civitatis et civium honorem atque profectum, qui eis, tam per doctrinam quam per sedula obsequia discreti et sapientis viri magistri Leonardi Bigolli, in abbacandis estimationibus et rationibus civitatis eiusque officialium et aliis quoties expedit, conferuntur; ut eidem Leonardo, merito dilectionis et gratie, atque scientie sue prerogativa, in recompensationem laboris sui quem substinet in audiendis et consolidandis estimationibus et rationibus supradictis, a Comuni et camerariis publicis, de Comuni et pro Comuni, mercede sive salario suo, annis singulis, libre xx denariorum et amisceria consueta dari debeant (ipseque pisano Comuni et eius officialibus in abbacatione de cetero more solito serviat), presenti constitutione firmamus». F. Bonaini, ''Memoria unica sincrona di Leonardo Fibonacci, novamente scoperta'', «Giornale storico degli archivi toscani» 1, 4, 1857, pp. 239–246.</ref>

Fibonacci is thought to have died between 1240<ref>{{citation|title=Fibonacci and Lucas Numbers with Applications|first=Thomas|last=Koshy|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|year=2011|isbn=9781118031315|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1iDKKceqD2sC&pg=PA3|page=3|access-date=2015-12-12|archive-date=2023-03-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230313121951/https://books.google.com/books?id=1iDKKceqD2sC&pg=PA3|url-status=live}}.</ref> and 1250,<ref>{{citation|title=Encyclopédia of Mathematics|first=James Stuart|last=Tanton|publisher=Infobase Publishing|year=2005|isbn=9780816051243|page=192|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MfKKMSuthacC&pg=PA192|access-date=2015-12-12|archive-date=2023-03-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230313121952/https://books.google.com/books?id=MfKKMSuthacC&pg=PA192|url-status=live}}.</ref> in Pisa.