An Introduction

*An Introduction* is an anonymous publication but it is the earliest printed work in English entirely devoted to Arithmetic. The first edition was printed in 1537. Among the problems posed in the book is the 'rule and question of a catte.' This concerns a cat which climbs a 300 foot high tree, ascending 17 feet each day but descending again 12 feet each night. The problem to be solved is - how long does the cat take to reach the top? The answer given is 60 days, which of course is quite wrong. Then there is 'a dronkart who drynketh a barell of bere in 14 days,' but 'when his wife drinketh with him' they empty it in 10 days. How quickly, the reader is asked, could his wife drink it alone? And the problem of the 'man that laye in his dethe bedde' is just another of the many similarly entertaining puzzles set within the pages of this fascinating book.