Histoire des tables numériques – HTN

Numerical tables were one of the most commonly used instruments of calculation from the earliest periods for which we have evidence of mathematical activity until the appearance of computing machines. By 'numerical tables', we mean a broad category of texts that establish correspondences between two or more quantitative or qualitative phenomena and attempt to exhibit, on a plane surface, in some determinate way, numerical values that correspond to these phenomena. Such tables are interesting both as tools of calculation and insofar as evidence for certain social and scientific activities of the practitioners by, and for, whom they were produced. Nevertheless, despite the fact that the historical record has preserved thousands of tables from a broad range of civilizations, these tables have themselves received relatively little critical study. Hence, it has seemed to us both useful and innovative to consider broadly and for the first time the problem of tables in general by bringing together specialists of the different mathematical traditions (Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, India, China, the Arabic World, Europe since the Middle Ages) and of the different context for the development of tables (astrology, astronomy, metrology, arithmetic, mathematical analysis, numerical calculation, mechanics, physical sciences, engineering, school mathematics, administration and management, etc.). It is our expectation that this will allow us to make significant breakthroughs in our understanding of the places and roles of tables in the history of the sciences.