Mathematical practice in 18th century colonial Guatemala

Abstract

This article deals with mathematical practice in 18th century colonial Guatemala. This practice is examined around the oldest book of mathematics published in the colonial period in Central America: Juan José de Padilla’s Arithmetica practica, published in 1732. In the first part of the article, I mention my encounter with Padilla's book and the contextual problems I found to offer a facsimile edition of it. In the second part, I define the historiographic approach I use. I claim that to investigate historical mathematical practices is to investigate mathematics as it was imagined, thought and used within a certain cultural historical context. It is also to inquire into the ways in which mathematics, mathematicians, mathematical books and other artifacts fit and responded ideologically to the economic, political and educational structures of their time.