Arithmetica 1550

Hieronymus Cock created this engraving, Arithmetica, in the mid-16th century, during a period of significant intellectual and scientific development. The engraving depicts a female personification of arithmetic, a common allegorical figure in Renaissance art, deeply immersed in numerical calculations. The choice of a female figure to represent arithmetic is interesting. During this period, women's access to education, particularly in fields like mathematics, was extremely limited. By representing arithmetic as female, the artwork could be interpreted as either celebrating the intellectual capacity of women or, perhaps more conservatively, embodying arithmetic as an abstract ideal, separate from the lived realities of women. The inscription at the bottom, "NON DVBIIS PER ME NUMERIS RITE OMNIA CONSTANT," translates to "Through me, all things stand firm by means of numbers without doubt." This underlines the Renaissance belief in the power of mathematics to bring order and understanding to the world. "Arithmetica" invites us to reflect on the historical relationship between gender, knowledge, and power, revealing the complex ways in which women were both included and excluded from the pursuit of knowledge.