The Hindu-Arabic Numerals c12.13

c12.13

Leonardo’s father was one William,⁶ and he had a brother named Bonaccingus,⁷ but nothing further is known of his family. As to Fibonacci, most writers¹ have assumed that his father's name was Bonaccio,² whence *filius Bonaccii*, or Fibonacci. Others³ believe that the name, even in the Latin form of *filius Bonaccii* as used in Leonardo's work, was simply a general one, like our Johnson or Bronson (Brown's son); and the only contemporary evidence that we have bears out this view. As to the name Bigollo, used by Leonardo, some have thought it a self-assumed one meaning blockhead, a term that had been applied to him by the commercial world or possibly by the university circle, and taken by him that he might prove what a blockhead could do. Milanesi,⁴ however, has shown that the word Bigollo (or Pigollo) was used in Tuscany to mean a traveler, and was naturally assumed by one who had studied, as Leonardo had, in foreign lands.