Biography of Leonardo Fibonacci
                                      
   Leonardo Fibonacci  was born in Pisa, Italy around
   1170, the son of Guilielmo Bonacci, a secretary of the Republic of
   Pisa and responsible, beginning around 1192, for directing the Pisan
   trading colony in Bugia, Algeria.
   
   Some time after 1192, Bonacci brought his son with him to Bugia. The
   father intended for Leonardo to become a merchant and so arranged for
   his instruction in calculational techniques, especially those
   involving the Hindu-Arabic numerals which had not yet been introduced
   into Europe. Eventually, Bonacci enlisted his son's help in carrying
   out business for the Pisan republic and sent him on trips to Egypt,
   Syria, Greece, Sicily, and Provence. Leonardo took the opportunity
   offered by his travel abroad to study and learn the mathematical
   techniques employed in these various regions.
   
   Around 1200, Fibonacci returned to Pisa where, for at least the next
   twenty-five years, he worked on his own mathematical compositions. The
   five works from this period which have come down to us are: the Liber
   abbaci (1202, 1228); the Practica geometriae (1220/1221); an undated
   letter to Theodorus, the imperial philosopher to the court of the
   Hohenstaufen emperor Frederick II; Flos (1225), a collection of
   solutions to problems posed in the presence of Frederick II; and the
   Liber quadratorum (1225), a number-theoretic book concerned with the
   simultaneous solution of equations quadratic in two or more variables.
   So great was Leonardo's reputation as a mathematician as a result of
   these works that Frederick summoned him for an audience when he was in
   Pisa around 1225.
   
   After 1228, virtually nothing is known of Leonardo's life, except that
   by decree the Republic of Pisa awarded the "'serious and learned
   Master Leonardo Bigollo' (discretus et sapiens) a yearly salarium of
   'libre XX denariorem' in addition to the usual allowances" (DSB). This
   stipend rewarded Fibonacci for his pro bono advising to the Republic
   on matters involving accounting and related mathematical matters.
   
   Fibonacci died some time after 1240, presumably in Pisa.
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                      Selected Biographical References
                                      
   Gillispie, Charles C. ed. The Dictionary of Scientific Biography, 16
   vols. 2 supps. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1970-1990. S.v.
   "Fibonacci, Leonardo" by Kurt Vogel (abbreviated above as DSB).
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