From Math2033
Leonardo Fibonacci was born around AD 1170 to Guglielmo Fibonacci, a wealthy Italian merchant. Guglielmo directed a trading post (by some accounts he was the consultant for Pisa) in Bugia, a port east of Algiers in the Almohad dynasty's sultanate in North Africa (now Bejaia, Algeria). As a young boy, Leonardo traveled with him to help; it was there he learned about the Hindu-Arabic numeral system.[5] Recognizing that arithmetic with Hindu-Arabic numerals is simpler and more efficient than with Roman numerals, Fibonacci traveled throughout the Mediterranean world to study under the leading Arab mathematicians of the time. Leonardo returned from his travels around 1200. In 1202, at age 32, he published what he had learned in Liber Abaci (Book of Abacus or Book of Calculation), and thereby introduced Hindu-Arabic numerals to Europe. Leonardo became an amicable guest of the Emperor Frederick II, who enjoyed mathematics and science. In 1240 the Republic of Pisa honored Leonardo, referred to as Leonardo Bigollo,[6] by granting him a salary. In the 19th century, a statue of Fibonacci was constructed and erected in Pisa. Today it is located in the western gallery of the Camposanto, historical cemetery on the Piazza dei Miracoli.[7] Fibonacci was a famous Italian mathematician who was said to be the "greatest European mathematician of the Middle Ages." He was from Pisa which was an important commercial center which had many ports. Through his travels and meetings with merchants he learned systems of arithematic.
From the arithmetic systems he learned he found Hindo-Arabic the most interesting and was the first to bring this system to Europe. This system is the same one that we use today which is based on ten digits, a decimal point, and a zero. This was used opposed to Roman Numerals.
He created the additive rule, the subtractive rule, arithematic with Roman Numerals, the decimal position system, "[algorithms]", and Fibonacci numbers.
Resources:
Fibonacci
