This volume investigates how the emergence of the printed book facilitated the integration and elevation of mathematics within the institutional framework of the early modern European university. Richard J. Oosterhoff examines the intersection of humanistic scholarship and mathematical practice, arguing that the transition from manuscript culture to print was not merely a technological shift but a fundamental restructuring of how mathematical knowledge was transmitted, annotated, and taught. By focusing on the work of Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples and his contemporaries, the author demonstrates how pedagogical tools and student engagement with printed texts transformed mathematics from a peripheral discipline into a central component of academic life.

Scholars in the history of science and book history recognize this work as a significant contribution to understanding the material conditions of intellectual production in the Renaissance. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose, which provides a rigorous examination of primary source materials for specialists in the field.