Jap-Sin II, 32
Chousuan 籌算.
By Luo Yagu 羅雅谷 (Giacomo Rho).
One juan. Bound in one volume, European style. No date or place of publication.

The first folio mentions the collection (Xiyang xinfa lishu and the section to which the text belongs: 西洋新法曆書，法數部，籌算, the chief compiler (Xu Guangqi): 明禮部尚書兼翰林院學士協理詹事府事加一級俸徐光啟督修，the author and reviser (Giacomo Rho and Adam Schall): 修政曆法極西耶穌會士羅雅谷撰，湯若望訂，and the proofreaders (Zhu Guoshou, Zhu Guangda, Chen Suoxing, Huang Hongxian, Sun Silie and Jiao Yingxu): 門人朱國壽，朱光大， 陳所性， 黃宏憲， 孫嗣烈，焦應旭受法.

There is a preface, dated 20.III 1628 (Chongzhen 1) by Rho himself, followed by the table of contents of the book. The whole book consists of thirty-nine folios. There are nine columns in each half folio with twenty-one or twenty-two characters to each column. The title of the book and the number of the folio are given in the middle of each folio.

Rho states in his preface that the science of calculation is so widely employed in scientific studies as well as in people’s daily life that it can be called universal. He then goes on to say that though the study of arithmetic was common among his countrymen, those who were poor in memory found it hard to learn. The Napier’s rods method was invented to facilitate the study of arithmetic. It was for this purpose that this book was written in Chinese as a new method to help Chinese students.

Cf. Pfister, p. 191, no. 16 (Arithmétique népérienne, 1 vol.); Couplet, p. 23 (De Arithmetica); Wylie, p. 112 (On the Principle of Napier’s Rods).

Source: Albert Chan, Chinese Books and Documents in the Jesuit Archives in Rome (2002), p. 314-315.

Full bibliographic information see Ad Dudink & Nicolas Standaert, Chinese Christian Texts Database (CCT-Database)
Local access dig. archives, see folder ARSI Jap-Sin I-IV (II, 32)

Local access dig.pdf. [Cervera-Rho Chousuan.pdf]