Not at all. An error is an error. I really appreciate the reference - I'll put it on my list.
I think I used the word "introduced" incorrectly (although I've seen it used to describe the same situation). I was vaguely aware there were a lot of other people before and after Fibonacci whose combined efforts helped to change a continent's way of thinking.
From
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Fibonacci.html:
Liber abaci, published in 1202 after Fibonacci's return to Italy, was dedicated to Scotus. The book was based on the arithmetic and algebra that Fibonacci had accumulated during his travels. The book, which went on to be widely copied and imitated, introduced the Hindu-Arabic place-valued decimal system and the use of Arabic numerals into Europe.
I've read similar statements in books, but I'd be hard pressed to come up with an exact source.
In any case, I didn't mean to (although I guess I clearly did) imply that Fibonacci was the the first or the last or even the most relevant among them, although he was the most relevant one of whom I was aware.
In one source I read (again, I apologize, but I don't have a reference), there were several people listed whose collective efforts established helped.
How's this for a rewording:
I don't know that any one person can be credited with changing the intellectual opinion of Europeans regarding the use of HAN (Hindu-Arabic Numerals). Perhaps we can choose XYZ for being the first known European to use them or perhaps Gerbert of Aurillac (of whom I had not heard until Alexis' post) who taught it to European students, or maybe Fibonacci (or any of several other writers over the course of several centuries) who helped to spread the gospel, as it were. However, taken either individually or collectively, this achievement of popularizing HAN stands as one of the important social-intellectual accomplishments of the past millemium - and whomever it was as an individual or group - was among the most influential people in that same period.
k
