T Ediciones Boix y Morer 6, 6º 28003 Madrid tel. 91 554 10 06 fax 91 554 14 67 t.ediciones@taric.es THE LIFE OF NUMBERS From an idea by Antonio J. Durán 192 p. / 19 x 24'5 cm Hardcover 50,00 € ISBN English version: 84-86882-14-1 Order by e-mail. Or you can buy it at the following Spanish bookshops. Distribution In Madrid: MUSEUM LINE Ana ana@museumline.com +34 91 830 03 88 Resto de Spain: BITÁCORA-ARTE Y HUMANIDADES Mª Ángeles bitacorarte@bitacorarte.com 93 422 22 15 < back	the life of numbers "The Life of Numbers" both is and is not a universal mythology of figures. In this mythological tale of numbers there will naturally be numbers, but also art and literature, battles and adventures that take place in more or less exotic lands, and passion, love, and madness, and lastly also men and women, because this life of numbers may be nothing more than another way of telling our own story, for in addition to the gods we brought numbers into existence and gave them their being. Much of the artwork that accompanies the text is intended as a photograph album of numbers, but also of their circumstances. Indeed, numbers and their circumstances are the characters portrayed in the illustrations. This book is also a tribute to the written work —which is at the same time a work written to be read— with all the grandeur and complexity that the expression implies. And this had necessarily to be thus, because numbers, dear reader, have run loose wherever humanity has left its mark. Awarded by the Spanish Ministry of Culture the second prize for the best scientific popularization book of 2006
	CONTENTS "The Life of Numbers" is divided into three parts, each written by a different author.: Done on paper: the dual nature of numbers and the page ALBERTO MANGUEL has written a sort of introduction in which he describes the landscape in which the numbers will run free, which is none other than the written page. Numbers are for counting (I) ANTONIO J. DURÁN has made his contribution as an adjunct to Ifrah’s, recounting in its first part the life of numbers in civilizations that are extinct today,… The way people learnt how to count and calculate GEORGES IFRAH will tell us how the Hindus discovered what would become the number system we use today, how the Arabs brought it to the West —initially to Spain— and how it gradually spread throughout Europe in the late Middle Ages. Numbers are for counting (II) …and in the second, ANTONIO J. DURÁN tells the story of the love affair between numbers and the printing press, in the flower of the Renaissance. The illustrations in the book deserve special attention: NATALIA PINTADO designed a “divine comedy” of circles and circumferences which serve as frontispieces for each of the articles, and to recreate the strange and special numbers used to mark each page. JAVIER PAGOLA provided the illustrations for the text boxes intended sometimes as clarifications and sometimes as little nooks where the reader can repair to meditate. He parades before us an assemblage of unusual characters who sigh numbers, perspire figures, and think without existing. SEAN MACKAOUI designed the front and back covers and a set of numbers and related items that enable us to play with the reality of things and help us to realize that reality always holds more than we notice at first glance.