Pandulf of Capua () was a monk and learned author at the Abbey of Monte Cassino in the late 11th century.
Life Pandulf was a native of Capua. His contemporary at Monte Cassino, Peter the Deacon, included an entry on him in his biographical dictionary of Cassinese monks, . According to Peter, Pandulf was a presbyter who became a monk under Abbot Desiderius () and was active during the reigns of the Byzantine emperors Michael VII Doukas () and Alexios I Komnenos (). He was "learned in divine and secular literature" and Peter attributes 25 titles to him. One of these titles, , was probably written in honour of the visit to Monte Cassino by the Empress Agnes of Poitou in or about 1072–1073. It must have been competed before her death in 1077. Another chronological indication is the reference to Pandulf's dedication of his work to Peter, abbot of in Salerno, who is known to have become abbot in the period 1064–1067.
The date and place of his death is unknown, but probably fell during the reign of Alexios I.
Works List The 25 titles attributed to Pandulf by Peter the Deacon are (original spelling retained):
A majority of these titles, over 20, concern the computus. concerns computation, which Pandulf describes as "so useful ... that our study of the computus, and arithmetic, and music, geometry also, and astronomy, use it as if it were an alphabet." may have been a work of history. Like most works bearing on the Empire or the Papacy and written at Monte Cassino in the late 11th century, it is lost.
Pandulf's only surviving work, , survives in a single manuscript, Ottobonianus latinus 1354. It is a pedagogical text aimed at showing even children how to solve multiplication problems by using an abacus. Among the authorities he cites are Gerbert of Aurillac, Heriger of Lobbes and Bede. A manuscript of Heriger and Bede acquired by Monte Cassino in the 1060s may be the one that Pandulf consulted. It is still at Monte Cassino, now MS 189. In addition, although he does not cite him, Pandulf almost certainly made use of Lawrence of Amalfi's treatise on the abacus, , and may even have considered his own work a supplement to the former. He may also have drawn inspiration from Martianus Capella's Marriage of Philology and Mercury.
Typically for an 11th-century, Pandulf used markers marked with Hindu–Arabic numerals for his abacus. He recommends having a bag containing 90 markers. He introduces the innovation that these markers come in different shapes. The 1–3 markers are triangular, the 4–6 markers rectangular and the 7–9 markers circular. The purpose of this is unclear. Craig Gibson and Francis Newton suggest that it may have merely facilitated finding the right marker in the bag.
Pandulf presents a uniques series of glyphs for the Arabic numerals. He explains that the glyphs for 1–6 have the same number of strokes as their value, while seven looks like a capital S (from Latin ) and eight has the two O's of stacked. The glyphs for 4–7 in Pandulf's system do not correspond to those in any other preserved Hindu–Arabic system. Gibson and Newton speculate that he may have invented or adapted the shapes for mnemonic purposes and included his mnemonic device in the treatise to assure that the forms were not corrected by later scribes. Alternatively, his shapes may reprsent a distinct tradition not otherwise preserved, perhaps connected to Constantine the African, who was active in Capua and Monte Cassino at the same time.
is also notable for a casual reference to chess: "when dice and chess have been put aside, you may play wisely on the abacus." Gibson and Newton suggest that this was "intended to appeal to the student by its analogy with the pursuits of aristocratic leisure."
An English translation has been published.
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