Archimedes, in Syracuse, had attempted the solution of the higher problems by the method of exhaustions.

Such was the tendency of things that, had the patronage of science been continued, algebra would inevitably have been invented.
To the Arabians we owe our knowledge of the rudiments of algebra; we owe to them the very name under which this branch of mathematics passes.
They had carefully added, to the remains of the Alexandrian School, improvements obtained in India, and had communicated to the subject a certain consistency and form.

The knowledge of algebra, as they possessed it, was first brought into Italy about the beginning of the thirteenth century.

It attracted so little attention, that nearly three hundred years elapsed before any European work on the subject appeared.
In 1496 Paccioli published his book entitled "Arte Maggiore," or "Alghebra." In 1501, Cardan, of Milan, gave a method for the solution of cubic equations; other improvements were contributed by Scipio Ferreo, 1508, by Tartalea, by Vieta.

The Germans now took up the subject.