Fibonacci (/ˌfɪbəˈnɑːtʃi/,[3] also US: /ˌfiːb-/,[4][5] Italian: [fiboˈnattʃi]; c.

 
1170 – c. 1240–50)[6] was an Italian mathematician from the Republic of Pisa,
considered to be "the most talented Western mathematician of the Middle Ages".[7]

The name he is commonly called, Fibonacci, was made up in 1838 by the Franco-
Italian historian Guillaume Libri[8] and is short for filius Bonacci ("son of
Bonacci").[9][b] He is also known as Leonardo Bonacci, Leonardo of Pisa, or
Leonardo Bigollo Pisano ("Leonardo the Traveller from Pisa").[10]

Fibonacci popularized the Hindu–Arabic numeral system in the Western World

primarily through his composition in 1202 of Liber Abaci (Book of Calculation).[11]
[12] He also introduced Europe to the sequence of Fibonacci numbers, which he used
as an example in Liber Abaci.[13]

Fibonacci was born around 1170 to Guglielmo, an Italian merchant and customs
official.[10] Guglielmo directed a trading post in Bugia, Algeria.[14] Fibonacci
travelled with him as a young boy, and it was in Bugia that he learned about the
Hindu–Arabic numeral system.[15][6]

Fibonacci travelled around the Mediterranean coast, meeting with many merchants and
learning about their systems of doing arithmetic.[16] He soon realised the many
advantages of the Hindu-Arabic system, which, unlike the Roman numerals used at the
time, allowed easy calculation using a place-value system. In 1202, he completed
the Liber Abaci (Book of Abacus or The Book of Calculation)[17], which popularized
Hindu–Arabic numerals in Europe.[6]

Fibonacci became a guest of Emperor Frederick II, who enjoyed mathematics and
science. In 1240, the Republic of Pisa honored Fibonacci (referred to as Leonardo
Bigollo)[18] by granting him a salary in a decree that recognized him for the
services that he had given to the city as an advisor on matters of accounting and
instruction to citizens:[19]

«Considerantes nostre civitatis et civium honorem atque profectum, qui eis, tam per
doctrinam quam per sedula obsequia discreti et sapientis viri magistri Leonardi
Bigolli, in abbacandis estimationibus et rationibus civitatis eiusque officialium
et aliis quoties expedit, conferuntur; ut eidem Leonardo, merito dilectionis et
gratie, atque scientie sue prerogativa, in recompensationem laboris sui quem
substinet in audiendis et consolidandis estimationibus et rationibus supradictis, a
Comuni et camerariis publicis, de Comuni et pro Comuni, mercede sive salario suo,
annis singulis, libre xx denariorum et amisceria consueta dari debeant (ipseque
pisano Comuni et eius officialibus in abbacatione de cetero more solito serviat),
presenti constitutione firmamus».[20]

The date of Fibonacci's death is not known, but it has been estimated to be between
1240[21] and 1250,[22] most likely in Pisa.