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Ries, the greatest son of Staffelstein was Rechenmeister (master of calculations) and Hofarithmeticus at many towns such as Zwickau and Erfurt in Middle Germany. In 1523 he bacame Bergbeamter (engineer and inspector of mines) in Annaberg in the Kingdom of Sachsen.
His income came mainly from his arithmetic textbook Rechenung auff der Linihen unnd Federn in zal, ma"s und gewicht auff allerley handierung ... , the original title with old German spelling. It was a textbook written for everyone, not just for scientists and engineers. The book contains addition, subtraction, multiplication and, very surprisingly for that period, also division. At that time division could only be learnt at the University of Altdorf (near Nürnberg) and even most scientists did not know how to divide, so it is astonishing that Ries explained in a textbook designed for everyone to use.
Adam Ries taught both the old method, derived from the abacus, and the new, derived from the Indians, which at that time was forbidden in most countries! The importance of his book is that it was printed (book printing was invented just a short time before by Gutenberg) and many copies were therefore available.
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