Leonardo Fibonacci, sometimes known as Leonardo of Pisa, is renowned for creating the series of numbers that bear his name. He also helped introduce the Hindu-Arabic numeral system into Europe.
He was born in Pisa, Italy in about 1175 to Guilielmo Bonacci who was a merchant who helped begin the Pisan trading colony in Bugia in 1192. Some time after this Fibonacci travelled with his father, who intended Fibonacci to become a merchant, around the Middle East. His father arranged for him to learn about calculation related with the Hindu-Arabic numeral system which had not been introduced into Europe at that time. Eventually, Bonacci enlisted his son to help carry out business for the Pisan republic and sent him on trips to Egypt, Syria, Greece, Sicily, and Provence. Fibonacci used some of this time to learn more about the Hindu-Arabic system of which he wrote in five books. In about 1200 Leonardo went back to Pisa where he worked on his own mathematical compositions. After 25 years he had produced many works but after this virtually nothing is known of Leonardo's life. He died around 1240.