Resumen

This essay is devoted to the contextual methodology in history of mathematics. The author discusses the contextual approach given by new trends in historiography in history of science and suggests that this could help to renew the contextual framework in history of mathematics. Here we base our study on primary-sources research and survey. Special attention is given to a set of documents concerning mathematical instruments which could convey a new appreciation of mathematical practices in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.