The Ciphers of the Monks: A Forgotten Number Notation of the Middle Ages

David A. King

Franz Steiner Verlag, 2001 - Science - 506 pages

This is the first comprehensive study of an ingenious number-notation from the Middle Ages that was devised by monks and mainly used in monasteries. A simple notation for representing any number up to 99 by a single cipher, somehow related to an ancient Greek shorthand, first appeared in early-13th-century England, brought from Athens by an English monk. A second, more useful version, due to Cistercian monks, is first attested in the late 13th century in what is today the border country between Belgium and France: with this any number up to 9999 can be represented by a single cipher. The ciphers were used in scriptoria - for the foliation of manuscripts, for writing year-numbers, preparing indexes and concordances, numbering sermons and the like, and outside the scriptoria - for marking the scales on an astronomical instrument, writing year-numbers in astronomical tables, and for incising volumes on wine-barrels. Related notations were used in medieval and Renaissance shorthands and coded scripts. This richly-illustrated book surveys the medieval manuscripts and Renaissance books in which the ciphers occur, and takes a close look at an intriguing astrolabe from 14th-century Picardy marked with ciphers. With Indices. "Mit Kings luzider Beschreibung und Bewertung der einzelnen Funde und ihrer Beziehungen wird zugleich die Forschungsgeschichte - die bis dato durch Widerspruchlichkeit und Diskontinuitat gepragt ist - umfassend aufgearbeitet." Zeitschrift fur Germanistik. (Franz Steiner 2000)

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Review: The Ciphers Of The Monks: A Forgotten Number Notation Of The Middle Ages

User Review  - Ann - Goodreads

I'm planning to reread this book. It's a little dense. I don't understand everything in its entirely but what I do understand is fascinating. Excellent!

Contents

• Preface: 15
• Acknowledgements: 21
• Introduction: 27
• The English ciphers: 49
• The horizontal ciphers of the Cistercians: 91
• The astrolabe of Berselius: 131
• The French vertical ciphers in manuscript sources: 152
• The fate of the monastic ciphers in the Renaissance and thereafter: 189
• The ciphers falling between the cracks of modern scholarship: 262
• Appendix A General bibliographical notes: 275
• B The survival of the Roman numerals in medieval Europe: 281
• Ancient Greek and medieval alphanumerical notations: 290
• The introduction of the HinduArabic numerals in Europe: 309
• E Sundry numeral notations and symbols in medieval and later sources: 318
• F Aspects of medieval astronomy: 355
• H On medieval European astronomical instruments: 364
• J The quatrefoil on medieval astrolabe retes: 380
• K Astronomical instrumentation in Northern France in the 14th century: 391
• The textual tradition: 396
• Jean Fusoris and his workshop: 397
• Three astronomical instruments related to the Picard astrolabe with ciphers: 398
• The Picard astrolabe with monastic ciphers: 406
• The stars on the rete: 408
• The names of the zodiacal signs and the months: 410
• The plates and the latitudes they serve: 411
• The calendrical scale: 416
• The alidade radial rule and nut and bolt: 419
• MThe Virgin of Berselius: 420
• N Nonhistorical reflections on the ciphers: 427
• On the morphology and aesthetics of the ciphers: 428
• Ciphers to bases other than 10: 429
• Arithmetic with ciphers: 432
• Manuscripts cited: 435
• Astronomical instruments cited: 438
• Bibliography and bibliographical abbreviations: 442
• Indexes: 502
• Index of modern authors: 505

Popular passages

Page 463 - Rara Mathematica ; or a Collection of Treatises on the Mathematics and Subjects connected with them, from ancient inedited MSS. by JO HALLIWELL, 8vo.‎

Page 448 - The Controversy over the Boundary between the English and Picard Nations in the University of Paris," Etudes d'histoire dediees a la memoire de Henri Pirenne (Brussels, 1937).‎

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Ciphers of the Monks: A Forgotten Number Notation of the Middle Ages; Volume 44 of Boethius (Series); Volume 44 of Boethius. Texte Und Abhandlungen Zur Geschichte Der Mathematik Und Der Naturwissenschaften; Volume 44 of Boethius. Texte Und Abhandlungen Zur Geschichte der Mathemat
• Author: David A. King
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2001
• ISBN: 3515076409, 9783515076401
• Length: 506 pages
• Subjects: Science / History