Also known as:
Hindu-Arabic numerals, Indo-Arabic numerals;
Italian: cifre arabe, numeri arabi
ARABIC NUMERALS. - The system in use today for indicating numbers, known by the name of Arabic numerals, actually comes from the Indians, and consists, according to the most common theory, of the initial letters of the name of each numeral in Sanskrit. Its knowledge in Europe, however, came about through the Arabs, who had knowledge of it as early as the 8th century.
To the caliphate of al-Ma'mūn (813-33) dates the treatise of Abū Ġa'far Muhammad b. Mūsā al-Khwārizmī, which has come down to us in a Latin version. In the Latin codices the oldest mention is found in two Spanish manuscripts of Isidore's Etymologiae seu Origines, one from 976 originating from the monastery of Albelda (cod. Escorial d. I, 2), and the other from 992 written at S. Millán de la Cogolla (cod. Escorial d. I, 1), where, at the beginning of Book III, a gloss attributes the use of Arabic numerals to the Indians, and reports the numbers in reverse order, from 9 to 1, that is, excluding the zero: a circumstance sufficient to demonstrate that they had not yet found application in the decimal system.
From Spain knowledge of Arabic numerals spread to France, to England, to Germany, and then to Italy, not without opposition, if in 1299 the Statutes of the money-changers' guild of Florence required numbers to be written out in full words, to avoid easy alterations. But already in 1202 the Liber abaci of Leonardo Fibonacci (Alina Bonacci) of Pisa, who had learned the system in the Pisan colonies of North Africa, had come to demonstrate its practicality, spreading the use of the four operations. From the 15th century the Arabic numerals enter into general practice and are found, apart from some slight exception for the 3 and the 4, in the same form in all countries.
ARABIC NUMERALS - First example of Arabic numerals. Codex Vigilanus (a. 976) containing the Etymologiae of Isidore of Seville - Madrid, library of the Escorial, d. 1., 2, f. 12.(phot. Archivio fotografico scientifico 9 de arte, Madrid)Bibliography6 worksI. Taylor, The alfabet, II, London 1883, p. 263 ff.; C. Paoli, Programma scolastico di paleografia latina e di diplomatica, I, 3rd ed., Flor
BIBL.: I. Taylor, The alfabet, II, London 1883, p. 263 ff.; C. Paoli, Programma scolastico di paleografia latina e di diplomatica, I, 3rd ed., Florence 1901, p. 50 ff.; F. Steffens, Lateinische Paläographie, III, Freiburg im Sv. (1903), pp. XXXIX-XL; M. Cantor, Vorlesungen über Geschichte der Mathematik, II, 4th ed., Leipzig 1922, pp. 693-733 and II, 3rd ed., ibid. 1913, pp. 3-53; G. F. Hill, The development of arabic numerals in Europe exhibited in sixty-four tables, Oxford 1915; D. Diringer, L'alfabeto nella storia della civiltà, Florence 1937, pp. 733-28.
Pratesi, Alessandro. “Cifre Arabiche.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. III, coll. 1604–1605. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1949. https://azioneromana.com/article/cifre-arabiche.
MLA
Pratesi, Alessandro. “Cifre Arabiche.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. III, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1949, coll. 1604–1605. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/cifre-arabiche.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec3_cifre_arabiche,
author = {Pratesi, Alessandro},
title = {Cifre Arabiche},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {III},
pages = {1604--1605},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1949},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/cifre-arabiche}
}
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