Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Development of Arabic Numerals in Europe: Exhibited in Sixty-Four Tables
Secondly, since it has been quite impossible to verify everything, the mere fact of my inserting any example in the Tables must not imply that I guarantee its existence at the present time. I fear that much that Gough or even Wright described may have disappeared by now.
The first sixteen Tables deal with manuscripts, under which heading are included a few dates on drawings. These manuscript instances are arranged for the most part according to their date; but it has seemed convenient to make here and there certain departures from strict chronological sequence. Notab'y, in Table I are grouped together the earliest instances of the numerals as used practically in the modern manner, and also a number of examples of the forms assumed by the Boethian apices. These signs, used in reckoning on the abacus, although clearly for the m0st part, if not altogether, derived from a similar source to the signs used in algorism, assumed highly fanciful forms, and did not develop logically. Also, as the method with which they 'were associated ceased eventually to be used, and as they never occur outside manuscripts, they lack interest from the point of view of this paper; yet it seemed desirable to record those instances which were found in the course of search for other things.
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