The Hindu-Arabic Numerals c11.77

c11.77

That Gerbert and his pupils knew the ġobār numerals is a fact no longer open to controversy.⁴ Bernelinus and Richer⁵ call them by the well-known name of "caracteres," a word used by Radulph of Laon in the same sense a century later.¹ It is probable that Gerbert was the first to describe these ġobār numerals in any scientific way in Christian Europe, but without the zero. If he knew the latter he certainly did not understand its use.²