The Hindu-Arabic Numerals c8.47

c8.47

Of course the English *cipher*, French *chiffre*, is derived from the same Arabic word, *aṣ-ṣifr*, but in several languages it has come to mean the numeral figures in general. A trace of this appears in our word *ciphering*, meaning figuring or computing.⁵ Johann Huswirt⁶ uses the word with both meanings; he gives for the tenth character the four names *theca*, *circulus*, *cifra*, and *figura nihili*. In this statement Huswirt probably follows, as did many writers of that period, the *Algorismus* of Johannes de Sacrobosco (*c.* 1250 A.D.), who was also known as John of Halifax or John of Holywood. The commentary of Petrus de Dacia¹ (*c.* 1291 A.D.) on the *Algorismus vulgaris* of Sacrobosco was also widely used. The widespread use of this Englishman's work on arithmetic in the universities of that time is attested by the large number² of MSS. from the thirteenth to the seventeenth century still extant, twenty in Munich, twelve in Vienna, thirteen in Erfurt, several in England given by Halliwell,³ ten listed in Coxe's *Catalogue of the Oxford College Library*, one in the Plimpton collection,⁴ one in the Columbia University Library, and, of course, many others.