The Hindu-Arabic Numerals c8.64

c8.64

¹ *I.e.* “circular figure,” our word *notation* having come from the medieval *nota*. Thus Tzwivel (1507, f. 2) says: “Nota autem circularis .o. per se sumpta nihil vsus habet. alijs tamen adiuncta earum significantiam et auget et ordinem permutat quantum quo ponit ordinem. vt adiuncta note binarij hoc modo 20 facit eam significare bis decem etc.” Also (ibid., f. 4), “figura circularis,” “circularis nota.” Clichtoveus (1503 ed., f. xxxvii) calls it “nota aut circularis o,” “circularis nota,” and “figura circularis.” Tonstall (1522, f. B₃) says of it: “Decimo uero nota ad formam .O. litteræ circulari figura est: quam alij circulum, uulgus cyphram uocat,” and later (f. C₄) speaks of the “circulos.” Grammateus, in his *Algorismus de integris* (Erfurt, 1523, f. A₂), speaking of the nine significant figures, remarks: “His autem superadditur decima figura circularis ut 0 existens que ratione sua nihil significat.” Noviomagus (*De Numeris libri II*, Paris, 1539, chap. xvi, “De notis numerorum, quas zyphras vocant”) calls it “circularis nota, quam ex his solam, alij sipheram, Georgius Valla zyphram.”