The Hindu-Arabic Numerals c8.74

c8.74

⁶ Martin, *Origine de notre système de numération écrite*, note 149, p. 36 of reprint, spells τσιφρα from Maximus Planudes, citing Wallis as an authority. This is an error, for Wallis gives the correct form as above. Alexander von Humboldt, "Über die bei verschiedenen Völkern üblichen Systeme von Zahlzeichen und über den Ursprung des Stellenwerthes in den indischen Zahlen," Crelle's *Journal für reine und angewandte Mathematik*, Vol. IV, 1829, called attention to the work αριθι' Iνδιι of the monk Neophytos, supposed to be of the fourteenth century. In this work the forms τζυφρα and τζυμφρα appear. See also Boeckh, *De abaco Graecorum*, Berlin, 1841, and Tannery, "Le Scholie du moine Néophytos," *Revue Archéologique*, 1885, pp. 99–102. Jordan, loc. cit., gives from twelfth and thirteenth century manuscripts the forms *cifra*, *ciffre*, *chifras*, and *cifrus*. Du Cange, *Glossarium mediae et infimae Latinitatis*, Paris, 1842, gives also *chilerae*. Dasypodius, *Institutiones Mathematicae*, Strassburg, 1593–1596, adds the forms *zyphra* and *syphra*. Boissière, *L'art d'arythmetique contenant toute dimention, tres-singulier et commode, tant pour l'art militaire que autres calculations*, Paris, 1554: "Puis y en a vn autre dict zero lequel ne designe nulle quantité par soy, ains seulement les loges vuides,"