The Hindu-Arabic Numerals c9.140

c9.140

³ In a Plimpton manuscript of the arithmetic of Boethius of the thirteenth century, for example, the Roman numerals are all replaced by the Arabic, and the same is true in the first printed edition of the book. (See Smith's *Rara Arithmetica*, pp. 434, 25–27.) D. E. Smith also copied from a manuscript of the arithmetic in the Laurentian library at Florence, of 1370, the following forms, [Figure:] which, of course, are interpolations. An interesting example of a forgery in ecclesiastical matters is in the charter said to have been given by St. Patrick, granting indulgences to the benefactors of Glastonbury, dated "In nomine domini nostri Jhesu Christi Ego Patricius humilis servunculus Dei anno incarnationis ejusdem ccccxxx." Now if the Benedictines are right in saying that Dionysius Exiguus, a Scythian monk, first arranged the Christian chronology c. 532 A.D., this can hardly be other than spurious. See Arbuthnot, loc. cit., p. 38.