This ‘forgotten’ number-notation was developed in the late 13th century by Cistercian monks in what is now the border region between France and Belgium (particularly Aulne-sur-Sambre in the diocese of Liège and Vaucelles in the diocese of Cambrai). It was used by the Cistercians – admittedly by only a few but nevertheless all over Europe – for at least two centuries thereafter, as an alternative to the well-known Roman numerals and the less-well-known, ‘new’ Hindu-Arabic numerals (whose introduction into Europe took five centuries). The monks used it for numbering pages of manuscripts and items in lists, for writing for representing year-numbers in dates, and for numbering staves of music. The two dozen surviving manuscripts featuring ciphers are from localities between England and Normandy to Italy and between Spain and Sweden.
This numerical notation was also used outside the scriptoria of the monasteries, for we find it used on a remarkable medieval astronomi cal instrument – an astrolabe, that is, a two-dimensional model of the universe that one can hold in one’s hands – made in Picardy in the 14th century, in a treatise on arithmetic from Normandy ca. 1400, and in some astronomical tables compiled in Salamanca in the late 15th century. In Flanders from the 15th to the 18th century wine-gaugers used this notation for marking volumes on wine-barrels and divisions on the scales of their gauging-rods.
The Cistercian monks developed this notation from a simpler one in which any number up to 99 is represented by a single cipher. This simpler notation was brought by the monk John of Basingstoke to England from Athens in the early 13th century, and owes its inspiration to an ancient Greek shorthand, described in an inscription on a stone discovered in the late 19th century on the Acropolis.
The monastic ciphers in both their manifestations – numerical and alphabetical – were influential in the development of Renaissance shorthands and secret codes. From the 16th to the 19th century they were featured in various works on numerical notations. They were adopted by the Freemasons in Paris in 1780 and they are featured in 20th-century nationalistic writings on German folklore. However, it was not before the reappearance of the astrolabe with ciphers at Christie’s of London in 1991 that any attempt was made to ascertain their origin, to investigate the way in which they were used in the Middle Ages, and to document their eventual demise as a result of the difficulties associated with printing them.
David A. King wurde 1941 in England geboren. Bis zum Ruhestand im Jahre 2007 war er am Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte in Frankfurt am Main. Der Schwerpunkt waren arabische Astrolabien.
Neben den Hindu-arabischen und den römischen Ziffern, gab es eine dritte Art der Notation, der der Zisterzienser. Nach dem Buchdruck geriet diese Schreibweise in Vergessenheit und wurde vor kurzem wieder entdeckt. Leicht ist das Buch dabei nicht zu lesen, es verlangt dem Leser einiges an Vorwissen ab. Wer als mal eben etwas über Mathematik-/ Wissenschaftsgeschichte oder Buchdruck lesen möchte, wird trotz der reichhaltigen Illustrationen enttäuscht sein. Ist man jedoch bereit, ein bißchen Denkarbeit zu leisten - ich habe alleine Stunden diese Ziffern schreiben geübt -, so wird man reichlich belohnt. Dabei wird erst auf die Ziffen an sich eingegangen, um dann, ausgehen von England, ihnen durch Europa und die europäische Geschichte zu folgen.
Wer sich ernsthaft mit Mathematik- /Wissenschaftsgeschichte oder Buchdruck auseinander setzen möchte, findet hier ein wunderbares Werk. Wer Infotainment sucht, sollte sich das Geld allerdings sparen.
# Gebundene Ausgabe: 506 Seiten
# Verlag: Steiner (Franz) (2001)
# Sprache: Englisch
# ISBN-10: 3515076409
# ISBN-13: 978-3515076401
# Größe und/oder Gewicht: 24,4 x 17 x 2,4 cm
Wissenschaftliche Kritik hier: http://www.forschungsstaette.de/Stenografie/king_2001.htm