ic,[584] of
which the original was written at Paris in 1424 by Rollandus, a Portuguese
physician, who prepared the work at the command of John of Lancaster, Duke
of Bedford, at one time Protector of England and Regent of France, to whom
the work is dedicated. The figures show the successive powers of 2. The
second illustration is from Luca da Firenze's _Inprencipio darte
dabacho_,[585] c. 1475, and the third is from an anonymous manuscript[586]
of about 1500.

[Illustration]

As to the forms of the numerals, fashion played a leading part until
printing was invented. This tended to fix these forms, although in writing
there is still a great variation, as witness the French 5 and the German 7
and 9. Even in printing there is not complete uniformity, {145} and it is
often difficult for a foreigner to distinguish between the 3 and 5 of the
French types.

[Illustration]

As to the particular numerals, the following are some of the forms to be
found in the later manuscripts and in the early printed books.

1. In the early printed books "one" was often i, perhaps to save types,
just as some modern typewriters use the same character for l and 1.[587] In
the manuscripts the "one" appears in such forms as[588]

[Illustration]

2. "Two" often appears as z in the early printed books, 12 appearing as
iz.[589] In the medieval manuscripts the following forms are common:[590]

[Illustration]

{146}

It is evident, from the early traces, that it is merely a cursive form for
the primitive [2 horizontal strokes], just as 3 comes from [3 horizontal
strokes], as in the N[=a]n[=a] Gh[=a]t inscriptions.

3. "Three" usually had a special type in the first printed books, although
occasionally it appears as [Symbol].[591] In the medieval manuscripts it
varied rather less than most of the others. The following are common
forms:[592]

[Illustration]

4. "Four" has changed greatly; and one of the first tests as to the age of
a manuscript on arithmetic, and the place where it was written, is the
examination of this numeral. Until the time of printing the most common
form was [Symbol], although the Florentine manuscript of Leonard of Pisa's
work has the form [Symbol];[593] but the manuscripts show that the
Florentine arithmeticians and astronomers rather early began to straighten
the first of these forms up to forms like [Symbol][594] and [Symbol][594]
or [Symbol],[595] more closely resembling our own. The first printed books
genera