ic influence, called it _tziphra_.[215] In a treatise
on arithmetic written in the Italian language by Jacob of Florence[216]
{58} (1307) it is called _zeuero_,[217] while in an arithmetic of Giovanni
di Danti of Arezzo (1370) the word appears as _ceuero_.[218] Another form
is _zepiro_,[219] which was also a step from _zephirum_ to zero.[220]

Of course the English _cipher_, French _chiffre_, is derived from the same
Arabic word, _a[s.]-[s.]ifr_, but in several languages it has come to mean
the numeral figures in general. A trace of this appears in our word
_ciphering_, meaning figuring or computing.[221] Johann Huswirt[222] uses
the word with both meanings; he gives for the tenth character the four
names _theca, circulus, cifra_, and _figura nihili_. In this statement
Huswirt probably follows, as did many writers of that period, the
_Algorismus_ of Johannes de Sacrobosco (c. 1250 A.D.), who was also known
as John of Halifax or John of Holywood. The commentary of {59} Petrus de
Dacia[223] (c. 1291 A.D.) on the _Algorismus vulgaris_ of Sacrobosco was
also widely used. The widespread use of this Englishman's work on
arithmetic in the universities of that time is attested by the large
number[224] of MSS. from the thirteenth to the seventeenth century still
extant, twenty in Munich, twelve in Vienna, thirteen in Erfurt, several in
England given by Halliwell,[225] ten listed in Coxe's _Catalogue of the
Oxford College Library_, one in the Plimpton collection,[226] one in the
Columbia University Library, and, of course, many others.

From _a[s.]-[s.]ifr _has come _zephyr, cipher,_ and finally the abridged
form _zero_. The earliest printed work in which is found this final form
appears to be Calandri's arithmetic of 1491,[227] while in manuscript it
appears at least as early as the middle of the fourteenth century.[228] It
also appears in a work, _Le Kadran des marchans_, by Jehan {60}
Certain,[229] written in 1485. This word soon became fairly well known in
Spain[230] and France.[231] The medieval writers also spoke of it as the
_sipos_,[232] and occasionally as the _wheel_,[233] _circulus_[234] (in
German _das Ringlein_[235]), _circular {61} note_,[236] _theca_,[237] long
supposed to be from its resemblance to the Greek theta, but explained by
Petrus de Dacia as being derived from the name of the iron[238] used to
brand thieves and robbers with a circular mark placed on the forehead or on
the cheek. It was also called _omicron