Historical Counting
Complex systems of dactylonomy were used in the ancient world. This counting was in use in Persia in the first century CE, and thus may have originated there; it continued in the Islamic world through the Middle Ages, and is mentioned in poetry and the Quran. A very similar form is presented by the English monk and historian Bede in the first chapter of his De temporum ratione, (725), entitled "Tractatus de computo, vel loquela per gestum digitorum", which allowed counting up to 9,999 on two hands, though it was apparently little-used for numbers of 100 or more. This system remained in use through the European Middle Ages, being presented in slightly modified form by Luca Pacioli in his seminal Summa de Arithmetica (1494).
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Famous quotes containing the words historical and/or counting:
“What are your historical Facts; still more your biographical? Wilt thou know a Man ... by stringing-together beadrolls of what thou namest Facts?”
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