APRIL 6. 1850.] 
The Query I wish to make is, Have any of these 
illustrations or designs from Gresset’s poem of 
Vert-vert, painted on enamel china, or earthen- 
ware of any sort, of French or any other manu- 
facture, come to light of late years? or more lately 
still, among the articles that have been dispersed 
among various buyers of almost all nations, in the 
sales within these few weeks effected at Paris ? 
Rogert Snow. 
Urbanus Regius.— A friend of mine, a delight- 
ful old lady, fresh, genial, and inquisitive, has in 
her possession an old volume, a family heir-loom, 
which is not the less dear to her for being some- 
what dingy and dilapidated, and touching which 
she would gladly receive such information as your 
correspondents can supply. 
It is made up of three apparently distinct trea- 
tises; the first (of which several leaves are want- 
ing) on the twelve articles of the Apostles’ Creed. 
The second is “The ryght foundation, and pryn- 
cypall common places of the hole godly Scripture,” 
&e., by Doctor Urbanus Regius. Prefixed is an 
epistle to Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury (evi- 
dently Cranmer), to whom “ Hys dayly oratoure, 
Gwalter Lynne (the writer of the epistle), wyssheth 
lyfe euerlastynge.” Between this second treatise 
and the third, and apparently belonging to the 
latter, is a title-page with the following inscrip- 
tion :— 
“Imprinted for Gwalter Lynne, dwelling upon 
Somers Kaye, by Byllinges gate. Inthe yeare of oure 
Lorde. mpxtvmi. And they by [sic] to be solde at 
Poules church yarde at the north doore, In the signe | 
of the By-bell, By Richard Jugge.” 
This last treatise is in smaller type than the 
others, and has no general designation: it contains 
chapters on various subjects, e.g. “The Signifi- 
cation of Baptism,” &c. 
Query 1. Is this volume well known? 2. Who 
‘were Urbanus Regius and Walter Lynne? G.P. 
March 16, 1850. 
REPLIES. 
THE ARABIC NUMERALS AND CIPHER. 
I might, with a little more consideration, have 
referred “ E.V.” to several other authorities which 
he will do well to consult. 
9. Wallis’s Algebra, p. 9. and p. 153. of the 
additions. 
10. Phil. Trans., Nos. 439. and 475. 
11. Montucla, Histoire des Mathématiques, tom. i. 
chap. 2. 
12. Baillie, Histoire de l’ Astronomie. 
13. Delambre*, Hist. de l’ Astr. du moyen age. 
* The best account, because the most consistent and 
intelligible, of the Greek arithmetic, is that by De- 
lambre, affixed to Peyraud’s edition of Archimedes, 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
367 
14. Hutton’s Tracts (Svo. ed. 1812.), vol. ii. 
(subject “ History of Algebra.”) 
15. Huet, Demonstratio Evangelica. 
16. Dr. John Taylor’s Translation of the Lila- 
wati. (Bombay, 1816.) 
17. Strachey’s Translation of the Bija Ganita.* 
18. Colebrooke’s Algebra of the Hindus. 
Would it not be worth while to give a fac- 
simile of the “abel for all manere of mer- 
chauntes,” in the “ Nores anp Queries”? It 
is not only a curiosity, but an important element 
(and unique as far as is known) in the philosophic 
history of our arithmetic. It was, no doubt, an 
actual instrument in constant use in the mer- 
chant’s office, as much so as an almanac, interest- 
tables, a “ cambist,” and a copying-press, are now. 
As regards the cipher, the difficulty only com- 
menced with writing numbers in the new symbo- 
logy. With persons accustomed to the use of this 
instrument, there is no doubt that the mode of 
obviating the difficulty of “keeping the place,” 
would suggest itself at once. In this instrument 
an empty hole (without its peg) signified “none 
of this denomination.” What then more simple 
than to make the outline of the empty hole which 
occupied the “local position” of any denomina- 
tion, when none of that precise denomination 
occurred in the number itself? Under this view 
the process at least becomes simple and natural ; 
| and as the early merchants contributed so largely 
to the improvement of our arithmetical processes, 
such a conclusion is wholly divested of improba- 
bility on any other ground. The circle would 
then naturally become, as it certainly has practi- 
cally become, the most appropriate symbol of 
nothingness. 
As regards the term cipher or zero (which are so 
obviously the same as to need no remark), it is ad- 
mitted on all hands to be derived from one or other 
of the Semitic languages, the Hebrew or the Arabic. 
It is customary with the mathematical historians 
to refer it to the Arabic, they being in general 
more conversant with it than with the Hebrew. 
The Arabic being a smaller hand than the He- 
brew, a dot was used instead of the circle for 
marking the “ place” at which the hiatus of any 
“denomination” occurred. If we obtained our 
cipher from this, it would be made hollow (a mere 
ceinture, girdle, or ring) to save the trouble of 
making a dot sufficiently large to correspond in 
magnitude with our other numerals as we write 
them. LEither is alike possible — probability must 
be sought, for either over the other, from a slightly 
different source. 
The root-words in Hebrew and in Arabic are 
precisely the same (¢s-ph-r), though in the two lan- 
* Ata period of leisure I may be tempted to send 
you a few extracts, somewhat curious, from some of 
the papers of Mr, Strachey in my possession. 
