236 A SHORT HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



He relates . . . that whilst a monk at Esslingen in 1520, and when 

 infected by the writings of Luther, he was reading in the library of his 

 convent the 13th Chapter of Revelations, it struck his mind that the 

 Beast must signify the Pope, Leo X ; He then proceeded in pious hope 

 to make the calculation of the sum of the numeral letters in Leo 

 decimus, which he found to be M, D, C, L, V, I ; the sum which these 

 formed was too great by M, and too little by X ; but he bethought him 

 again, that he has seen the name written Leo X ; and that there were 

 ten letters in Leo decimus, from either of which he could obtain the 

 deficient number, and by interpreting the M to mean mysterium, he 

 found the number required, a discovery which gave him such un- 

 speakable comfort, that he believed that his interpretation must 

 have been an immediate inspiration of God. Peacock. 



Stif el's writings on arithmetic and algebra embody some improve- 

 ments of current notation. He introduced for example the symbols 

 IA, 1AA, IAAA for what we should denote by x, x 2 , x*. 



The low state of computation at this time is illustrated with 

 startling clearness by a bulletin on the blackboard at Wittenberg, 

 in which Melanchthon urgently invited the academic youth to 

 attend a course on arithmetic, adding that the beginnings of the 

 science are very easy, and even division can with some diligence be 

 comprehended. 



ROBERT RECORDE (1510-1558) studied at Oxford and graduated 

 in medicine at Cambridge in 1545, later becoming "royal physi- 

 cian." His "Grounde of Artes" or arithmetic, one of the earliest 

 mathematical books printed in English (1540), ran through more 

 than 27 editions and exerted a great influence on English education. 

 In the "Preface to the Loving Reader" he says: 



Sore ofttimes have I lamented with myself the unfortunate con- 

 dition of England, seeing so many great Clerks to arise in sundry 

 other parts of the World, and so few to appear in this our Nation; 

 whereas for pregnancy of natural wit (I think) few Nations do excell 

 English-men. But I cannot impute the cause to any other thing, 

 then to the contempt or misregard of Learning. For as English-men 

 are inf eriour to no men in mother Wit, so they pass all men in vain 

 Pleasures, to which they may attain with great pain and labour ; and 



