40 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1735. 



don date. And MabUlon has observed, that in a curious manuscript copy of 

 Thomas k Kempis, written in the 15th century, some of the pages are so 

 numbered, (De Re Diplom. tab. xv.) Which method, so far as appears, was 

 always attended to, and never in any one instance inverted. So that this 

 Worcester date, which has a Roman numeral in the place of units, and the 

 two preceding characters are supposed to be Indian figures, is not only without 

 example, but directly contrary to all other instances of such mixed numbers. 

 Which consideration alone might be of sufficient ground to think, there must 

 be some mistake in the reading. 



But the middle figure, taken for a seven, is as remarkable ; which turning 

 towards the left hand, forms two obtuse angles, one above, and the other be- 

 low. This shape of the seven was never seen before, and seems by no means 

 to suit that age. In the specimen of the figures taken from Johannes de Sacro 

 Bosco, by Dr. Wallis, the figure seven is made in this form A, like the two 

 legs of an isosceles triangle. And in Roger Bacon's Calendar, dated 12Q2, 

 there is only this variation, that the leg to the left hand is somewhat shortened. 

 And this form continued till printing was introduced among us ; as is evident 

 from Caxon's Polychronicon, and other books printed about that time. Nor is 

 it found till later times in any other shape ; unless that in Bishop Beveridge's 

 table of Indian figures, the two legs of our ancient seven are drawn parallel, and 

 arched at the top, instead of meeting in an angle; (Arith. Chron. lib. i, cap. 4.) 

 and Planudes, a Greek writer, has kept the true Arabian form V, like the Ro- 

 man five, which the Europeans inverted. The last alteration this figure re- 

 ceived among us, was by raising the shorter leg horizontally. But no instance 

 of it parallel to this in the Worcester date, or any thing like it, has before ap- 

 peared. As there seems therefore no reason to suppose it a seven ; so a proba- 

 ble conjecture may be offered, what it was designed for, and that is, the Roman 

 numeral ten, which was made in this form, like an X ; to which character, 

 in our old square hand, this supposed seven ^ would very well agree, by sup- 

 plying only the two extreme parts to the right hand, in this manner X, which 

 may easily be thought to have been decayed, and worn away by length of time. 



As there is no reason to take the middle character for seven, so neither is 

 there any to suppose the first was intended for a nine, being thus placed before 

 two Roman numerals, as Mr. Ward takes them both to be. It has indeed some 

 similitude with that figure ; but that is nothing more than what was anciently, 

 and still is, common to the letter OQ in that hand, which resembles a double Q, 

 with an oblique stroke turned inwards from the bottom of that to the right 

 hand ; so that if the other to the left be taken away, that which remains will 

 appear in this form ^ > I'ke what is here called a nine. And every one knows. 



