Audley End, Feb. 2.
_Arabic Numerals_.--In the _Archæological Journal_ (vol.
vi. p. 291.), it is stated that the earliest "example of the use of
Arabic numerals in any work connected with building" is the date
1445, on the tower of Heathfield Church, Sussex, though "they were
common in MSS. after 1320, and in astronomical Tracts as early as
1290." As it is probable that not a few instances of the employment
of the Arabic numeral characters of an earlier date than that at
Heathfield are to be met with in different parts of the country,
will you permit me to make use of your paper to inquire whether any
such are known to any of your readers, and if they will be so
obliging as to communicate their knowledge through the medium of
your columns? As the subject is one of considerable interest, it
would be desirable that _any_ date belonging to the fifteenth
or the early part of the sixteenth century should be made known, and
registered in your valuable publication.
Permit me also to ask, in connection with this subject, for
references to any works or treatises supplying information on the
history of the Arabic numerals, their origin, and their introduction
into Europe. I am already acquainted with Astle, _On Writing_,
Wallis's _Algebra, Nouveau Traité de Diplomatique_, the
_Huctiana_, Pegge's _Life of Grostête_, and the
_Philosophical Transactions_; but I wish for additional, and,
if possible, more recent information.
Does any one of your readers know what became of the MSS. formerly
in the possession of the above-named Thomas Astle, formerly Keeper
of the Tower Records? In Sir W. Burrell's Sussex collections in the
British Museum are copies of charters, "ex MSS. penes T. Aste," with
notices of curious seals appended, which I should be glad to be able
to inspect.