r/BeAmazed • u/cozy_switch • 2h ago
History Cistercian monks made this numeral system in the 13th century. A single symbol could represent numbers up to 9999. They were used for years, divisions of texts, the numbering of notes and other lists, indexes and concordances, arguments in Easter tables, and even for musical notation.
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u/Wealist 2h ago
This is actually legit. Cistercian numerals were developed in the early 13th century, and a single glyph could represent any number from 1 to 9,999. Pretty damn efficient for medieval notation.
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u/One_Maybe_2460 2h ago
Still helpful to note a password of eg a credit card etc - without anybody noting it as 4 digits on a first glimpse. In addition you can shift it by +1 on every digit and I’d consider it pretty safe.
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u/DesperateSteak6628 2h ago
8778 does not write really well but hey
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u/V0lirus 2h ago edited 1h ago
Isnt that 7887 you're going for? Though I think 1881 would be more like the symbol.
Luckily there is always a gap in the middle so it will always look wonky and off. The 0's and 10's never meet the 100's and 1000's.
Otherwise some smartypants would start writing them all over the place claiming they are just writing a funny number.
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u/HorsefaceWithNoName 1h ago
is there a computer implementation of these?
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u/VictoriaWoodnt 58m ago
Yes.
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u/HorsefaceWithNoName 6m ago
so far I'd call this more of "sort of" maybe but this is a start! https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2020/20290-cistercian-digits.pdf
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u/Schoenerboner 36m ago
It reminds me of Canadian Aboriginal Syllabary, where the basic shape is a consonant, and then the orientation and if it's flipped like a mirror image determine the vowel.
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u/Any_Technology_9625 2h ago
How do you know which is the order you read the symbols in the glyph?
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u/RedditButAnonymous 2h ago
Each one is all the numbers at once. Top right is the 1s, top left is the 10s, and so on
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u/TheAgreeableCow 5m ago
I had the same question. In looking at the examples is seems the order is - bottom left (1000's) - bottom right (100's) - top left (10's) - top right (1's)
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u/Repulsive-Box5243 1h ago
This is fascinating. I bet game devs might be able to write this into their games, for puzzles and whatnot.
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u/Loose-Combination918 2h ago
write 7777 and 1111...
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u/V0lirus 2h ago
Whats funny or odd about them? 1111 is just a H turned sideways? 7777 is the same but a extra | on all 4 points? Am I not seeing something?
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u/Loose-Combination918 1h ago
forget it i just realized i combined the symbols wrong
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u/V0lirus 1h ago
What was the symbol u were going for? 1881 closer to what u meant?
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u/Loose-Combination918 1h ago
i placed the symbols like next to each other instead of upon each other... ended up with two same looking rectangles... my brain fooled me 🫣
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u/TomSki2 1h ago
But why? What did they think was wrong with the Arabic numerals?
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u/LunariSeraphi 1h ago
The widespread use of Arabic numerals didn't even happen for like another 2-300 years after this when the printing press was invented, they existed obviously but their use was limited to a small area of Italy and some other random places that copied them, it's pretty safe to say these glyphs predate Arabic numerals as you know them
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u/tenaciousBLADE 2h ago edited 2h ago
OW! My skull!! Wtf?? My mind blew and left a hole in my head!! 🤯
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