Although numerals are occasionally
represented in words, both in dates and amounts and measurements, they are
more frequently represented as Roman numerals. Arabic numerals were not
introduced to any degree before the middle of the sixteenth century, in, for
example, the Port Books of the 1550s. Even thereafter, Roman numerals continued
in frequent use, and occasionally documents of the late sixteenth and early
seventeenth centuries confused both Roman and Arabic numerals in the same document.
Roman numerals in medieval documents are usually represented with stops
before and after (for example, .ij.) and between significant numbers.
In the representation of numerals which include i (one), the final i is
converted to a j, that is it is a i (a minim) with a tail, thus .vj. or .vij.
numerals one to ten
.j.
1
.ij.
2
.iij.
3
.iv. OR .iiij.
4
.v.
5
.vj.
6
.vij.
7
.viij.
8
.ix.
9
.x.
10
These are the components for composite numbers, for example: .xviij. (18);
.xx. (20); .xxiiij. (24); etc. The following provide higher cardinals:
.l. or .L. (50)
.c. or .C. (100)
.d. or .D. (500)
.m. or .M. (1000)
These higher cardinals are again combined to form larger numbers, for example
.lx. (60), .xc. (90), .xciii. (93), .cccc. (400) and so on. Note that in the case
of .i. and .x., the position (left or right) of another numeral reflects
whether the 10 should be subtracted or added: e.g. .xl.= 40 but .lx.= 60 or
.ix.= 9 but .xj.= 11).
There is a further complication, in the long hundred, used most usually in
livestock calculations, in which the hundred (.c.) may equate to
120.
Self-assessment on numerals
How to use this self-assessment
Type your answer in the relevant box. Press the tab key. If you are correct,
a pop-up alert box will tell you so. If the pop-up alert box does not appear, then
you must try again and repeat the process. When you have the correct answer,
clear the typing from the box and then press the tab key.
Please note that it is important to clear the typing from the box before pressing
the tab key; otherwise, you will keep repeating the pop-up alert box.
