The introduction of zero to Russia
paerok
paerok at NAROD.RU
Sun Apr 8 11:39:25 UTC 2007
This may appear helpful:
Магницкий Л. Арифметика. - Москва, 1703. - Л.2 и 2 об.
Can be downloaded in the original from, say,
http : / / files . msucity . ru / file . php ? id = 3224
--
Respectfully yours,
Sergey A. Naumov, Ph.D.
Church Slavonic Seminar
http://paerok.narod.ru
PR> Dear SEELANGers:
PR> A minor issue arose while preparing the May issue of our
PR> magazine. We
PR> are stumped and so I thought I would see if anyone here knows the
PR> answer.
PR> We are looking to nail down whether there was the concept of
PR> and/or
PR> written representation of zero/nil in Russia prior to Peter's
PR> importation of mathematical teaching (and teachers) in the early
PR> 1700s - which led to the present nul/nol. (The concept of zero
PR> only
PR> made it to Europe, from India by way of Persia, around the
PR> 13th-14th
PR> century.) As far as we can tell, prior to that time, numbers were
PR> represented entirely with letters. Thus, this helpful
PR> explanation by
PR> a colleague:
PR> В древнерусском письме, по
PR> заимствованной у греков традиции, в
PR> качестве цифр использовались буквы.
PR> Причем, в глаголической системе - 28
PR> букв алфавита, в кириллице - цифровое
PR> значение получали лишь буквы,
PR> заимствованные из греческого письма.
PR> Так, оригинальная буква Б (буки) в
PR> кириллице не использовалась как
PR> цифра. Так же и Ж (живете) и др.
PR> В глаголице этот принцип не
PR> соблюдался. И потому порядок любой
PR> буквы в алфавите придавал ей числовое
PR> значение. Аз-1, буки-2, веди-3, глаголь-4,
PR> добро - 5 и т. д. В кириллице: аз - 1, веди -
PR> 2, глаголь - 3, добро - 4.
PR> Лишь буква йота - в обеих славянских
PR> системах обозначала число 10, как в
PR> греческом письме.
PR> But there is nothing about zero.
PR> So how did a pre-Petrine Russian express the notion of zero as a
PR> number, in writing and in speech?
PR> Any ideas?
PR> Paul Richardson
PR> Editor
PR> Russian Life
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