Understanding McLuhan/Understanding McLuhan (1996)(Voyager)[Mac-PC].iso/pc/mcluhan.dxr/08825_Field_TCGG T590.txt

Text File | 1996-04-10 | 681b | 11 lines

intractable. From the eleventh to the fifteenth centuries the
Abacists fought the Algorists. That is, the literate fought the
numbers people. In some places the Arabic numerals were
banned. In Italy some merchants of the thirteenth century used
them as a secret code. Under manuscript culture the outward
appearance of the numerals underwent many changes and,
says Dantzig (p. 34): “In fact, the numerals did not assume a
stable form until the introduction of printing. It can be added
parenthetically that so great was the stabilizing influence of
printing that the numerals of today have essentially the same
appearance as those of the fifteenth century.”