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Talk to the Hand: Finger Counting and Hand Diagrams in the Middle Ages

By Irene O’Daly

In the absence of computers and calculators, a highly elaborate system of finger-counting and gestural sign-language developed in the Middle Ages for representing numbers and facilitating conceptual reasoning.

These are often represented graphically in medieval manuscripts and provide an insight into teaching and learning practices in this period.

One of the most significant figures in the development of this tradition was the Northumbrian monk Bede (673/74-735) who wrote an important text on the calculation of time entitled De Temporum Ratione (725). Along with a series of calendar tables traditionally appended to it, the text often included a representation of Bede’s system of finger calculation, an elaborate version of learning to count from one to ten using one’s fingers. In this fourteenth-century version from Italy, the hand gestures are demonstrated by a series of figures, each labelled with a number.

Note that the final figure in the middle row switches to using his right hand to represent the number 100 (Roman numeral C) – numbers from 1-99 were indicated by the left hand, from 100 up the right hand was used and the hands could be used to demonstrate numbers up to 9,999.

There was even an indication for 1 million – the hands were clasped together with the fingers interlaced

Quoted from, and rest of the text in, https://medievalfragments.wordpress.com/2014/03/14/talk-to-the-hand-finger-counting-and-hand-diagrams-in-the-middle-ages/

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