Note 239 — BOOK III
Reading edition
Cantor believes that the use of the abacus had been forgotten before Isidore’s time, cf. “calculator a calculis, id est a lapillis minutis quos antiqui in manu tenentes numeros componebant.” Etym., 10, 43. See Cantor, Vorlesungen über Geschichte der Mathematik (Leipzig, 1894–1900), vol. i, p. 774.