Gripla - 2021, Blaðsíða 82

GRIPLA80
of Sacrobosco (c. 1165–c. 1256), Peter of Dacia (c. 1250–c. 1310) wrote:
“Decima vero 0 dicitur teca, circulus, vel cyfra, vel figura nichili, quoniam
nichil significat.”31 [But the tenth, 0, is called teca, circle, or cipher, or fig-
ure of nothing, because it signifies nothing.] Peter supposes the word teca,
or theca, to be derived from the name of an iron used to brand thieves, but
it may simply come from its resemblance to the Greek letter θ.32
We are aware of several translations of the Old Norse Algorismus into
modern European languages. Munch provided a translation into Danish
along with his edition;33 Otto Bekken and Marit Nielsen translated the
text into Norwegian;34 and Kristín Bjarnadóttir has published a version
in modern Icelandic orthography.35 All of these were based on the copy in
Hauksbók. We are not aware of any previous translations into English of
any versions.
Conclusion
The intent of this paper is two-fold: first, to provide a transcript of the
second of two early witnesses to the Old Norse Algorismus and, second, to
present an English translation. Although normalized editions of the ver-
sions of the Algorismus in Hauksbók and GKS 1812 would differ in only
a few places, a diplomatic transcript of the latter version is of historical
interest in underscoring the distinctiveness of the text and in illustrating
the variance in fourteenth-century Icelandic script. In addition, the English
translation will make this important work more easily accessible to the
international research community.
31 Petri Philomeni de Dacia in Algorismum Vulgarem Johannis de Sacrobosco Commentarius, 2.
32 David Eugene Smith and Louis Charles Karpinski. The Hindu Arabic Numerals (Boston:
Ginn & Company, 1911), 61.
33 Munch, “Algorismus, eller Anviisning til at kjende og anvende de saakaldte arabiske Tal,
efter Hr. Hauk Erlendssons Codex.”
34 Otto B. Bekken, Marit A. Nielsen, and Steinar Thorvaldsen, Algorismus i Hauksbok: En
norrøn regnetekst fra 1300-tallet (Tromsø: Eureka Digital, 2010).
35 Kristín Bjarnadóttir, “Algorismus: Fornt stærðfræðirit í íslenskum handritum,” NETLA
(2004), http://wayback.vefsafn.is/wayback/20201017180549/https://netla.hi.is/grein-
ar/2004/001/index.htm.