Rex Pylius suos iam Dextera (...) annos computat
Emphasizes the everyday digital computing that we are told that Pliny, Nat Hist , 34.33 and Macrobius, 1, 9.10 a statue of Janus had his hands in position to represent the number 365.
Janus dedicated by King Numa is revered as a symbol or war and peace and whose fingers make a figure that means 365 days a year, indicating that it is the god of time and duration.
Without rg pregnant only two classical authors, and Quintilian Ap Uley, given a Latin name for this technique, calling Gestus computationis , but there is no known ancient document that provides a detailed explanation of it. Apuleius
( Apol., 89, 6-7 ) says
If you had said thirty years instead of ten, it might seem that you were wrong, to indicate the act the sum total, and half opened their fingers instead of forming a circle with them. But as a total of forty years, number expressed more easily than others, with the palm of the outstretched hand, you can not add to those forty half of them by a simple error in the position of the fingers. Unless you believe that Pudentila is only thirty years and have enjoyed each one for two, as this is the number of consuls.
Quintilian Inst Or. I, 10.35 also considers the knowledge of Gestus computationis is indispensable for the speaker and the lack of ability in these leaves he makes a terrible impression
knowledge of numbers is not only indispensable for the speaker, if for anyone not at least i instructions manual. Its application is indeed very common in processes where a lawyer is considered ignorant, I will not say if you have to do the sums, but when an uncertain or inappropriate gesture with the fingers away from the exact count.
As we saw in a previous post ( Talk with your fingers) to know the exact nature of this method of expressing the numbers depend on the Roman Computatio explained by the Venerable Bede (673 -735 d. C.) in the first chapter of his De ratione temporum (725 AD), computing loquela vel digitorum . .. in that link you can read the Latin text with an illustration. As the next to these lines from the book History of Mathemathics, by David Eugene Smith. This is the illustration Luca Pacioli in his Summa de Arithmetica , geometry, proportioni et proporcionalitá . Venice, 1494. Verse 36 Folio edition of 1523.
An approach the Gestus computationis
With left hand is representing the numbers 1 to 9 (with the middle finger, ring and little finger) and with the thumb and forefinger tens.
With the right hand expressed the hundreds (with the last three fingers) and with the thumb and index the miles res. The tens and hundreds of thousand depending on the position of the hands on the chest, navel or the femur. The million is depicted holding hands.
Following Gerard Minaud (in his work "Doigts pour le dire" , Histoire et mesure , 2001 ) we will see some graphs represent tions. Minaud explains the unnatural position of the hands in some mosaics and reliefs through manual counting. This formulates a hypothesis which is that i s although the figures are expressed in both hands, when they get to the hundred, you can use any of them, and moreover, if one is busy. He offers several examples, see one of these:
1) The relief of Ostia selling vegetables
The woman is standing behind the counter of his vegetable stand, on which rests his left hand, while the right is up to the first three fingers extended and the last two bent. This gesture has been interpreted in different ways:
- greetings. San Isidoro however tells us that the index finger only serves to indicate, show or say hello. (For the names of the fingers and their functions, I link you to post Digitus tertius impudicus I published in 2007 in the blog The Flame of Vesta)
, would be a gesture own speakers, but seems disproportionate to be a single vendor.
If we look from the perspective of digital computing, the seller could be indicating the price of its merchandise. But when the right hand the price tag rises to 8,000 aces. Following the proposal of Minaud, we arrive at a price more in line with the context of a market, it would 8 aces.
2 ) The mosaic of Virgil and Musa s that discovered in 1895 in Sousse is now in the Bardo Museum in Tunis.
The man sitting is surrounded by two women and has right hand on his chest and left on a volume slightly open which easily read the following, which is identified with the poet Virgil.
Mihic MUSA
SASMEMORA
QUONUMINE
LAESOQUIDVE
The image is reversed so that you can read well and have taken the post of Salva in Itinera classica blog.
If you look at his right hand fingers look that is in a position not very natural. The interpretation has been given is actually holding the calamus , so the position of their fingers. The objection raised is that if holding a calamus, why do not you see?.
Gerard Minaud proposes several readings from the digital computer.
1-would indicate the number 9,800 that would be about the verses of the Aeneid are exactly 9,886. But would it not be said about 9900?
2-Since the left hand is busy, the right may indicate and tens so the number could be 83. Minaud explains that the word number 83 of the Aeneid is ju sto which follows the text above written. It is the word dolens. This is because The Aeneid was a posthumous work before its publication was reviewed by Varius and TUCC under the guidance of Augustus. According to Aelius Donatus Vario deleted the first verses of the Aeneid, which were
Ille ego, qui quondam Gracilia modulatus oats
carmen, et egressus silvis vicina coegi
ut quamvis parerent arva avid farmer,
Gratum agricolis opus, nunc at Martis horrentia
(weapon virumque cano)
are 26 deleted words, over the fifty-six from virumque weapon ... even the words written in the text that appears in the mosaic, are 82 and 83 makes is precisely the missing dolens.
3 - In is actually doing a apotropaic gesture, for the love have also the shape of a hand where the thumb goes under the index and other fingers are flexed into the palm of the hand. So you intend ward off bad luck, as it is in the question posed by the author on the misery and misfortune of the hero's anger because Gods and about to come to a word that evokes the suffering, and it raises the question
Musa, remind me of the causes: why insult to his divinity, or why pain , the queen of the gods pushed a hero who was known for his piety to suffer so many misfortunes and cope with so much suffering.
0 comments:
Post a Comment