Cistercian Numbers

The Cistercian order are monks in medieval times that lived a very quiet separate and minimalist lifestyle, During times where the Hindu-Arabic number system was introduced to the western world in the 12th century. The monks also developed these numbers which are more compact than that of the other number system, and they are able to represent between 1 to 9999.

Representation of how cistercian numbers are based using horizontal and vertical staves.

Representing each digits has a ligature was thought out by John of Basingstoke, Each digit is represent on an horizontal stave and by changing the co-ordinates we can basically write each digits in units to thousands.

observe;

By changing the co-ordinate of each ligature, we can practically alter the digit from being a unit to a thousand.

A fun thing to do is try write down some numbers, giving how easy it is to implement them in cistercian ligatures.

Given the limited nature of the set of numbers it can only represent, the cistercian order had to drop it to use other number systems. Freemasons, occultists and Nazis still continued to use it up until the 20th century.

Weird experiment

0–9999 are the only numbers this ligatures can represent, I’ve been flirting with the idea of extending the limit of the ligatures can allow. If I succeed would probably write about it.