ABSTRACT
An interesting chapter of the history of mathematics is formed by the transmission of Hindu-Arabic numerals. In Western Europe two periods of this transmission can be distinguished: one beginning with the 12th century, when the well-known translations from Arabic to Latin were made; and before this the time of Gerbert of Aurillac. This chapter presents the first appearance of the numerals in the West at the end of the 10th century. Gerbert's treatise on calculation on the abacus was well known in the Middle Ages. The oldest treatise on calculation on the abacus which gives the form of the counting-board and of the counters was written by Bernelinus. The oldest pictorial representation of a counting-board connected with a treatise is in the so-called Geometry II of Pseudo-Boethius.
