Editing Arabic numerals (section)

==== Europe ====
[[File:Ms.Thott.290.2º 150v.jpg|thumb|A German manuscript page teaching use of Arabic numerals ([[Hans Talhoffer|Talhoffer]] Thott, 1459), presented together with the [[Hebrew alphabet]] and [[astrology]]]]
[[File:EuropeanFormOfArabianDigits.png|thumb|upright=1.5|Table of numerals in many variants, 1757, by [[Jean-Étienne Montucla]]]]

By the late 14th century, only a few texts using Arabic numerals appeared outside of Italy. This suggests that the use of Arabic numerals in commercial practice, and the significant advantage they conferred, remained a virtual Italian monopoly until the late 15th century.<ref name=":0" /> This may in part have been due to language barriers: although Fibonacci's ''{{lang|la|Liber Abaci}}'' was written in Latin, the Italian abacus traditions were predominantly written in Italian vernaculars that circulated in the private collections of abacus schools or individuals.

The European acceptance of the numerals was accelerated by the invention of the [[printing press]], and they became widely known during the 15th century. Their use grew steadily in other centers of finance and trade such as Lyon.<ref>{{Cite SSRN |last1=Danna |first1=Raffaele |last2=Iori |first2=Martina |last3=Mina |first3=Andrea |date=2022-06-22 |title=A Numerical Revolution: The Diffusion of Practical Mathematics and the Growth of Pre-modern European Economies |ssrn=4143442}}</ref> Early evidence of their use in [[Great Britain in the Middle Ages|Britain]] includes: an equal hour horary [[quadrant (instrument)|quadrant]] from 1396,<ref>{{cite news |title=14th century timepiece unearthed in Qld farm shed |work=ABC News |url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-11-09/one-man27s-trash-is-another27s-centuries-old-treasure/3654974 |access-date=10 November 2011 |archive-date=29 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120229232807/http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-11-09/one-man27s-trash-is-another27s-centuries-old-treasure/3654974 |url-status=live }}</ref> in England, a 1445 inscription on the tower of [[Heathfield and Waldron|Heathfield]] Church, [[Sussex]]; a 1448 inscription on a wooden lych-gate of [[Bray, Berkshire|Bray]] Church, [[Berkshire]]; and a 1487 inscription on the belfry door at [[Piddletrenthide]] church, [[Dorset]]; and in [[Scotland]] a 1470 inscription on the tomb of the first Earl of Huntly in [[Elgin, Moray|Elgin]] Cathedral.<ref>See G. F. Hill, ''The Development of Arabic Numerals in Europe'', for more examples.</ref> In central Europe, the [[King of Hungary]] [[Ladislaus the Posthumous]], started the use of Arabic numerals, which appear for the first time in a royal document of 1456.<ref>Erdélyi: Magyar művelődéstörténet 1-2. kötet. Kolozsvár, 1913, 1918.</ref>

By the mid-16th century, they had been widely adopted in Europe, and by 1800 had almost completely replaced the use of counting boards and Roman numerals in accounting. Roman numerals were mostly relegated to niche uses such as years and numbers on clock faces.