Lo here you se .vi. lynes whiche stande for syxe places so that the nethermost standeth for ye fyrst place, and the next aboue it, for the second: and so vpward tyll you come to the hyghest, which is the syxte lyne, and standeth for the syxte place. Numeration. Now what is the valewe of euery place or lyne, you may perceaue by the figures whiche I haue set on them, which is accordynge as you learned before in the Numeration of figures by the penne: for the fyrste place is the place of vnities or ones, and euery counter set in that lyne betokeneth but one: and the seconde lyne is the place of 10, for euery counter there, standeth for 10. The thyrd lyne the place of hundredes: the fourth of thousandes: and so forth.
S. Syr I do perceaue that the same order is here of lynes, as was in the other figures 117 b. *by places, so that you shall not nede longer to stande about Numeration, excepte there be any other difference.
M. Yf you do vnderstande it, then how wyll you set 1543?
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S. Thus, as I suppose.
M. You haue set ye places truely, but your figures be not mete for this vse: for the metest figure in this behalfe, is the figure of a counter round, as you se here, where I haue expressed that same summe.
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S. So that you haue not one figure for 2, nor 3, nor 4, and so forth, but as many digettes as you haue, you set in the lowest lyne: and for euery 10 you set one in the second line: and so of other. But I know not by what reason you set that one counter for 500 betwene two lynes.
M. you shall remember this, that when so euer you nede to set downe 5, 50, or 500, or 5000, or so forth any other nomber, whose numerator 118 a. *is 5, you shall set one counter for it, in the next space aboue the lyne that it hath his denomination of, as in this example of that 500, bycause the numerator is 5, it must be set in a voyd space: and bycause the denominator is hundred, I knowe that his place is the voyde space next aboue hundredes, that is to say, aboue the thyrd lyne. And farther you shall marke, that in all workynge by this sorte, yf you shall sette downe any summe betwene 4 and 10, for the fyrste parte of that nomber you shall set downe 5, & then so many counters more, as there reste nombers aboue 5. And this is true bothe of digettes and articles. And for example I wyll set downe this summe 287965,
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