"One of the earliest treatises on algorism is... the Carmen de Algorismo [Poem about Arithmetic], written by Alexander de Villa Dei (Alexandre de Ville-Dieu), a Minorite monk of about 1240 a.d. The text of the first few lines is as follows: "Hee algorism’ ars p’sens dicit’ in qua Talib; indor\mathit{4} fruim bis quinq; figuris." "This boke is called the boke of algorim or augrym after lewder use. And this boke tretys of the Craft of Nombryng [arithmetic], the quych crafte is called also Algorym. Ther was a kyng of Inde the quich heyth Algor & he made this craft. . . . Algorisms, in the quych we use teen figurys of Inde.""