Roman numerals erased in France: Louis 14 | Massimo Gramellini

That utility will they ever have, in the 21st century, i Roman numbers? They instill the authority of history in names with which they are accompanied. The organizers of the greatest American sporting event, whose recent fifty-fifth edition was entitled, are well aware of this Super Bowl LV. The trouble is that they no longer know heirs of the Latin tradition. THE French they took advantage of distraction pandemic for remove the Roman numerals from the main museums in Paris. And so Louis XIV became Luigi 14, like the logo of a taxi or Johan Cruyff’s historic shirt.

Roman numerals cannot become a stumbling block to understanding, explained the curator of Museum Carnavalet, Nomie Giard. At the time of Louis XVI-16 they would have cut the head for much less. We gladly spare it, provided that the uses. Because this story of the Roman numerals is the perfect synthesis of catastrophe cultural in progress: first things are not taught, and then they are eliminate so as not to make those who do not know them feel uncomfortable. With all due respect to Madame Giard, the Roman numerals would go defended precisely because they are an obstacle to understanding, since obstacles are for learning a jump. An education flat not a goal, but one misfortune. His compatriot Montaigne already claimed this in chapter XXV of Book I of the gods Essays, and who knows what else he would have been capable of to add, if he knew that someday someone would turn them into 25 and 1.

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