Nicolas Chuquet - Definition and Overview

Nicolas Chuquet (born 1445 (some sources say c. 1455) in Paris, France; died 1488 (some sources say c. 1500) in Lyon, France) was a French mathematician whose great work, Triparty en la science des nombres [1] (http://www.miakinen.net/vrac/nombres#lettres_zillions) was unpublished in his lifetime. Most of it, however, was copied without attribution by Estienne de La Roche in his 1520 textbook, Larismetique. In the 1870s, scholar A Aristide Marre discovered Chuquet's manuscript and published it in 1880. The manuscript contained notes in de la Roche's handwriting.

Chuquet's thinking was brilliant and far ahead of its time. He invented his own notation for algebraic concepts and exponentiation. He may have been the first mathematician to recognize zero and negative numbers as exponents.

His book shows a huge number divided into groups of six digits, and in a short passage he states that the groups can be called "million, the second mark byllion, the third mark tryllion, the fourth quadrillion, the fifth quyillion, the sixth sixlion, the seventh septyllion, the eighth ottyllion, the ninth nonyllion and so on with others as far as you wish to go." Because of this, he is sometimes credited as the inventor of the modern names for large numbers. However, this is an oversimplification. The word million had been in use centuries prior to Chuquet. In 1475, Jehan Adam recorded the words "bymillion" and "trimillion" (for 10¹² and 10¹⁸) and it is believed that these words or similar ones were in general use at that time. Chuquet was, however, the original author of the first published use of a systematic, extended series of names ending in -illion or -yllion.

The system in which the names million, billion, trillion, etc. refer to powers of one million is sometimes referred to as the Chuquet system. Chuquet, however, refers to these names only in passing, and, oddly enough, in one place he uses them to mean powers of a million, and in another he uses them in the "American style":

"Au lieu de dire mille milliers, on dira million, au lieu de dire mille millions, on dira byllion, etc..., et tryllion, quadrilion ... octylion, nonyllion, et ainsi des autres si plus oultre on voulait proceder." (French)

"Instead of saying one thousand thousand, one may say million; instead of saying one thousand million, one may say billion, — and trillion, quadrillion, ... octillion, nonillion, and others as well, as far as you wish to go."

Chuquet's work had little direct influence because his work was not published until the 1870s, but most of it was copied (without attribution) by Estienne de la Roche for a portion of his 1520 book, Larismetique.

Around 1550, Jacques Pelletier du Mans took a system based on powers of 10⁶, and added the term "milliard" for 10⁹. This system was used in England and Germany and part of the rest of Europe. This system is sometimes referred to as the Chuquet-Pelletier system. In France and in the USA a different system became established where the term billion signifies 10⁹. Later, England joined the USA and other countries in using the short scale system; whereas, France rejoined Germany, the rest of Europe and most of the world in the Chuquet-Pelletier, or long scale, system.

What is undeniable is that Chuquet was the author of the first published system (published in the work Triparty en la science des nombres, not by Chuquet, but by Estienne de la Roche) of names for large numbers by combining Latin-derived prefixes with the suffix -illion.

See Also

• Jacques Pelletier du Mans
• List of numbers
• English language numerals
• Billion
• Names of large numbers