The medieval Cistercian numerals, or "ciphers" in nineteenth-century parlance, were developed by the Cistercian monastic order in the early thirteenth century at about the time that Arabic numerals were introduced to northwestern Europe. They are more compact than Arabic or Roman numerals, with a single glyph able to indicate any integer from 1 to 9,999.
中世纪的西多会数字，用十九世纪的说法是 "密码"，是西多会在十三世纪初阿拉伯数字传入欧洲西北部时发展起来的。 它们比阿拉伯数字或罗马数字更紧凑，一个字形就能表示 1 到 9999 之间的任何整数。