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Juan Acevedo embarks on a semantic journey to track the origin and adventures of the Greek term stoicheion, which for at least eighteen centuries, from Pythagoras to Fibonacci, simultaneously meant element , letter , and numeral . Focusing on this triple meaning and on how it was translated and interpreted in Latin, Hebrew, and Arabic - especially in key texts of the Abrahamic faiths- a metaphysical study takes shape. With touches of alchemy and theology, it reveals how a shared fundamental alphanumeric cosmology underlay many basic paradigms of science and faith around the Mediterranean until the advent of the Indo-Arabic numerals broke the marriage of letter and numeral. Careful readings of Plato, Philolaos, Nicomachus and Philo, of Genesis and the Sefer Yetsira, of the Qur'an, the Ikhwan al-Safa', and Ibn 'Arabi are all woven together into a synthesis full of implications for many disciplines.

Cosmologie --- Stoicheîon (le mot grec) --- Nombres --- Arithmétique --- Antiquité --- Moyen âge --- Stoicheion (The Greek word) --- Philosophy, Ancient --- Stoicheîon (le mot grec) --- Arithmétique --- Antiquité --- Moyen âge --- Cosmologie. --- Nombres. --- Arithmétique. --- Antiquité. --- Moyen âge.