Leenia: Your information about Roman numerals is interesting, but I doubt that it's wholly true. For example, why would the scribe write "iiij" for 4 when it's very unlikely someone would alter "iiii" to make it "iiiii"? Also, we would expect them to have some way of altering "lxx" so it couldn't be changed to "lxxx." (Maybe they did.) Also, if you wanted to change "ij" to "iij" couldn't you still do it by adding an "i" in front?

By the way, doesn't 4 shillings seem like an awful lot to pay for pears in 1511? (I assume that's what "iiij s." means. Anyone see another interpretation?) And isn't it strange that the accountant doesn't say how many pears he got for 4 shillings? How many pears can one king eat, anyway? OK, maybe he was having a party, or maybe the cook was planning to put up jam for the whole winter, or maybe the pears were meant to feed the whole household, servants and all.

Maybe I've got too much time on my hands.